Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Goingbegging First word tells. Never trust anything starting with 'Peoples...'Unfortunately, Jim Jones' cult (Peoples Temple) was targeting particular groups who were over-keen to believe in Utopia, many of them humble Afro-Americans, who seem to outnumber the other races in a way that makes this rainbow coalition look a bit suspect from the start. The black dimension is, however, the central concern of director Stanley Nelson, and that is how this 85-minute documentary differs from many others on the same horribly fascinating subject. It also means that you are better to have watched some of these first, as the present work naturally gives you a skewed version of the story.Only the first and last sections are directly sequential - Jones' boyhood, and then the climactic 24 hours leading up to the murder/suicide of 900 trusting believers. The main body of the film is taken up with first-hand testimonies by those connected with the Temple, either as bereaved relatives or disillusioned whistleblowers. Not one in ten of these could be described as people of critical insight. In fact, 'uncritical' is probably the key word. Long before they swallowed their lethal poison, they were swallowing a cheap mix of cult-theory, hot-gospeller gabble and theatrical stunts, including a transparently fake miracle with a wheelchair-bound 'patient' who is inspired to get up and walk.Some of their comments are so stupid that they can only be good news for any budding cult-leader, perhaps feeling tempted after watching an exceptionally glamorous whistleblower confessing that she surrendered her virtue to Jones when he said "I'm doing this for you, Debbie." One survivor, clearly unteachable, defends Jones on the grounds that "At least we tried to make a change". (Well, that really does leave the rest of us feeling narrow-minded.) Other reactions include "It all looked so plausible", "It looked like freedom" and "We had fun".At the risk of talking cliché, it is impossible not to note the Hitler parallels, especially the hypnotic effect on crowds and the appeals to turn-in your own family for signs of disloyalty. And his own suicide, at least, was on the cards. For he had shown that he was a man liable to cut-and-run. When the first whistleblower went to the press, Jones was on a plane to Guyana before the morning papers had even hit the street. And once that brave and unusually dutiful congressman Leo Ryan came to investigate on behalf of his worried constituents, it was clear that everything was about to unravel, and that Jones and his ghastly cult might as well self-destruct once and for all.

InjunNose The best Peoples Temple documentary so far, but there remains considerable room for improvement. "The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" glosses over numerous bizarre events in the life of Jim Jones, such as his acquaintance with Dan Mitrione--an infamous undercover CIA operative who was assassinated in Uruguay in 1970--and Jones's extended stay in Brazil during the early 1960s. (Mitrione was there at the same time, working for the U.S. State Department, and the CIA has admitted that it opened a file on Jones when Mitrione was dispatched to Brazil in September 1960). These are established facts, not unverified rumors, so it seems simply lazy to exclude them from what purports to be an evenhanded account of Jones's quasi-religious Marxist cult. Also unexamined here is the medical evidence indicating that most of the 913 victims at Jonestown did not commit suicide, but were murdered. Survivor Stanley Clayton, who is interviewed in the film, saw adults being forcibly injected with cyanide before he escaped from the isolated jungle settlement (see Tim Reiterman's "Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People"), which appears to confirm the findings of Guyana's chief pathologist Dr. Leslie Mootoo, who was the first to examine the bodies. Those findings, however, are not discussed in the documentary. Were mind control experiments being conducted at Jonestown? (There were large amounts of drugs like sodium thiopental and chloral hydrate in the compound's medical facilities.) Was Jim Jones connected to the CIA, and did the agency seize the perfect opportunity to silence Congressman Leo Ryan, one of its most vocal critics? "The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" eschews these questions, predictably reducing the story--once again--to a real-life soap opera about a megalomaniac and his tragically misguided disciples. The interviews with those who knew Jones and worked alongside or followed him are fascinating, but significant and perhaps crucial chunks of the Peoples Temple saga are missing from this film.

hannasdeli This is one of these stories that can be revisited over and over again while trying to understand what actually happened. What are the reasons that make people do horrible things without really wanting or understanding why do they do them. It is a film about collective delusion and manipulation... or maybe it is a film about fear and uncertainty towards life?Well, I wish I could answer these questions after this documentary. But I can't, because despite it's very acceptable technical quality, the choice of a chronological narration doesn't do much to add depth to a character larger than life as Jim Jones was. The film did a lot to enlighten me in the origins of the church, it's racial integration and also its claims against social inequality. But the character itself remains a mystery to me. His motivations, the techniques he used to control his followers. It is all depicted very lightly and without much intellectual depth. There are moments when some of the cult followers say things about Jones that could be further explored, but unfortunately the director chooses to leave them as nearly an anecdote.And this is what I think it is the biggest concern I have against this very interesting film. The narration makes Jones appear as an eccentric egomaniac. But the truth is that one hints there was so much more in his plans. It is just not plausible that he just made up the mass suicide- murder idea on the go. There is something utterly well thought out about how everything happened. This is pure evil at work, not very different to the Jew extermination by the Nazis. There was a plan, and I am sure that in this case there was a very well laid out plan. But the film makes it all appear almost as random as the weather. It is a pity, because the archive footage is varied and excellent. But I can't help but wonder what Errol Morris would have done of this film. Probably a masterpiece, because he would have made what he does best: Portray characters with total precision. Still, an interesting documentary to watch.

cadmandu This film documents the life of Jim Jones, his emergence as a charismatic and successful religious figure, and his eventual downfall.The whole People's Temple story always struck me as just another of the 60's cult phenomena. We had Rajneesh and his farm, and uncountable other guru's who exploited, and continue to exploit, large numbers of gullible followers. The Moonies are still with us, but well below the radar most of the time.What's odd about Jim Jones -- to me, anyway -- is that no one really seems to know who this guy really was. This film gives more insight than anything else I've seen or read. It talks about his childhood, which was extremely poor, and his family situation, which was equally grim, so we get some insight there. But he was a very carefully guarded fellow. Always wearing those shades, always talking in the manner of a preacher. But who was he really? What was he like when he took off the robes and had a beer? We may never know. His followers certainly didn't know, and no doubt that's a major part of the problem. There is one scene in this documentary in which Jones is standing at the back of a group of people at a large gathering, and his demeanor reminded me of the dictator in North Korea -- it was that kind of vague, arrogant, totally in control look. Spooky.The most telling comment in this film was the remark made by one of the PT's former members, who said "No one ever goes and joins a cult. They join a church, or a club." But what is the tipping point at which people can tolerate psychological and physical abuse against themselves and their friends? We don't get an answer to that. The people who made this film didn't have to tell us the answer, but it would have been a better film if they had.