This film had a significant impact on me

Rating: 10/10 (11 May 2020)

I have always had an interest in crime. I read the book about the Ice Man (contract killer.)I watched numerous documentaries and films ranging from Jack the Ripper docs to Monster (Wuonos.) I watched many episodes of the show "Most Evil" where an expert assigns serial killer an "evil rating" based on a specific set of criteria. I'm sure at some point he analyzed Manson. I've seen many episodes of Criminal Minds and all the episodes of Mind Hunter. I guess you could say I had a morbid curiosity. I always felt safe and secure as though there was a protective shield between me and the content I was watching.
Then my mom recommended we watch "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood." Now I'm an (early) 90s baby but I love the 60s. Both of my parents are boomers. I certainly knew about Charles Manson and what he had done.
I watched the film with a mild sense of dread because I honestly thought it was going to show the brutal killings of Tate and the other victims-Voytek Frykowski, Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. To be clear this is not a full list of all the Manson victims but just the most famous ones who were murdered on the nights of August 8-9th 1969. I assumed that was to be the climactic end to the film. I just couldn't bear to see it. Tarantino movies are so long; the longer I watched the more I became absorbed and attached to the victims. Everything inside of me was consumed with dread. I felt so very attached to Tate in particular. Perhaps because of Tate's quintessential vulnerable nature- a petite beautiful soft spoken actress 8 and a half months pregnant.
This film left me shaken to my core because of what my imagination did. I desperately wanted to believe that Tarantino's version is how it really played out but we all know that's a fairy tale. I imagined what really happened to those poor innocent souls on those nights and my heart shattered. I could not sleep that night nor the night after that.
Tarantino, like he always does, made it feel very real. He made it so easy to empathize with the victims. The protective shield of the screen between me and the content had been viciously pierced. Tarantino played a dirty trick; as we all know our imagination is infinitely worse than reality except perhaps in the rare case of this very example. I'm so glad Tarantino took the classy route. Nonetheless, I have imagined what actually happened over and over again.
We have become so immune to violence in today's culture from seeing our hyper violent material in our tv and movies (here's looking at you Tarantino.) And yet it was a Tarantino film that actually made me realize that the fascination surrounding crime and violence should not be merely observed as entertainment or morbid curiosity. It should be felt. You should be shaken to your very core. You shouldn't be able to sleep at night. You should feel violently repulsed and overcome with sadness. Innocent people died in the most brutal and heinous way possible at the hands of young drugged out psychopaths with nothing to live for but a madman's approval and a free place to live. Sharon Tate was the final one to die. She had to listen to her friends get stabbed to death before the killers finally on her while listening to her pleas to spare her only for the sake of her unborn son.
It's such a crying shame, the killers weren't put to death. Young children know basic morality. Teenagers certainly do as well. Sure, some of them do foolish things like partake in drugs and dive head first into shallow pools. But they certainly know not to commit pre-meditated murder stabbing each victim no less than 20 odd times. In addition, they violated the dead; using their blood to smear filthy degrading words. In the case of the LaBianca murders they left the steak knife jutting out of the mans throat and pierced a fork into his stomach before they left. These people are real life monsters- the boogeymen and women. Please, we need to stop any sort of glorification of crime and criminals because this is exactly what they seek and desire.
I hope this film urges everyone to sign the petitions to keep Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkle, Bobby Beausoleil, Bruce Davis and Lesley Van Houten behind bars because they were unfortunately given life with the chance of parole. Remember these are the same people who stabbed their victims repeatedly later bragging about it to cellmates. Prison is heaven compared to the punishment they truly deserve which probably shouldn't even be attempted to be achieved by us mere mortals anyway but at the very least they should never be let out for their sheer destruction and total lack of regard they had for human life. They will never be "rehabilitated." Sure, they may be on their best behavior in prison and they may have "found God" now but I wonder where God was for Tex in between the moments when he was stabbing the life out of the 7 victims he mercilessly killed. I don't buy it for one minute. Every single one of the killers are almost as manipulative, duplicitous and cunning as Manson himself. I am so appalled.
Sharon Tate's mother Doris Tate went on to become a champions of crime victims. Now the responsibility is squarely placed on the only surviving member of Sharon's immediate family- Debra who has gone to every single parole hearing of all of the Manson killers. Please for all the victims, for all the victims families, for Doris and for Debra please sign the petitions.