1969, I wasn’t born then but in was a year packed with momentous events. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission, the first test flight of Concorde, the supersonic airliner (now retired), took place, the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet made its debut, the then Prince Charles (now King Charles) invested with the title ’Prince of Wales’, the Woodstock music festival takes place. The Kray twins are both found guilty of murder and The Manson Family, led by Charles Manson, shocked the world by brutally murdering nine people – including the actress Sharon Tate! Charlie Says is a film that looks at the infamous Manson cult and murders, but not from Manson’s point of view, but one told from the perspective of the young women under Charlie’s control.
Charles Manson was a career criminal, a wannabe rock star and the leader of a cult, The Manson Family. Manson spent a majority of his life in prison and that’s where he died in 2017. The Manson group consisted of over 100 people, mostly young women from middle-class backgrounds who Manson could manipulate and brainwash with psychoactive drugs, hallucinogens, sex and before being radicalised by Manson’s teachings including bizarre theories of a race war. In August 1969, acting on the orders of Charles Manson, several members of his family brutally murdered Sharon Tate and friends and the following night Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Why? Because whatever Charlie says gets done without question.
In the biopic Charlie Says (not to be confused with the 1970s/1980s public information films for children), Matt Smith stars as the infamous Charlie Manson, and the leader of his “Family”. But the film itself isn’t focused on Charlie himself but three of his most trusted female family members during the late 1960s – Leslie “Lulu” Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Patricia “Katie” Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon) and Susan “Sadie” Atkins (Marianne Rendon).
Three years after the gruesome murders, still under the spell of their leader Charles Manson, these three women are in adjoining cells, segregated from the rest of the prison population, and serving life sentences (their original death sentences were commuted to life in prison after the death penalty was lifted). This movie is told from the perspective of the women, mostly that of Leslie/Lulu and the attempts of their prison education teacher Karlene Faith (Merritt Wever) to show them that they were and still are brainwashed by Manson and to show them the error of their ways.
Overall, Charlie Says is an interesting take on the Charlie Manson story. It tells the story from a different perspective as it is not telling the story of Manson as such, but how the women got involved with him and ultimately ended up with life imprisonment because of his brainwashing. Essentially making these women victims of Manson as well and with them having to come to terms with the horrific crimes that they committed on Manson’s behalf.
The story is told using flashbacks from their prison cells to their time at Spahn Range with Charlie and his followers and the murders. It is an interesting telling of the story of how the Manson Family would believe and do everything that “Charlie Says”. Unfortunately, I thought that there was not enough depth to the story and didn’t really show anything new – a bit of a missed opportunity. That said, it was still interesting to watch, albeit brutal and shocking.
Matt Smith is an actor I would never have thought would be right for playing the role of a notorious serial killer, but I thought the former Doctor Who played the part of the paranoid madman extremely well and had a very good likeness to him – he was very scaringly brilliant. Hannah Murray (I know her from Skins rather than Game of Thrones) was excellent as Leslie “Lulu” Van Houten, her innocence and naivety shone through whilst being taken in by Manson and his followers.
I didn’t think this was the best of films based on Manson and his followers and felt it missed something in the retelling of Leslie’s story, but it was an interesting perspective and a different side to the story. I think I will try and get a copy of and read The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten: Life Beyond the Cult written by Karlene Faith (a book that this film was based around) to hopefully get a more in-depth story.
If you have an interest in Manson and his family, this a fairly good story told from the point of view of a young woman under his control. It also shows the attempt by Karlene Faith to deprogram her, Katie and Sadie from under the spell of Manson and try to get them to see what exactly they did. It does feature a lot of nudity, sexual acts and drug taking but that is how it was with Manson so it is required to tell the story.
Leslie Van Houten has now been released from prison on parole, Patricia Krenwinkel is still in prison (and is now the longest-incarcerated female inmate in the California penal system) and Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009.
Suitable for viewers aged 15+.
Rating: 3.5/5
Available to buy from Amazon here.