Charlie Manson denied 10th parole bid.

April 25, 2002 12:04 AM

Charlie Manson denied 10th parole bid. Ok, not a surprise. But having just re-read Vincent Bugliosi & Curt Gentry's 'Helter Skelter' book again, and looked at Family member Sandra Goode's (now archived) 'Access Manson' site, I have to say the guy still scares the living crap out of me. He knows what he did - you can tell that from the old Tom Snyder interview (available on Audiogalaxy). The guy's 67 now, having 'committed' the murders 32 years ago. I think it's nearly time....I think you could do a damn good movie about the whole shebang; who would you have playing Charlie? (I know there was a TV movie, but they don't count!)
posted by boneybaloney (46 comments total)

TV movie doesn't count?!? I'm sorry, but that movie scared the pure-dee hell outta me as a kid in '76.

Then, after that, my mom made me read the book.

I'm not a well person.

You want to start the cycle all over again? Are you mad?
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:09 AM on April 25, 2002

Slap a beard on D.J. Qualls, and you've got him.

I'd recommend a genuine carving of a swastika in his forehead, in lieu of make-up, however.
That kid sort of irritates me. Let him earn his pay.
posted by dong_resin at 1:15 AM on April 25, 2002

"Do you think a brain can only think if it has words to think with? I been 54 years locked with cockroaches and became a monk in a temple of the deaf, dumb and blind. I only had feelings and could feel the stars at night. Yes my soul the mind of free is a marvel." Okay, here's the deal: Charlie don't Surf, cause Charlie is stark raving nucking futz. He really should be in an insane asylum on heavy meds, but since he is the only air breathing Freddy Kruger we have he must be imprisoned as an example of how non-comformity will be treated. TV movies can be as good or better than flix, specially long ones like Lonesome Dove & Roots, which couldn't have been movies unless they were made by Kevin Costner. Joaquin Phoenix would be my pick.
posted by Mack Twain at 1:57 AM on April 25, 2002

two words.

Ali. G.
posted by fnord_prefect at 2:15 AM on April 25, 2002

Charlie is the physical embodiment of "hangin's too good for'm."
posted by ZachsMind at 2:25 AM on April 25, 2002

Yes, you could do a great movie about Charlie. I think that such a film has not been made because it would be grossly insensitive to surviving relatives, not to mention Roman Polanski who is still making movies Hollywood as we speak. That, if nothing else, would put a major dampener on any movie.
posted by Lal at 3:53 AM on April 25, 2002

I dunno about casting, but I'd like to see Oliver Stone direct.
posted by alumshubby at 4:17 AM on April 25, 2002

Hey Dong Resin, is he puring syrup on a stack of pancakes?
If he is, then he gets my vote !
Mmmmm, pancakes....
posted by a3matrix at 4:50 AM on April 25, 2002

Woody Harrelson could pull it off
posted by pjdoland at 6:03 AM on April 25, 2002

Jason Lee, minus 25 pounds.
posted by GriffX at 6:13 AM on April 25, 2002

Speaking of Manson and his little crew, this picture of Squeaky Fromme bears a startling resemblance to what my mom looked like circa that era; so much so that when my grandpa first saw Squeaky on TV he called mymom at college and started freaking out. I am not making this up.
posted by jonmc at 6:41 AM on April 25, 2002

Well, since he was a musician of sorts, and wrote quite a few songs, I think there's a lot of Broadway potential for Manson: the Musical!

You may think I'm kidding, but it's not that big a jump from "Springtime for Hitler".

Getting Nathan Lane to drop 50 pounds may be a bit of a challenge, however.
posted by groundhog at 6:41 AM on April 25, 2002

Jim Carrey. Come on, too easy.
posted by gregwlsn at 6:46 AM on April 25, 2002

Years before the Bugliosi book, Ed Sanders wrote The Family. Of course, he didn't have the sort of access Bugliosi had to information about the case, but as a freelancer, he did a great job (he probably understood the subculture better, as well as being a good writer).

In the preface to the book he noted that while pursuing some avenues of investigation, he was warned off, and he heeded those warnings. "No book is worth permanent meditation next to a spare tire."
posted by StOne at 6:55 AM on April 25, 2002

I have two albeit tenuous connections to Manson and his gang. . .first, Lynette Fromme used to baby sit a few doors up from my house when I was a kid. . .I'm not aware of being baby-sat by her, and I'm almost sure that no one called her Squeaky then. . .second, when I lived in Chiloquin, Oregon, we bought a big used Ashley woodstove that had reputedly been used by Manson and his family when they lived east of where we were living, in the lawless country of East Klamath County.

