Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980)

Too much of everything

the audience applauded

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

"Guyana Tragedy" is one of the best miniseries about religious cults I have ever seen! Powers Boothe gave Jim Jones a charisma that made you understand why so many people basically followed this man to hell. The young actor who played Jim Jones as a boy was very good as well! I liked the back stories of the characters who followed Jones to their doom. I felt sympathy for Brad Dourif's naive doctor character who was brain washed by Jones. I also felt bad for LaVar Burton as Richard who saw what kind of monster Jones truly was and couldn't help anyone. The only criticism I had was the hiring of brown-haired Ned Beatty to play the white-haired senator, Leo Ryan. The real Ryan's assistant was a woman senator. Another semi-criticism I have is the fact that Stephan Jones, Jim and Marceline's biological son was left out of the movie, and so were Stephan's adopted siblings. On a personal note: I will miss Powers Boothe's compelling performances in every TV and movie project he has done since "Guyana Tragedy.". All of his fellow performers and I think all of us who have posted a review for his performance in this compelling movie will miss this great actor!

I remember well the newscasts that weekend, showing the man leap out from behind the truck. This clip would be shown over and over and over again. What was I watching? We would hear about the congressman, interviews with cameramen and reporters. One media fellow said his arm was hit, and he fell and the blood ran to his head, so they thought he had been shot in the head. What was I watching?Then the mass suicide was discovered. What was going on?All from cyanide poisoning. Jones and his secretary were found shot. Who shot them?It would take the movie for me to understand what had occurred. I have not seen this thing in a while, but because I remember the suicides (for some reason this is the only way I look at that moment in November 1978) from back then, I have remembered everything about this movie rather well.Standouts for me? It was a woman's show; Carol Lynley, Dianne Ladd, Meg Foster, Veronica Cartwright, Madge Sinclair (she fought back, but was stuck with a needle and then stopped resisting), the breaking down of Irene Cara, and I did like Randy Quaid as well.I often wondered if Meg Foster and Quaid were based on real people and if they could have possibly survived.The movie doesn't point out there was at least two survivors; I think it was a young girl who had her throat slit survived and a woman was found in the hospital ward. The movie also doesn't point out who may have shot Jones (I always believed it was LeVar Burton!). Since then I have seen things such as History Channel programs showing Jim Jones on that fateful final day, and the audio recording of the suicides is even played, which apparently was recreated for the movie.In the late eighties I would cross paths with a young man who lost his mother to the Guyana tragedy.Even 20/20 has shown a program of Jones two sons, one an actual son from his marriage to the woman portrayed by Veronica Cartwright (by chance he was out of the country, perhaps in America, when this took place, but he wasn't there) and the other, an adopted Black boy.When they visited the site of the camp, now a desserted field and found only a piece of a bench was all that was left, the birth son became very upset. He would spend the night out in the woods where they stayed. It's impossible to judge anyone who followed Jones and made this story true, because there but for the grace of God go I.

Certainly this is the best work Powers Boothe has done and he deservedly got an Emmy for it. As an aside, I can recall the awards night because there was a Screen Actors Guild strike or something and nearly all of the nominees failed to attend the ceremonies. But when Boothe's name was called out as a winner, he defiantly strode up to the podium to get his trophy. People may want to read the book "Raven" which is a biography about Rev. Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple; this TV movie can only scratch the surface of the demonic goings-on in the Temple without demanding more censorship than a TV show could allow, at least back then. Boothe is hypnotic as Jim Jones and you get the sense that he wasn't always whacked out and loony. A particularly good scene is when Jones stands in front of an abandoned synagogue in the black-ghetto part of town. The only white man there, he's soon surrounded by obviously skeptical blacks. "Will you pray with me?" Jones asks, and the bystanders do as Jones gives a heartfelt prayer that God will lift their burdens. The bystanders are impressed and in a short time the Peoples Temple is prospering. Boothe perfectly recreates the candence and timbre of Jones' preaching and phony faith-healing and his lustful disposition towards the women of his congregation. Jones's sexual exploits don't end there and he later has an affair with drug-addicted Brad Dourif, as well (in fact, Jones had sex with plenty of his male followers). The end of the movie where the cult members all commit suicide is very frightening. All the more so because nearly all of the dialogue is exactly what was spoken---Jones had been tape recording his harangues and the tape ended probably not long before he was killed himself. By the way, Jones never took the cynanide-laced kool-aid, he was shot which led many to believe that Jones had no intention of going off into the hereafter but was planning his escape when one of henchmen decided to have Jones join his "flock".

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.