Big Al's Place: Top 20 of the Decade

In A Nutshell

Years after his release from Alcatraz, bedeviled by hallucinations fueled by untreated, late-stage syphilis, Al Capone wanders the overgrown grounds of his Miami Beach estate, ruminating with ghosts. Tomorrow will bring his forty-eighth birthday and one week later he will be dead. Between then and now sprawls an epic life, from the wild streets of turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, to a bloody Saint Valentine’s Day that shocked the world; here is the glamorous ascent and shocking decline of America's true king of crime.

Some History

Jim VanBebber's 2004 feature, The Manson Family, was hailed as, "Crucial," by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone's four-star review. It inspired Roger Ebert to proclaim, "...it has an undeniable power and effect...it exists in a category of one film - this film." The film's successful theatrical release brought further critical acclaim and Manson then went on to thrive on home video, including as the centerpiece of Visions of Hell: The Films of Jim VanBebber, a mid-career retrospective DVD box set released in 2008.

Capone first met VanBebber at Wright State University when both men were enrolled in the Motion Pictures Production program headed up by Academy Award nominated documentary filmmakers Jim Klein and Julia Reichert. When, in junior year, the class was divided into small groups with the purpose of producing a short film, VanBebber, with partners Marcello Games and cinematographer Mike King, decided to shoot a full length feature. That film, 1988's Deadbeat at Dawn went on to earn true cult status, playing to crowds on 42nd Street and on many waning drive-in screens before landing on cable's The Movie Channel where it debuted on Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater, hosted by Joe Bob Briggs, who had singled out Deadbeat in his nationally syndicated four-star review.

With funds derived from the sale of Deadbeat, King, Games and VanBebber began their follow up production, The Manson Family, which brings us full circle

12/19/09

Top 20 of the Decade

As the decade comes to an end, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a "best of" list. Seems there's no end to the mad rush to chime in, but that doesn't mean there aren't any worth reading. Case in point, the website Psychobabble recently posted it's list of top 20 Horror films of the 00's and our very own Jim VanBebber made the cut with his opus, "The Manson Family." Here's what they had to say:

"The Manson Family may be based on a true story, but it is as horrific—no, more horrific—than most fictional horror movies you’re likely to see. This was a sort of labor of love for writer/director/egomaniac Jim Van Bebber, who began the movie in 1988 and didn’t complete it until it was to premiere at a European horror festival in 2003. The idea that the actors had to keep returning to this gritty, grisly, claustrophobic world for over a decade sounds a lot like torture to me. Van Bebber does an incredible job of recreating the grainy look of ‘70s grind house horror films, right down to the phony blood, which there are buckets of. Interestingly, the one instance in which Van Bebber decided to show a little restraint was the depiction of the murder of Sharon Tate, but he pulls no such punches anywhere else in this movie. The film’s one significant flaw was the decision to pad it with a completely unnecessary parallel story about some contemporary punks who, inspired by Manson and his gang of idiots, decide to commit some murders of their own. The Manson Family is still a must see for anyone looking to check out something truly disturbing."

You can check out the entire top 20 list at Psychobabble's website.