I've never been interested in the "cult murders". I vaguely knew of them. I decided to watch this because it was about Jay Sebring, not Sharon Tate, not Manson and his crew. This is very well done, very well edited. It finally humanized the hair dresser to the male stars. The man was a very handsome fellow, personable, likable. He was a pioneer, it was nice to hear about his beginnings and he styled hair for so many celebrities... Frank Sinatra, to name only one.
I was surprised that there was so much footage of him, so many edits were extraordinary: the climbing up the stairs to meet Henry Fonda, very well done; the fade to black, leaving only the light in his eyes in the darkness, that really was very poignant. It never sinks into melodrama. Everyone was, for the most part, respectful, spoke highly of Jay Sebring. I wasn't aware of the many rumors that were published in Time Magazine (!) of all places. (The very disrespectful part, but it needed to be highlighted.) It sounds like they had the same problem we have these days, with lying and publishing nonsense to sell. And it was wonderful to see so many people, still alive, interviewed to rebuke all that.
It's really despicable how they press has further victimized the victims after their deaths, portrayed them as sexual deviants and done everything to glorify "the Manson family" and devaluate the murder victims, in the eyes of the public. Also surprised to learn that the mutilations of bodies didn't happen, after they were initially mentioned, as back in the early 2000's, I had heard that the gruesome photos of Tate were all over Google images if you so much as searched her name. This was on (unrelated) forum discussions, popping up in August of every year.
Anyway, it would be interesting to watch one about Abigail Folger and the rest of the victims. Call me strange but I have no interest whatsoever in Sharon Tate. I have never seen her in anything, and I don't think she was that great a beauty that people claim she was, but that's just me. I have now watched some of her acting and I remain unmoved by her. Not to say that she's uninteresting, I'm more interested in hearing about the others. I like how this documentary emphasized that it was always all about "Manson" and Tate "plus the others", nameless for decades. This bring a stop to it and shines the light elsewhere, where it was very much needed and deserved.
More people need to watch this. In the end, you have to realize that those T-shirt sales with the face of Manson are more the fault of the media (Time magazine et al) than the people buying the garbage because they've been fed a wrong narrative so the public is also victim of the press' lies. And you have to wonder if the family of the victims could sue and get their cut, if anyone should have this blood money, it's them, not the opportunists.
Well, very well directed and produced and superbly edited. I give this a 10/10 and I rarely watch documentaries. It was also a very easy watch, normally I'd get easily bored but not here. Much more I could say but I'll just wrap it up with a kudos to Jay Sebring's nephew who researched, interviewed and directed this. It's great that his love for his Uncle now remains unmired. Jay Sebring's legacy will also live on thanks to him. Well done.
