Guyana Tragedy: Story of Jim Jones | Powers Boothe, Ned Beatty

Guyana Tragedy: Story of Jim Jones | Powers Boothe, Ned Beatty | One of the rare good "made for TV" movies

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Guyana Tragedy: St...

	Guyana Tragedy: Story of Jim Jones Powers Boothe, Ned Beatty Vci Video, 2003 average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A great film that seems to have been forgotten ...

This film is powerful, simplly put. Powers Boothe gives a dynamic performance as Jim Jones, one which won him an Emmy. The film was made for television, and premiered not long after the actual event. The film is presented in two parts, and its structure puts us in the role of Jones follower. In the first half, Jones is a likable guy, despite some obvious flaws. He is a powerful speaker, and he opens up the church to people in the community who had previously been excluded (blacks, the poor, etc.). When he is booted out of the church for this, he opens one of his own, the People's Temple, in a section of Indianapolis. His people love him, and he uses that love to further his ambition. He moves the Temple to California. The first half ends on a note of doom, as Jones presents his "vision" of nuclear apocalypse, telling his people that he is the only one who can save them.

Part two is the fall. Things get ugly fast. Jones gains power rapidly, both among his people and in Bay Area politics. He eventually moves the Temple to Guyana and, well, we all know what happened after that. Even at more than three hours long, GUYANA TRAGEDY is so compelling that the time is hardly noticed. The story is gripping, and to think that it actually happened makes it all the more so. Much of Jones' final speech comes from actual transcripts. Boothe gives a performance that may be his best ever. The film is worth watching just for him.

This needs to be on DVD. Even by VHS standards, the video and audio quality is below average. It would be nice to see a cleaned up version of this with some bonus material.

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One of the rare good "made for TV" movies

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.

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Poor video and sound quality

The video is great, except for the poor video and sound quality. I wish they'd put out a DVD version with clearer video and sound.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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