Jonestown - The Life & Death of Peoples Temple
by Stanley Nelson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Hue Fortson Jr., Janet Shular, Rebecca Moore (VI), Stanley Clayton (II), Tim Carter (IX)Director: Stanley Nelson
Brand: Paramount
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, NTSC, PAL, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS Paramount
Movie Reviews of Jonestown - The Life & Death of Peoples Temple
Movie Review: Rather tepid, considering its subject matter....
Summary: 3 Stars
It's hard to believe that you can make a tepid documentary out of the Jonestown massacre, but that's exactly what we have here. The film is interesting solely because of its subject matter, not because of its presentation. The documentary ends up being very superficial, covering things in a very quick, piecemeal way, and there is precious little new information that I haven't read and/or seen before. The only thing that I didn't know was that Jones's church was one of the most integrated churches during its time (with a mostly black congregation), and this caused much consternation during Jones's time in Indiana. The interviews are interesting and sad (many of the subjects lost relatives in the massacre), but there's nothing particularly new here, and for such a fascinating, tragic subject, you'd figure the filmmaker could come up with more material. There's a better film to be made out there about Jim Jones, Jonestown, and the People's Temple.
Summary of Jonestown - The Life & Death of Peoples Temple
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 04/10/2007 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: NrJonestown. Decades after the fact, the very mention of the word evokes grim memories of Rev. Jim Jones, his Peoples Temple, and the horrific suicide of more than 900 followers who accompanied him to Guyana, Jones' self-styled South American Shangri-La. While November 18, 1978--when, following the shooting of California Rep. Leo Ryan (who had come to Jonestown to investigate various allegations about mistreatment of cult members), all those people drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid--is the obvious focal point, producer-director Stanley Nelson's 90-minute documentary also devotes a good deal of time to Jones' personal history up to and including the founding of the Peoples Temple. Born in Lynn, Indiana, he was inspired by the power and authority of the preachers he witnessed, and was at it himself by his early twenties. His own church was fully integrated (he and his wife adopted two Asian Americans and one African American; the latter, named Jim Jones Jr., is among those interviewed for the film). Services were joyous occasions, more like Baptist revivals than the typical white Christian affair, and Jones' followers seemed genuinely devoted, buying into his snake-oil bit (including fake healings) and willingly forking over 20 percent or more of their incomes to him. But after Jones moved the Temple from sleepy Ukiah, California, to San Francisco, the madness began to set in, and just as an expos? of his more unsavory practices (sexual and otherwise) was about to be published, he hurriedly relocated the whole scene to Guyana. Although Jonestown was virtually a prison camp (the mere thought of leaving was blasphemous), they managed to convince Ryan that it was paradise--until the congressman started getting notes surreptitiously passed to him by members desperate to get out. Chaos quickly ensued, and the film's final moments, in which Jones can be heard exhorting his crazed flock to drink the Kool-Aid, are genuinely harrowing. There is ample footage of Jones himself, along with the recollections of Peoples Temple members (including those very few who survived Jonestown) and others. Deleted scenes and an interview with Nelson highlight the bonus material. --Sam Graham
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