CharlieManson.Com - Charles Manson and the Family

Film Comment

I watched the three-hour CBS TV movie about Charles Manson and his "family" last night. Or, rather, I half watched it while working on some computer problems. Even so, I found it . . . unsettling. I read the book Helter Skelter as a teenager and it gave me nightmares. I remember that the book disappeared shortly after I finished it, and I've always suspected that my mother threw it away, because she didn't want me to read it. She denies it.

On Friday, I took my son to see a very different film, Jason and the Argonauts (1963), which is one of those old Ray Harryhausen stop-motion special-effects films. Crude by today's digital standards, I suppose, but my 13-year-old liked it -- he's interested in both Greek mythology and FX. It was shown at a local theater, a restored movie palace that shows classic films, and Harryhausen, who is in his 80s, was there. He took questions from the (quite large) audience. What does he think of today's digital effects, he was asked. He said he thought they were often impressive but sometimes too realistic, which can spoil the "dream world" of a fantasy film.