Charlie Says (5 Stars)

This is a disturbing film, which was certainly the director's intention. It's a film based on real life, and real life isn't always uplifting. Think of it as a film that's meant to educate, not entertain.

"Charlie Says" tells the story of Charles Manson through the eyes of three of his followers, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins, who're in prison serving a life sentence for multiple murders. The film is as much about them as about Manson himself, so rather than being a film about Charles Manson it's a film about their relationship with Charles Manson. As such, it's a very feminocentric movie, which is what we've come to expect from the director, Mary Harron. Over the years she's made a series of films that put the viewer inside women's heads. She doesn't judge. Usually they're strong women, but in "Charlie Says" they're weak, manipulated women.

The three Manson Girls, as they were called in prison, don't get equal screen time. The film concentrates on Leslie Van Houten. She arrives at the Spahn Ranch as an innocent teenager. She's overwhelmed by the atmosphere of free love and free drugs. She's overwhelmed by Manson himself. His charisma overpowers her, so that she's willing to give up a possible romance just to be close to him. She could have been with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, but her infatuation with Manson leads her on a path of destruction. She kills others because Charlie says it's the right thing to do. She doesn't even feel guilt for her deeds. Charlie's teachings take priority over all law and morality. As he tells her on arrival, "I'm here to make new rules, and the new rules are no rules".

When Leslie arrives everything seems so perfect. I would have been drawn in as well. Manson's teachings might have been crazy, but he was peaceful. He taught that America would go through a race war, in which most white people would be killed or enslaved. During this time Manson and his followers would hide in a cave in Death Valley, California. After the war was over, Manson would emerge and present himself as America's leader, because the blacks are unable to rule themselves. Those teachings might sound ridiculous, but Manson sounds a harmless crank. So what went wrong?

There may have been different reasons, but the film suggests it was Manson's male ego that made him snap. It wasn't enough for him being a cult leader, he also wanted to be a world famous pop star. He probably got his first taste of the celebrity lifestyle through contact with the Beach Boys while he was living at Dennis Wilson's house. According to the film, the Beach Boys recorded two of his songs, although I've only been able to find one of them. Dennis introduced Manson to the record producer Terry Melcher, who wasn't very impressed when he heard Manson's music. After this we see Manson smashing his guitar and becoming increasingly violent.

Then came the murders. The motivation was to kill rich white people and make the murders look like they'd been committed by blacks, in order to speed up the advent of the race war. Terry Melcher should have been one of the victims, but when Manson found out that Terry had moved away from Los Angeles he decided to kill the new tenants in his house, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.

After their arrests the Manson Girls never see Charles Manson again. They're imprisoned in the Special Service Unit (SSU), a prison department that's unique to California. It's a unit inside high security prisons that's under the control of the police force, not the prison itself. That's a strange concept. It's justified by the police being able to investigate criminals while in prison, which wouldn't be the job of normal prison guards. Prisoners in the SSU aren't necessarily in solitary confinement, but they're not allowed to mingle with prisoners outside of their unit.

The girls have been thoroughly brainwashed by their time in the Manson Family, and even after three years of separation they still see the world through Manson's eyes. When they're asked questions they don't have their own opinion, they always reply with the words "Charlie says that...". The young social worker Karlene Faith attempts to deprogram the girls by teaching them about feminism. She sees them as the victims of a male patriarch.

The choice of Matt Smith to be cast as Charles Manson is nothing less than genial. He portrays the charisma and the insanity of the character in equal measures. When he's on screen, all the other characters fade into the background. It's not just that he's a good actor; his physical appearance is ideal for the role.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

I've noticed a recent trend that only the big blockbusters are released on Blu-ray in the UK, whereas all new releases are available on Blu-ray in America and Germany. That's strange. Five years ago I read statistics that Blu-ray sales had overtaken DVD sales in the UK.

I apologise if this post looks bad on mobile devices. It's the result of a programming error in Google's (totally unnecessary) new Blogger interface.