This is more about Bruce Davis and his part as Manson's number two and possible berserker killer than it is about Manson. Sure, we get a lot of Manson audio tapes; but those only set the mood and offer nothing new.
Over all, this works out well after you read Tom O'Neill's new and fantastic book Chaos. There is a pretty strong case made for Davis being the murderer of at least 3 people after Manson is in jail. However, this is chock full of filler and could have been (should have been) tightly edited down to a svelt 80 or 90 minutes.
The Manson stuff gets in the way a lot, and little time is spent on defining/getting to know Davis. There's a few things that I learned and some new footage, etc. A lot of doors are opened and avenues shown, but we never go down those paths. The overall focus on finding Reet's killer ends up obscuring the fact that Davis probably killed many others; which focusing more on those could have filled this doc out nicely.
The ending was a total letdown! Yes, the researchers hunt down, find, and even speak to Clem Grogan (!!!)... absolutely nothing comes of it, and the audience sees nothing and hears little. Earlier, bones are found at Spahn, and revealed at the end to be human... but... that's it! No further research or conclusions.
This doc had a ton of promise, and a ton of data and leads that should be followed up on and concluded. A better book or another doc is probably on the way... one hopes.
Over all, this works out well after you read Tom O'Neill's new and fantastic book Chaos. There is a pretty strong case made for Davis being the murderer of at least 3 people after Manson is in jail. However, this is chock full of filler and could have been (should have been) tightly edited down to a svelt 80 or 90 minutes.
The Manson stuff gets in the way a lot, and little time is spent on defining/getting to know Davis. There's a few things that I learned and some new footage, etc. A lot of doors are opened and avenues shown, but we never go down those paths. The overall focus on finding Reet's killer ends up obscuring the fact that Davis probably killed many others; which focusing more on those could have filled this doc out nicely.
The ending was a total letdown! Yes, the researchers hunt down, find, and even speak to Clem Grogan (!!!)... absolutely nothing comes of it, and the audience sees nothing and hears little. Earlier, bones are found at Spahn, and revealed at the end to be human... but... that's it! No further research or conclusions.
This doc had a ton of promise, and a ton of data and leads that should be followed up on and concluded. A better book or another doc is probably on the way... one hopes.
