The Guyana Tragedy (1980)

The horrific story of Jim Jones and the mass suicide at Guyana on November 18, 1978 is near impossible to comprehend how such an incident could have occurred. Numerous attempts have been made on both film and television to tell the story but the definitive version of the Guyana tragedy has yet to be made. This one runs slightly over three hours and attempts to give Jim Jones’s backstory as well as the events leading up to the Guyana massacre. There are so many things wrong with this film I don’t know where to start. Despite its running time there are still gaps in the narrative. For example, Jones (Powers Boothe) visits a prostitute (Rosalind Cash) then suddenly cuts to her as a reformed prostitute and a loyal follower of Jones. Jones starts off as a genuine man of God interested in helping his flock then he visits Father Divine (James Earl Jones) then cut to Jones as a corrupt charlatan bilking his flock of money and property and using its women as bed partners. Then there’s the problem of Powers Boothe. He’s spectacularly awful here. In his scenes with Veronica Cartwright (who plays his wife) she positively annihilates him. There must have been something charismatic about Jones to have lured sensible people in believing he was the Messiah and their salvation and I doubt a pack of hounds would follow Boothe’s Jones much less 900 followers. The massive cast also includes Ned Beatty, Diane Ladd, Brenda Vaccaro, Brad Dourif, Colleen Dewhurst, LeVar Burton, Randy Quaid, Meg Foster, Irene Cara, Diana Scarwid and Ron O’Neal. Even the normally reliable Elmer Bernstein can only offer up a tired score.