Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones
by William A. Graham
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DVD details
Actor: Powers Boothe; Ned Beatty; Irene Cara; Veronica Cartwright; Rosalind Cash; Randy Quaid; Levar Burton; James Earl Jones; Diane Ladd; Meg FosterDirector: William A. Graham
DVD: Region Code 0
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 189 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-22
Studio: Reel Enterprises
DVD Reviews of Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones
DVD Review: Movie-5, Quality-0
Summary: 3 Stars
The Film: What we have here is a star-studded, made-for-tv docudrama centered around the life & death of Jim Jones and his People's Temple. Powers Boothe, while he doesn't necessarily look or sound like the real deal, captures the darkness of Jim Jones' persona. The film begins in Jonestown with a mock "loyalty test" after which Jones, tormented, takes a trip down memory lane. We see his childhood, during which he frequented church services, conducted pet funeral services with childhood friends, witnessed the abusive nature of his parents' relationship(his murder and torture of small animals was left untouched). We witness his becoming a pastor, the first pastor to conduct integrated services in Indianapolis,IN,his marriage, and ultimately, after the success of the People's Temple as a congregation and humanitarian effort, we see his moral and mental decline:drug usage, bisexual affairs, pro-claiming himself divine, physical/verbal abuse of members, all culminating in Jonestown,Guyana with the murder/suicide of nearly 1,000 People's Temple members, Congressman Leo J. Ryan and others. As with many other docudramas, there are a few changes of identity & fact to protect the innocent(and to captivate the audience via dramitization. As a film, Guyana Tragedy is a masterpiece...as gripping as it is chilling. As a film I give it 5 stars.
DVD Quality: Having waited nearly 2 decades for this movie to make it to dvd, I placed my order immediately upon learning that the film had finally come out in dvd format. However, upon it's arrival in the mail, and having just watched it from start to finish...what one can expect from the quality of this product is what happens when major distributors decline the marketing of movies such as Guyana Tragedy, when the VHS tapes are old enough to decay, and when an indpendent ompany picks up a film and makes a last minute, amateur,desperation effort to transfer the movie from VHS to dvd. There are no menus, no special features/extras, no interviews...just a poor transfer from VHS to dvd, and you can tell because the film skips, is obviously NOT remastered(cloudy, grainy, discolored, the sound tends to rise and fall when it's not skipping out,etc), particularly toward the end of disc 1 & 2(at one point the movie scrambles a bit, blacks out, and repeats a scene during the climax). Awesome portrayal of one of the most tragic mass suicides in history...poor dvd. So while I give the movie a 5...the quality gets a 0.
Therefore, the best I can give this product is a 3...the other 2 stars will be added when they remaster/re-release the film. In the meantime, may the Lord bless & keep the families/survivors forver impacted by the tragedy.
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