The book deal has been slow in coming. . .
posted by Danf at 7:04 AM on April 25, 2002

I wonder what Ed Sanders is doing these days. He was a brilliant, though unfocused guy, whose book "Tales of Beatnik Glory" is a classic. He not only wrote "The Family," he was a founding member of The Fugs, a pioneering punk-folk-rock outfit circa 1965-1972, who actually had a couple of good songs, even though they couldn't play their instruments. He used to publish a magazine called "F*ck You" (no asterisk) back when that was actually a daring thing to do (early 1960s). Why didn't Sanders become a great American writer? I think the counterculture was his undoing. He's probably as old as Methuselah now.
posted by Faze at 7:11 AM on April 25, 2002

Faze:

Oh, oh, oh, I do hope Ed doesn't read Metafilter -- as old as Methuselah. If he does, he'd probably get a good laugh.

He just published volume three of America: A History in Verse which is, like many of his other books, a monumental effort carried off beautifully.

He is SO a great american writer. However, much of his work has been published in the small press, so much of the country doesn't have as easy access to them as to the books of the Barnes & Noble set. He has stayed with the small press when many other writers of his caliber have left for larger paychecks, because the small press affords him greater freedom to publish what he wants in the way that he wants. His books are well worth checking out, and most of them can be gotten through Small Press Distribution.

He publishes a biweekly paper in Woodstock, NY, and is still very active in poetry and political circles. And he's one of my heroes.

You may return to your regularly scheduled thread already in progress.
posted by jennyjenny at 7:48 AM on April 25, 2002

Ed Sanders is as old as my Dad. Charles Manson isn't half as scary when you realize he's really determined to not get out of jail.

"All that cannot get under me and in God's will will not live over me but for a short time and that will grow to be a thousand hells, for you not only gave me your heads in truth by Dying, but have made me Christ four times in the world thought, Satan four times, Abraxas four times...."

Etc etc. He's either clever enough to stay inside or deranged enough to stay inside.
posted by jessamyn at 7:54 AM on April 25, 2002

Good Old Ed Sanders-

Slum Goddess from the Lower East Side...Slum Goddess won't you please be my bride....
posted by jonmc at 8:02 AM on April 25, 2002

Here's an excerpt of the above-mentioned America- History in Verse. He's in the new corpse too.
posted by mblandi at 8:15 AM on April 25, 2002

I wonder what Ed Sanders is doing these days.

You can still catch him at St. Mark's poetry project now & then. If you follow the black sparrow crowd, he's still around.
posted by mdn at 8:17 AM on April 25, 2002

Ed Sanders is a poge. the low skinny is that charlie hits the streets, the streets hit charlie. "Woody Harrelson could pull it off"
hehe....hehe
posted by clavdivs at 8:20 AM on April 25, 2002

Thanks for the Sanders updates. I would say of him, still, that he has an honest face.
posted by Faze at 9:33 AM on April 25, 2002

Steve Buscemi would be an awesome Charlie.
posted by moses at 9:47 AM on April 25, 2002

Only one man has the testical fortitude for the job...
Jack Black
posted by Starchile at 10:07 AM on April 25, 2002

yeah, i'd vote for steve buscemi as well. he's got the freaky thing going on. jason lee & jim carrey are far too tall to play manson. i think height is important - napoleonic complex and all that. it's what was amazing about his power over people; he was just this creepy looking small guy and somehow he made people think he was a god.

did anybody ever watch the ben stiller show? they had two skits centered around him. there was "ask manson" where people would write in letters to ask manson's advice and then "manson" which was a B&W "lassie" type show where the he was the little boy's pet. hilarious stuff.
posted by witchstone at 10:14 AM on April 25, 2002

An underrated actor almost in the right age range who could probably pull this off is Vincent D'Onofrio. In fact, he's already played a major 1960s figure (Abbie Hoffman in Steal This Movie) and, strangely enough, appeared in a lot of movies steeped in that era (Full Metal Jacket, JFK, Malcolm X and, a few years earlier, Orson Welles in Ed Wood). In fact, given his slightly pudgy phyisiognomy, you could almost say that D'Onofrio was an actor born to appear in just about any movie set in the 1960s or 1970s. D'Onfrio's only problem is that he may just be a little too old for the part. But he could lend an intricate ferocity when leaving the savage blood trail in Tate's house.

The runner-up for the role would be Billy Crudup, who appears to be the Intense Young Actor of the Moment. Crudup is talented, but more importantly, he is relatively humorless within his roles and off camera. And if we are to be committing a Manson biopic to celluloid, then it is important that the actor who portrays Charlie be someone who is quite incapable of laughing.

