Customer Reviews

American Justice: Attack at Waco [VHS]

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This film analyzes the entire situation at Waco. Starting with a brief background on the Davidians it also covers the ATF raid, the siege, the final holocaust, and it gives a pretty good recap of the trail of the surviving Davidians. And it does it all in only 50 minutes.

On the plus side 'Attack at Waco' makes a very serious attempt to be unbiased. It includes several points of view on the major issues of Waco, and it really appears to be without an agenda of its own in either direction. Like the better-known film 'Waco: Rules of Engagement' this film has a good number of short interviews with Davidian survivors and others who are sympathetic to the Davidians. Unlike 'Rules' this film stays neutral. It weighs the Davidian positions as well as those of law enforcement, cult experts and former members of the Davidian community. I would also give special commendation to this film for the care with which it avoided loaded terms such as compound, bunker or cultist.

I have only one real criticism of this film: it's way too short to cover Waco thoroughly. The attempt to present so many points of view so briefly had a tendency to mean they were not presented that well. There really is no time to delve into events in dispute such as the question of whether ATF agents in the helicopters fired on the Davidians, who fired first, and who set the April 19th fire.

Everything considered I preferred 'Waco: Rules of Engagement' to this film. This is not only because the bias in 'Rules' corresponds to my own, but also because I liked the depth of its coverage, its great sense of drama and the way it made so clear what a tragedy Waco was. However, if you are looking for a brief (say about enough to fit in one 50 minute class period) program on Waco, that is completely unbiased, covers the entire event, and avoids the gruesome photos seen in Rules of Engagement then you would do well to consider this film.

Plain and simple the video is a documentary from the Government's P.O.V. and seems to be made in the F.B.I and A.T.F. studio! So if you want a real documentary get "Rules of Engagement" After all it doesn't even study how the A.T.F. lied to get C.E.V's (Combat Engineer Vehicle),M.B.T.'s(Main Battle Tank)A.P.C.'s(armored Personel Carrier),UH-1's and OH-6's from Fort Hood in violation of the "Posse Comitatus Act" You Don't need to be a rocket scientist to know who attacked whom!

Do you remember this line....."It depends on what your definition of IS, is." This movie is nothing but a pack of lies. It is true, it seems that the Feds produced this movie to try to cover their you know what. Don't waste your money, buy Waco, Rules of Engagement.

I myself own this movie and was seriously disappointed but not surprised by the lack of real evidence presented in the film, but also the outright inconsistancies WITH the evidence and what it shows. This flim blazes over the majority of the evidence and presents a clearly biased position in favor of the government propaganda.

I recommend a serious Waco investigator to perhaps rent this from a library rather than spend the hard earned money..and tape it. The interviews with survivors is worth the time.

With Danforth's "investigation" exonerating the government, this film should fit right along with that whole mentality. Waco Massacre Never Again!