Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown, on Hulu

Jim Jones was a lot like Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, because he too was a socialist mass murderer. The deaths at Jonestown are now considered mass murder rather than mass suicide, because nobody had a real choice in the matter. Jones was also explicitly a communitarian socialist. In fact, Jonestown was conceived as a collective commune that tragically ended as all socialist utopias do. Viewers can watch the horror unfold in previously unseen video, much of it shot by Jonestown residents for “posterity” in the three-part National Geographic-produced Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown, directed by Marian Mohamed, which premieres tomorrow on Hulu.

If you do not know the basic facts about the 918 Peoples Temple members forced to commit suicide in their Guyana commune, check out Shan Nicholson’s Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle first, because it much more forthrightly addresses Jim Jones’ ideology. Of course, both programs gloss over the extent to which the late San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk allied themselves with Jones’ Peoples Temple. Moscone even appointed to Jones to the San Francisco Housing Authority and supported his campaign for the chairmanship, while ignoring reports of irregularities at the Peoples Temple.

However, Cult Massacre captures the megalomaniacal extremism of Jones in footage he had produced, supposedly to document the development of Jonestown. (In retrospect, even the name, Jonestown, should have been a warning of the personality cult’s toxicity, much like the renaming of Volgograd to Stalingrad.) In any event, his voice and vocal cadences sound truly creepy.

Cult Massacre also features interviews with several survivors and notable witnesses, including Jones’s son Stephan. In addition to enduring the abuse and constant exhaustion of life at Jonestown, for years the surviving Jonestown residents had to carry the stigma of being cult members.

We also hear from now-former Rep. Jackie Speiers, who accompanied her late boss Rep. Leo Ryan on his fatal fact-finding mission to Jonestown. Yet, some of the most illuminating commentary comes from Special Ops AF Sgt David Netterville, who was part of the operation retrieving and repatriating the bodies, and Douglas Ellice, a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy. At the time, Guyana was a socialist nation on better terms with the Soviets (that is precisely Jones chose to relocate there), which must have made the aftermath even more difficult to manage.

Sundance TV’s Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle

It was a horrific event that should have decisively illustrated the perils of utopianism. After all, the members of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple all insisted their Guyana settlement was utopia, because they would have been in serious trouble if they denied it. Following investigative journalist Jeff Guinn’s book as a guide, the full story of shocking mass suicide-homicide is carefully chronicled in the four-part Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (trailer here), directed by Shan Nicholson, which premieres tomorrow on Sundance TV.

Some observers and surviving Temple members still try to give Jones credit for being progressive during his early years in Indianapolis. Yet even then, he had an un-churchly-like desire for power and adulation that drove him to California, where people used to go to pursue their ambitions. Followers found him charismatic and altogether righteous, but the audio recordings of his sermons from those relatively calm years still sound like someone teetering on the brink of megalomania. However, members of the Peoples Temple chose to focus on the sense of community and belonging they found there.

To its credit, Terror in the Jungle clearly and explicitly establishes Jones’ socialist ideology. Tellingly, it quotes Jones on the Spartan communalism imposed on his followers: “keep them poor, keep them tired and they’ll never leave.” That sums up socialism pretty perfectly, doesn’t it? Guinn also points out Jones chose Guyana for the Temple’s international settlement precisely because it was then a socialist country. Yet, the film largely lets local Bay Area liberal Democrats (including the unmentioned Harvey Milk) off the hook for the Faustian bargains they struck with Jones.

Still, in most other respects, Terror is quite thorough and should have plenty of new details for most viewers. Everyone should know Jones had Rep. Leo Ryan murdered (the second sitting Congressman to be killed in office since Republican James M. Hinds was assassinated by the KKK during Reconstruction), but the step-by-step timeline of events is absolutely chilling.

Yet, the most important point Guinn and the survivors persuasively make during the course of the film is that the majority of the Temple member who died on November 18, 1978 were victims of homicide, not suicide. Even those who “willing” drank the store brand powdered drink (Kool-Aid is unfairly associated with the whole ugly business) really did not have any choice in the matter, as the piles of used syringes attest.

Jones emerges as a true monster throughout the docu-series, but his own unhinged words are far more damning than any of the incidents of drug use, sexual hypocrisy, or Machiavellian manipulation related by the survivors. On the other hand, Jones’s sons Jim Jones Jr. and Stephan Jones come across as deeply humanistic figures. At a time when support for extremist ideologies, most definitely including socialism is on the rise, Terror is a timely and instructive warning of the dangers they represent. Highly recommended, Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle airs tomorrow and Sunday nights (11/17 & 11/18) on Sundance TV.

The Sacrament: Ti West Tackles Jim Jones

Somehow, Hollywood was not especially interested in the close alliance Harvey Milk forged with the cult leader and duly appointed San Francisco Housing Commission Chairman Jim Jones, lest it spoil some perfectly sanitized hagiography. We will still have to wait for that part of the historical record to hit screens. However, genre auteur Ti West tackles the Jonestown legacy without whitewashing the Socialist ideology of its founder with his horrifying-but-not-really-horror The Sacrament (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

For all we know, we could be in Guyana. This undisclosed developing country is home to Eden Parrish, a socialist religious commune maintained by “Father” and his followers. One of them happens to be Caroline, the “troubled” sister of the well heeled Patrick, who happens to have several good friends at the Vice Media network. Sensing a good story, Sam and his cameraman Jake accompany Patrick to document his reunion and hopefully score an interview with Father. Of course, Caroline insists everything is totally fine, but she cannot wait to introduce her brother to some of the commune’s single women—thereby separating him from his Vice companions.

Soon Sam has his sit-down with Father, but it is a frustrating experience. Stymied by the John Goodman-esque cult leader’s slippery rhetoric and spellbinding cadences, the reporter is ready to admit defeat, until terrified cult members start secretly approaching him for help.

West faces an obvious challenge, since just about everyone, except apparently Gus Van Sant, knows exactly how Jonestown ended. On the other hand, knowledge of what is coming and the uncertainty of whether we really want to see it keeps the audience on pins and needles right from the start. Indeed, the scenes of Sam and Jake sneaking through the darkened compound are just extraordinarily tense.

Not exactly found footage, per se, The Sacrament is still shaped by the look of field reporting. Mercifully, the action is always clear and easy to follow, with little of the shaky cam distortion to be had, even when Jake is running for his life. The vibe of Eden Parrish is also so spot-on, one almost wonders if production designer Jade Healy had a captive crew of cultists to build it for real.

However, West’s ace in the hole is undeniably the ironically named Gene Jones (previously best known for No Country for Old Men), who delivers a massively chilling, truly Oscar-worthy performance as Father. Frankly, this could have been a take-it-to-a-new-level turn for A.J. Bowen, who is otherwise terrific as Sam, but when Jones throws down, he utterly overwhelms everything and everyone else on-screen.

Thanks to the mesmerizing Jones, The Sacrament vividly depicts how a strong, sociopathic personality can dominate weaker followers. It is a lean, tight thriller that feels uncomfortably true to history. Recommended for West’s fans and those fascinated by the psychological dynamics of cults, The Sacrament opens this Friday (6/6) in New York at the Cinema Village.