The Charles Manson Encounter Is Complete Fiction

Just to echo what one reviewer points out - the encounter with Charles Manson could not have taken place as Manson and his Family did not move to Spahn Ranch until August 1968 (though other Family members were already there on and off throughout the year) and in 1963 Manson was in jail and the entire trajectory of the Manson Family had yet to commence.

The encounter between 'Vic Savage' and Charles Manson does of course make sense on the mythical-poetic level and there is a certain sense of synchronicity/resonance between the two figures on a biographical and psychological/personality level.

In the scene, Manson provides stolen cars for the film and indeed his Family were stealing cars (some were turned into the infamous dune buggy battalion, ready for action in an alleged post-apocalyptic desert scenario) and the reason the ranch itself was busted on August 16th for suspicion of car theft.

In the background there is the character of the stuntman, presumably a reference to Donald "Shorty" Shea, who was indeed a Hollywood stuntman and who helped around on the ranch. He was murdered by members of the Family because he was thought to be the one who tipped off the police, resulting in the car theft bust(his remains were not discovered on the ranch until 1977).

While I thought the entire documentary fascinating, the way it blurred the lines between fact and fiction (as the disclaimer states in the end credits), - I still found this fictional scene cast a whole shadow over the story as it made me question the entire narrative and I spent the rest of the film wondering what else was entirely fictional in terms of characters and the story-line.

Personally, I think this merging of documentary/mockumentary/biography works best when the viewer is unsure what is fact and what is fiction and such a historical impossibility as the Manson encounter disrupted this completely and it would have been much better had this scene been left out completely.