Forget the morons here - this movie is great

The "Van Bebber Family" is a history of the making of the film, with lots of fairly interesting insights into the varied turmoils. Van Bebber (who I q&a'd at the Cinemuerte festival in Vancouver about this last year) is a coarsely articulate, straight-shooting guy with size 12 testicles, and he doesn't offer a single apology or retraction for anything in the film; he has interesting things to say about why he downplays Sharon Tate's murder and why the violence is as brutal as it is, and in the end its tough not to respect him and his film. I didn't watch IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST, which is footage of the filmmakers at a festival; there's also a Manson interview on the 2nd disc, tho', with quick clips of Manson ranting to Nikolas Shreck. (It's cut up into quick sound bites and presented out of sequence, taken from Shreck's CHARLES MANSON SUPERSTAR film; the choppiness makes Manson seem even less coherent than he might normally).

Re: all the fuss, I agree, this is a film that will divide serious film buffs -- people who aren't above engaging intellectually with pulp product -- from your average video-renting, passively consuming TV baby. Put it this way: if you own a single Arnold Schwarzenegger film in your DVD library (with the obvious possible exceptions of THE LONG GOODBYE, STAY HUNGRY, or even TOTAL RECALL, since it's a Verhoeven -- the only excuse) you might as well just pass on THE MANSON FAMILY.