Latest news with #Chaos'
Chicago Tribune
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Filmmaker Errol Morris returns to the Manson murders in new Netflix documentary
Do you know these names: Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca? What if I add to that list the name Sharon Tate? Ah, there you go. Those are the names of the people killed by Charles Manson and some demented buddies on the nights of Aug. 8 and 9, 1969, Tate the most prominent because she was a beautiful movie star, married to filmmaker Roman Polanski, and eight months pregnant with their child. Long time ago, I know, but so bloody and weird and headline-grabbing were the killings and ensuing trial and most of all Manson that they have stayed through the decades, creeping into our dreams and nightmares and coming at us in a steady stream of rehashing in books, movies and documentaries, some interesting and some merely exploitative. Last time I remember remembering them was while watching 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,' Quentin Tarantino's 2019 movie that, among many things, presented a wild, fairy tale version of the real events of what was and still is called the Manson Family murders. Now they are on my mind yet again, courtesy of 'Chaos: The Manson Murders,' a new 90-minute documentary on Netflix. This would not ordinarily have grabbed my attention because I have over the decades had more than my fill of Manson-related subjects. But attached to 'Chaos' is the name Errol Morris, which gives it a certain credibility, since he is a distinguished documentarian whose decades-long career has included such films as 1978's 'Gates of Heaven,' on the pet cemetery business; 1988's 'The Thin Blue Line,' his controversial film about the trial and conviction of a man for killing a Dallas police officer; 2003's 'The Fog of War,' which focused on Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense during much of the Vietnam War, which won an Academy Award; and 'The Pigeon Tunnel' in 2023, about the life and work of novelist John le Carré. Here he is in collaboration (and in intellectual tussle) with the work of journalist Tom O'Neill, in essence adapting O'Neill's 2019 book, 'CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties,' written with Dan Piepenbring. As I expected, there is much repetition of known facts in the film but a judicious use of vintage material as Manson, a failed musician, wild-eyed hippie and career criminal, gets released from prison and in 1967 gathers around himself a bunch of younger outcasts who are all living together on a rusted movie set of a rural ranch. He orders some of them to commit a series of gruesome murders and we get those bare details, effectively and vividly dramatized, but we don't get a lot of answers to some of the questions raised and there are plenty. Among them, and in no specific order: Why didn't law enforcement, such as parole officers, slap cuffs on Manson and send him back to jail when they had the chance? And how did Manson turn a group of peaceful hippies into savage killers? How was it that the Beach Boys' drummer Dennis Wilson and record producer Terry Melcher nearly gave Manson a record deal? We hear Manson play guitar and sing. What do the activist organization Black Panthers have to do with this? Why do we meet Lee Harvey Oswald's assassin Jack Ruby? And what is Louis Jolyon 'Jolly' West, a subcontractor for the CIA's Project MKUltra, doing as a court-appointed psychiatrist for Ruby? And what is Project MKUltra? How did the Beatles' 'White Album' get into the mix? There are more questions and plenty of talking, some of it from interviews of Manson by such TV personalities as Diane Sawyer, Geraldo Rivera and Tom Snyder. Among the most compelling conversations are those that take place between Morris and O'Neill. The filmmaker asks pointed questions, operating from an authoritative position. He is probing, curious, suitably skeptical. And he is able to get O'Neill to admit, 'Frankly, I still don't know what happened. But I know that what we were told isn't what happened.' The movie is held together more by its questions (for which there are no real answers) than facts, presented in a visually compelling manner, peppered with such things as old movie clips of Laurence Harvey in the 'Manchurian Candidate,' in which mind control is a chilling key. Morris and his compelling moviemaking is likely to get a bigger audience than most of his previous documentary work. That's a good thing even though this is not his finest work. It's still pretty good and one of the finer offerings of the massive Manson-inspired 'Helter Skelter' enterprise. And if you ask yourself why there is not much here from Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, know that his book, 'Helter Skelter' was published in 1974. It was subtitled 'The True Story of the Manson Murders.' And it is the best-selling true crime book of all time.
Los Angeles Times
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Errol Morris' new Charles Manson documentary presents alternative theories about killings
One of the prevailing theories around Charles Manson is that the infamous cult leader had intended to incite a race war by orchestrating his so-called family's killing spree in the 1960s. But Errol Morris casts doubts on that narrative in his new documentary, 'Chaos: The Manson Murders,' out now on Netflix. Based on the book by Tom O'Neill with Dan Piepenbring, Morris' film presents alternative theories surrounding the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders — including how Manson may have had links to government programs related to mind control and brainwashing. Featuring music by Manson, 'Chaos' presents these alternative takes primarily through interviews with O'Neill, Manson case prosecutor Stephen Kay and former Manson associate Bobby Beausoleil. The documentary also includes archival interviews with Manson and his followers. The film challenges the accuracy of (and the motivations behind) the 'Helter Skelter' theory presented by lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi in the Tate-LaBianca trial. Through separate interviews, both O'Neill and Beausoleil offer different theories about how and why the Manson-directed killings could have happened. Here's a breakdown of the alternative theories presented in 'Chaos: The Manson Murders.' Manson possibly had links to secret government mind-control programs While acknowledging that there are still some loose threads to this theory, O'Neill suggests that Manson possibly had connections to secret government programs researching mind control and brainwashing, such as the CIA's project MKUltra. According to O'Neill, Manson's time as a parolee in the Bay Area coincided with the time the government was conducting research into the effects of drugs such as LSD on individuals' mental states. During that time, Manson and his followers frequented the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic for treatment as well as to meet with his parole officer Roger Smith. Patients of the clinic were reportedly used as research subjects for these mind control studies. O'Neill also explains that psychiatrist Louis Jolyon 'Jolly' West, who is known to have ties to the MKUltra project, was conducting research on brainwashing in the Haight-Ashbury area at that time. Although he acknowledges there is no proof that Manson and West definitively crossed paths, O'Neill points out that the two men were within each other's orbit while Manson was gaining followers whom some could describe as 'brainwashed' at a time when the government was researching brainwashing. O'Neill also believes Manson having ties to these government research programs could explain Smith's leniency on Manson despite his breaking rules that should have jeopardized his parole. The attempt to pin the killings on the Black Panthers could have been personal or a government conspiracy Among the facts known about the 1969 killings is that words written in the victims' blood were left on various surfaces at the crime scenes. These words — including 'pigs,' 'rise' and 'Helter Skelter' — helped build the prosecution's case that Manson had intended to incite a race war. According to the documentary, around the time of the murders, Manson believed the Black Panthers were going to retaliate against him for killing one of its members. (Manson had shot Bernard 'Lotsapoppa' Crowe, who survived the encounter and was not a member of the Black Panthers, in July 1969. The Tate–LaBianca murders occurred in August.) Alternatively, O'Neill explains that secret government counterintelligence programs at the time were intent on discrediting left-wing political movements such as the Black Panthers. Manson was possibly just motivated by paranoia Beausoleil, a former Manson associate who was convicted of killing Gary Hinman for a drug deal gone bad, believes that Manson's motivation behind orchestrating the 1969 killing spree is much more simple. He suggests Manson urged his acolytes to commit these severe crimes because of his paranoia. According to Beausoleil, Manson probably intended to use these killings to keep his followers in line. (The Hinman killing is also cited as a motive for the Tate-LaBianca murders. It has been suggested that Manson orchestrated the subsequent killings in order to make it seem like all three incidents were connected.)
