Customer Reviews

Guyana Tragedy: Story of Jim Jones [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Although I'd quibble with some muddying of the facts, this film presents an excellent overview of the events leading up to the Jonestown tragedy of 1978.

The film starts with Jones as a child involved in preaching the gospel to anyone who will listen. The more disturbing aspects of Jones' childhood (including his torture and killing of small animals) are left unexplored. However, as the film progresses, we do get more of an idea of the sickness of the Reverend Jim Jones. His drug use, seduction of both male and female parishioners, staged "healings," questionable financial dealings, and vicious public castigation of Temple Members are all given due screen time.

The cast is unbelievable for a TV movie -- Powers Boothe riveting as Jones, Veronica Cartwright excellent as his wife Marceline, as well as James Earl Jones, Colleen Dewhurst, Diane Ladd, Brad Dourif, Ned Beatty, LeVar Burton, Meg Foster, Randy Quaid, Brenda Vaccaro, and many others.

Despite the film's grainy picture quality, the production values are admirably high as well -- the recreation of Jonestown is frighteningly eerie, and the film features a great score by the always excellent Elmer Bernstein.

Some may not like the compression of facts and events. Names are changed and characters are switched around. For instance, Tim and Grace Stoen (they are given different names in the film) were not shot at the airstrip in Port Kaituma, nor did Congressman Ryan spend the night at the Jonestown compound. There are also several key players who seem to be missing in the film: Deborah and Larry Layton, and Caroline and Annie Moore, for instance.

However, the final suicide scene is absolutely harrowing. The dialogue is taken from the actual tape recording made at the suicide, and the director wisely chose to shoot the scene without any music. This gives it the feel of a documentary, and it is easily worth watching the entire movie just for this finale. I cannot imagine anyone being able to watch this scene without tears in their eyes.

Despite its rather free treatment of the facts surrounding the demise of the Peoples Temple, this film contains excellent performances and should be seen by anyone with an interest in this particular tragedy or cults in general.

Besides the riveting portrayal of Jones by star Boothe, the two-part telefilm sports excellent performances from Rosalind Cash, Veronica Cartwright, Brenda Vaccaro, Madge Sinclair, and Levar Burton, fresh from his star-making turn as the young "Kunta Kinte" in "Roots.

The film is engrossingly disturbing from start to finish. It chronicles the events leading to one of the most horrific days in history, only parrelled by the attack on Pearl Harbor and that day in September two years ago.

The Jonestown tragedy had previously been made into the exploitation film "Guyana - Crime of the Century". However, this TV production, with a running time of about three hours gives a better understanding of how it could happen. The story starts when Jim Jones is a child, being indoctrinated by a Christian fundamentalist friend. He starts the integrated People's Temple Church after discovering how racist the established churches in San Francisco are. He really wants to do something good for the community and he does, but power corrupts and the church turns into more of a money making cult and Jones turns into a cruel leader. His drug use and paranoia doesn't make things better. After moving to Guyana, Jones has complete control over his folloers, and with him as a leader, Jonestown is headed for destruction.

This gives a good understanding of the events, and what it might have been like for the people involved. The mass suicide sequence is reconstructed almost completely the way it happened, based on tape recordings. As a piece of trivia, the gospel songs performed by the People's Temple Choir are recordings of the actual choir.

I certainly recommend this film to those interested in the Jonestown story, destructive cults, or 1970s history in general.

After seeing this movie I bought the memoir "SEDUCTIVE POISON" by Deborah Layton. These two genre's together make quite an impression. The book has far more information in it and is even more intense than the movie. Layton joined when she was 18, became the finacial secretary at 20, was raped by Jones and then escaped from Jonestown. Because of her testimoney in Washington DC the world became aware of the dangers in Guyana. I suggest a read and watch approach. It makes for a totally awesome twosome.

The events of November 18, 1978, in which 917 people died in a jungle enclave in the South American jungle of Guyana have continued to rivet the world. How could all these people have been brainwashed into following a man like the Rev. Jim Jones to their eventual doom? What social and economic conditions could have driven both them and their leader to do what they did?

The riveting 2-part 1980 TV film GUYANA TRAGEDY: THE STORY OF JIM JONES gives us a pretty good idea. Neither director William A. Graham nor screenwriter Ernest Tidyman could have found anyone better to play Jim Jones than the then-unknown Powers Boothe. I agree strongly with a previous reviewer who said that Boothe literally BECAME Jones right before our eyes. It's not a surpise, then, that he should have won an Emmy for his magnetic performance.

The film also features a big-name cast, including Ned Beatty, Meg Foster, Randy Quaid, Brenda Vaccaro, Brad Dourif, Madge Sinclair, Colleen Dewhurst, and Diane Ladd. This is a must-see for anyone interested in incredible single events like the nightmare of the Jonestown massacre.

I saw this movie a couple of years ago on A&E. Since I'm a big fan of Boothe, I was thrilled to watch it. But I didn't expect to see so enthralled over the story. I watched helpless as his followers, in blind devotion, catered to his every whim and finally took their own lives. Boothe's performance definitely deserved him recieving the Emmy Award for Best Actor. He literally BECAME Jim Jones. Even though Jones was an evil man, you can't help being seduced by him. Guyana Tragedy was a heartbreaking movie to watch, particularly the suicide scene. It's not easy watching, but it gives you insight into the madness of one man and his followers

This is a great movie, but the audio and video from 1980 just doesn't hold up. The audio is VERY distorted and the video quality is atrocious. Think twice before slapping down money for this one (and I bought mine new!).

With the recent 20-something anniversary of this mind blowing event I found Seductive Poison, the memoir, was a truer, more personal look inside an individual's experience. The movie is good, but it just isn't able to really explore nor explain why these people joined and then stayed. The book by Deborah Layton does!

This is an outstanding movie! Powers Booth does an exellent portrayel of Rev. Jim Jones. This movie,I would say is not for children.The only thing bad with this video is the quality of the picture is not very good at all,but it is worth the money just to own the movie.The facts are a little shaky,but all in all it's pretty close. Shane

99% of "made for TV" movies are garbage, not so much because of plots or third-rate actors but low-production and low monetary funds are a major factor...there are a few exceptions, for example Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot was originally released as a mini-series on German television that took several nights to be shown and after being shortened and shown in theatres worldwide it has become an all-time classic war film. I saw Guyana Tragedy as a child and though I was alive when the Jonestown massacre took place I don't remember hearing about it and this film was where I was first exposed to the horrors that took place there, and this film though being a TV movie has always been a favorite. The rarely seen Powers Booth as always is outstanding and is totally posessed by Rev. Jim in this role, if you've actually seen footage of the real Jones the two men are literally one in the same. The movie's long at 4 hours and two videotapes, originally shown over two nights on one of the networks, but it's one of those films that grabs you from the get-go and won't let go. To my knowledge it's never been released on DVD and I haven't seen it re-aired on television in quite some time so pick up one of the used VHS copies if you can find one (I later recorded it onto a DVD-R). The film is also a useful tool to show to those obnoxious Che Guevara t-shirt wearing Sociology grad students/wannabe anarchists still living in their parent's basement to show what a miserable failure Marxism has always been.