The Doomite
When I first saw the video at the video store, I was fascinated. I remember seeing the Waco Branch Davidian cult compound burn and reading about Jonestown in Time and Newsweek in 1993, and I was intrigued as to why so many people would readily lay down their lives for some madman like David Koresh or Jim Jones. So, I rented Guyana Tragedy for some insight into the Peoples Temple cult. What I saw was very interesting to watch. Powers Boothe did an excellent job as Jim Jones, in my opinion. You can see how persuasive, demanding, and maniacal Jones really was. And the other characters in the movie are all well-played. James Earl Jones makes a small appearance as Father Divine, but he stands out as only he can, Darth Vader voice and all. Ned Beatty, Randy Quaid, LeVar Burton all shine here. This surprised me in that it was more watchable than I thought it would be. A VERY nicely-done movie, worth anyone's viewing.
goya-4
Powers Booth is hypnotic as cult leader jim jones who led his Peoples Temple followers from 1953 until 1978 when he led them in a mass suicide in 1978 where over 900 died. A very well done movie which may seem a little dated due to the 70s time period but well worth the time 8 of 10
lthseldy1
As a big fan of knowledge on subjects such as serial killers and cult leaders, I was very excited about watching this movie about Jim Jones. I had expected too much I guess because all through watching the movie, the more I watched, the duller it became. There were some situations in the film that made you want to focus more on but the movie seemed to focus more on the bi-sexual affairs of Jones and his financial status that what we know of the person Jim Jones and what he did to those people in Jones Town. The most suspenseful part of the film I guess would be in the very beginning when there was a scare tactic in which Jones and all other cult leaders had used as a means to put fear into people and dominate and take control. The film left me to believe that Jones could have done alot of good during his lifetime helping the people instead of making a wrong decision and turning into a dominating and controling leader. Why Guyana? Why did these people follow him into a jungle where there is no excape except to be fed to the snakes? Also... I thought that the movie would be worth watching seeing that there were so many famous actors in it that we know of today, but unfortunately, they play very small roles and this left actors that are hardly known to play the much bigger roles.To finish off..... I liked the movie but it was not as great as expected and they could have done alot more to make this movie better. I give it a 5.
John Seal
Sure Guyana Tragedy eschews sex scenes and four letter words...it still somehow manages to be totally convincing. I can't imagine anyone except Powers Boothe in the role of Jim Jones and his supporting cast is outstanding. There are a lot of familiar faces, but the film avoids the 'hey, look at LeVar Burton in a guest spot!' pitfall. Brad Dourif is particularly good as the young junkie turned Jonestown MD who cooks up the special Kool-Aid at the end. The best TV movie ever? Possibly. It certainly avoids some of the cliches of The Day After.
AD
