Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

An absolute waste of money

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This could have been a great exercise in understanding the human condition and the nature of religious cults but instead we get a half-hearted, breezy little film with clumsy editing and shallow, childish themes. It completely fails to intelligently assess what happened.The romanticized ending where the ex-members go on in tears about how they tried to create paradise on earth and that even though it failed, at least they made the effort was just too much. Free from the cult, these people continue to be idiotic, pathetically vulnerable human beings without a shred of dignity or intelligence - completely content with playing "victim". Sure were brainwashed and abused but it's been years since the incident and these grown men and women are still unable to assume partial responsibility for the mass killings of innocent kids and random politicians. Jim Jones is just one man. Ultimately it's the blind followers and sad, silly, co-dependent escapists easily lured by unrealistic promises who enable psychopaths like Jim Jones to thrive. This film deserves to be burned for ending on such a ridiculous, offensive note.

The Jonestown Massacre is an event so horrible and unique that it's hard to fathom that it did in fact happen; such is the unbelievable nature of its waste of human life. In this made for television documentary commissioned by PBS, we get an insight into the events leading up to and also during the mass suicide that killed over 900 followers of demented church leader Jim Jones.Director Stanley Nelson has done a fine job gathering together a range of talking heads who experienced the workings of Jones first hand and his also unearthed some quite startling archival footage and voice recordings to give us an eerily insightful look at what took place in the People's Temple and what exactly Jones preached on the day the Cool Aid supplies were used for the most sinister reasons possible. These uses of real life footage and voice recordings create the documentary's most powerful moments and a culmination of extreme evil at the end becomes jaw droopingly hard to sit through as men, women and children (some babies) were told they needed to end their life all for the sake of the greater good. While these elements combine to create a morbidly fascinating look into the People's Temple the film lacks an overall sense of achievement in its telling of Jones and his motivations.You get the feeling that the quintessential look into this group and its manipulative leader is still to be told, as here Nelson fail's to properly pinpoint just what drew Jones to not only start the group, but end the group and the film remains frustratingly distant in many avenues when it comes to the focus of who Jones was and what he wanted. The world may never truly understand just what drove this evil man and what also drew so many to feel like they were powerless to stop the man or simply say no to him but surely there is more insight to be found for the groundwork of such an evil human.While not entertainment in any stretch of the imagination, Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple is an intriguing look into an event that occurred not that long ago and remains to this day one of the most horrific acts of violence ever seen and an example of blind faith leading to destruction.3 loudspeaker announcements out of 5For more movie reviews and opinions check into - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com

The greatest documentaries will keep you fascinated throughout, regardless of whether you know the outcome or not. The focus of Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple is the mysterious and disturbing mass-suicide of 909 people in the jungles of Guyana, in a new settlement they dubbed 'Jonestown' after their fanatical leader Jim Jones. This was a well publicised event, but has only really been tagged as a simple 'cult ritual', with all the finer details frustratingly spared. Jonestown delves deeper into this still-shocking event, and exposes not a small army of brainwashed fanatics, but a community terrified by a maniacal control-freak with a God complex.Jim Jones was a lonely child in a household dominated by an unloving, alcoholic father. He sought refuge in the church where he found a family he belonged to, and eventually became a preacher. While preaching for civil rights and racial equality, he began to amass a large following, and soon his small community was too large for Indiana, and they all relocated to California where they became known as the Peoples Temple. Followers had there medical bills, travel expenses, clothes and near everything else paid for them, as to be a member you were expected to work and earn your place. Soon though, members began defecting, and Jones and Peoples Temple fled to Guyana after a magazine article was due to be published, exposing sexual abuse, physical humiliation and staged healings at the hands of Jones.Sadly, this documentary leaves many questions unanswered, namely surrounding Jones himself, who remains a - strangely uncharismatic - mystery. Yet through interviews with survivors and Jones's adopted son, we learn that political power gained through the growth of Peoples Temple and his abuse of drugs and alcohol, soon led to his psychological demise. His preachings of racial equality helped him earn the backing of elderly black women, and soon enough liberal white youngsters, and his old-world gospel style quickly earned him the adoration of these social outcasts. But we hear him preach about how there is no heaven above, and if these people want him to be their God, then he will play that role. This would be blasphemy in most people's eyes, yet these people on the crust of society were just looking for some kind of stability and sense of belonging.Of the actual massacre itself, there is a surprisingly large amount of video and audio recordings. The camp has an atmosphere of hushed fear, that everyone is thinking the same thing but no-one dare say it. Jones's voice blasted out his gibberish, alcohol-fuelled rants almost non-stop while the followers did their jobs. The murder of Congressman Leo Ryan sets in motion a terrifying sequence of events, all caught mainly on audio, as Jones tells his members that it's time to die. His voice urging the children to "hurry, hurry," is particularly chilling. It's still difficult to believe how this happened. A man who could have had all the power he craved, both politically and financially, but seemed to be driven more by the need to control and dominate his loyal followers. Like I said before, Jim Jones still remains a mystery, but the movie does shed some light on the man, and paints a clearer picture of what happened that day on November 18th, 1978.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

I have heard about the cult "Peoples Temple" before, but I knew little about it. Through large amount of rare footages and in depth interviews of the Peoples Temple survivors and family members of the members of Peoples Temple, the documentary takes a deep look into this cult and tries to find out why 909 people committed "mass murder/suicide" on November 18, 1978 in Jonestown, Guyana.This film is what a great documentary looks like. It goes beyond the headline and dig deep into the story. I begin to understand whom Jim Jones was. I begin to understand why so many people crossed the racial and social boundaries to come together and even devoted their lives to this cult leader and their "church." Many of the cult followers were struggling with the social injustice and racial discrimination in the 60s and 70s. Jim Jones offered them equality and sense of belonging that the society didn't offer. So Peoples Temple becomes their utopia where they could be so happy and united. Only the sad part is that later some of them realize they were betrayed and they had no way out.This is definitely a great documentary I have seen this year and I surely hope it will get an Oscar nomination.