Of course, if we had a time machine, I'd be very curious as to how Peter Sellers, picked up by a quantum gale shortly before filming The Mouse That Roared, would approach the role of Manson. It wasn't until Stanley Kubrick gave him the role of Claire Quilty that audiences seriously began to see the dramatic possibilities that Sellers was capable of. And I suspect that a hungry Sellers three years before that fateful film would tear into the part with a savage vigor perfectly attenuated to Mason's clear psychosis.
posted by ed at 10:17 AM on April 25, 2002

Jack Black actually looks like manson. If he had manson's insane nervous giggle, and weighed a bit less he'd be perfect.

Pretty pretty girl...cease to exist...etc. I admit I really like his music.
posted by Settle at 10:29 AM on April 25, 2002

vincent gallo (check out the picture on the right) or john malkovich.
posted by fishfucker at 10:30 AM on April 25, 2002

also check out this picture of him with rick rubin and johnny ramone -- that's your manson, dammit.
posted by fishfucker at 10:33 AM on April 25, 2002

Dennis Hopper, Dennis Hopper, Dennis Hopper.
Just think Lynch's Blue Velvet.
posted by Grok09 at 10:35 AM on April 25, 2002

hopper would be ideal.
posted by tsarfan at 11:03 AM on April 25, 2002

"Maybe he should go back to Krautmeyer
Maybe they'd ignore the swastika on his forehead"
posted by Dirjy at 11:20 AM on April 25, 2002

Vincent gallo is too scary looking. Manson had likeable features, wide set eyes, a nice smile. Jack Black so far is the only one anything like him. Short, appealing. He was what you would call *cute*.

And he didn't actually kill anyone.

And he hated the beatles. And he didn't hate black people. And he once jumped 10 feet over bar at the judge at his trial weilding a pencil. Nobody knows how he jumped that far. He has magical powers. And his music is better than pete yorn.
posted by Settle at 11:21 AM on April 25, 2002

"then it is important that the actor who portrays Charlie be someone who is quite incapable of laughing."

As I said, manson laughed a lot. He giggled nervously all the time. He sounded like a really friendly guy, and by all accounts, was a really friendly guy. Paranoid, perhaps, seduced people and made them killing machines, perhaps, but who among us can say with a straight face that we've never tried to do the same?
posted by Settle at 11:23 AM on April 25, 2002

Who'd play him? Elias Koteas or Skeet Ulrich. No question.

Much more important - who would play Sharon Tate?
posted by iconomy at 11:32 AM on April 25, 2002

How about Peter Sarsgaard? He does evil real good...
posted by boneybaloney at 12:23 PM on April 25, 2002

I think that such a film has not been made because it would be grossly insensitive to surviving relatives, not to mention Roman Polanski who is still making movies Hollywood as we speak.

Since when does Hollywood let sensitivity get in the way of a good story? Movies were being made about the Khoresh standoff before it was even over.
posted by rcade at 12:52 PM on April 25, 2002

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone to portray a better Manson than Steve Railsback did in the "TV movie" (which was superb, by the way). To this day he still gives me the creeps from that performance, even when I see things he made years later (like the even more superb "The Stunt Man").
posted by chuq at 1:01 PM on April 25, 2002

for some reason the name "tony soprano" jumped into my head. but then again i have been thinking of remaking das boot with eddie murphy and will smith.
posted by quarsan at 2:17 PM on April 25, 2002

And his music is better than pete yorn.

Not saying much...
posted by kindall at 3:16 PM on April 25, 2002

Willem Dafoe.
posted by treywhit at 5:48 PM on April 25, 2002

Good to hear so many people haven't forgotten Ed Sanders...I knew about the Fugs (named for Mailer's f-word in The Naked and The Dead) and F... You, A Magazine of the Arts, but I honestly didn't know whether he was still alive.
Jim Carrey could play Manson, you bet. (But Nicholas Cage would have been a better choice as Andy Kaufman in Man On the Moon. What were they thinking--ah, who cares)
posted by StOne at 9:31 PM on April 25, 2002

I think there's a lot of Broadway potential for Manson: the Musical!

Actually there is an avant-garde opera based on the story: The Manson Family – An Opera by John Moran. ".. it is a montage of aria, song and monologue set against classical acoustic entralled and experimental electronically-treated soundscapes."
posted by Armarius at 8:01 AM on April 26, 2002

An opera? Throw in a few big dance numbers and you may have something.
posted by groundhog at 11:28 AM on April 26, 2002

3 words. jennifer love hewitt.
posted by quonsar at 7:00 PM on April 26, 2002