Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple
SBS Documentary
Cults are fascinating things aren't they? I cant help but think they're not all bad, I mean those people were all so happy living in their self sustainable, multi-racial farm of a home... at least until they were all poisoned....
I'm sure you've all heard about this before; in 1978 (on my birthday) 909 members of the
Peoples Temple, including over 200 children, drank cyanide and died in what is the largest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of
September 11, 2001.
I'm still not exactly sure why they did it, except perhaps due to their blind faith in crazy leader
Jim Jones. The few days beforehand congressman
Leo Ryan had been visiting after receiving letters from concerned family members about the goings on in Jonestown, Guyana. While there, his reporters were secretly handed notes from Temple members begging them to take them away from Jonestown. The letters were immediately passed onto the Congressman and in my opinion, this is what started the whole disastrous chain of events.
Its devastating really and I don't understand it. I guess that's what makes it so fascinating to me.
I've tossed up on the rating for a few days now and come to the conclusion that its a documentary and if it informs while entertaining then I don't see why it cant have a full score... so
5 out of 5 angry dictators...
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