Watch Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones For Free

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

I love this movie so much

To me, this movie is perfection.

So much average

RELEASED TO TV IN 1980 and directed by William A. Graham, "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones " chronicles the life of Jim Jones (Powers Boothe) from his childhood in racist rural Indiana to the launching of his church, The Peoples Temple in Indianapolis, to their move to northern California and, eventually, The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known as "Jonestown" in northwestern Guyana. The last act, of course, involves the cult's infamous mass suicide and murders, which left 918 people dead. The movie (a two-part "mini-series") shows that Jones started out with good intentions, but his obsession with the "social gospel" and its inherent socialism (i.e. communism with a smile), as well as his deviation from sound Scriptural hermeneutics, his many adulteries and his increasing drug problem destroyed him and any positive impact his ministry had in the early years. While the movie starts out with some contrived scenes (the black boy in the barber shop), it soon picks up steam and becomes gripping to the dismal, shocking climax. Remember: THIS REALLY HAPPENED. The picture scores high marks on the female front with Meg Foster and her mind-blowing eyes, curvy blonde Linda Haynes and winsome cutie Diana Scarwid. Veronica Cartwright is also on hand as Jones' wife. ADDITIONAL CAST: Randy Quaid plays Jones' accountant, Brad Dourif his drug supplier ("physician"), Michael C. Gwynne his bodyguard, Colleen Dewhurst his spiritual mentor grandmother and LeVar Burton an increasingly suspicious disciple. James Earl Jones has a glorified cameo as Father Divine. There are numerous others. THE FILM RUNS 3 hours and 12 minutes and was shot in Atlanta, Georgia, and Dorado & San Juan, Puerto Rico. WRITERS: Ernest Tidyman wrote the script based on Charles A. Krause's eyewitness account of the events; he was a reporter who was traveling with Congressman Leo Ryan (Ned Beatty), who visits Jonestown in the last act. GRADE: B+/A-

Made just a couple of years after the mass suicide-murder at Jonestown Guyana in 1978, "Guyana Tragedy" does a fairly good job of depicting the complicated rise and fall of Jim Jones and The People's Temple.Powers Booth is mesmerizing as he portrays Jones from his younger days as a sincere preacher and civil rights leader until his descent into fraud, adultery,and drug abuse.Veronica Cartwright is fine as Jones' wife Marceline although there is little explanation as to why she stayed married to man like Jim Jones.In the end, she is shown dispensing poison to other residents of Jonestown.One problem that I have with the film is the fairly graphic depiction of the mass-suicide."Guyana Tragedy" would have been better without it.

As the true story of cult leader Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, "Guyana Tragedy" is one of the most powerful movies ever made. The script is structured around Jones. The film begins and ends in Jonestown, with frequent and sometimes lengthy flashbacks to previous periods in his life.As a kid in Indiana he preaches to fellow kids; then as an idealistic and charismatic young preacher in California, he works hard to build a church, and seems sincerely interested in helping the needy and the downtrodden. Yet, despite his efforts, he feels persecuted by enemies, resulting in his action to lead his followers out of the U.S. to "paradise" in the jungles of Guyana, wherein he morphs into a delusional, controlling madman.With no sensationalism of any kind, the final thirty minutes, set in Jonestown in 1978, are as riveting and potent as any I have ever watched.Powers Boothe gives a mesmerizing performance in the title role, helped along by strong support performances from Ned Beatty, Veronica Cartwright, Randy Quaid, and Diana Scarwid. The cast is large and there's not a weak performance to be found.Sets and costumes are detailed and realistic for multiple time periods. As one would expect, the film has lots of gospel songs; otherwise, background music is largely absent, enhancing realism. If I had to make one criticism it would be the color cinematography. Images sometimes seem a bit blurry and less sharp than they could have been.The runtime is lengthy but the entire story is gripping. What makes it so powerful is that it is true. And that ending is explosive.

I remember well the newscasts that weekend, showing the man leap out from behind the truck. This clip would be shown over and over and over again. What was I watching? We would hear about the congressman, interviews with cameramen and reporters. One media fellow said his arm was hit, and he fell and the blood ran to his head, so they thought he had been shot in the head. What was I watching?Then the mass suicide was discovered. What was going on?All from cyanide poisoning. Jones and his secretary were found shot. Who shot them?It would take the movie for me to understand what had occurred. I have not seen this thing in a while, but because I remember the suicides (for some reason this is the only way I look at that moment in November 1978) from back then, I have remembered everything about this movie rather well.Standouts for me? It was a woman's show; Carol Lynley, Dianne Ladd, Meg Foster, Veronica Cartwright, Madge Sinclair (she fought back, but was stuck with a needle and then stopped resisting), the breaking down of Irene Cara, and I did like Randy Quaid as well.I often wondered if Meg Foster and Quaid were based on real people and if they could have possibly survived.The movie doesn't point out there was at least two survivors; I think it was a young girl who had her throat slit survived and a woman was found in the hospital ward. The movie also doesn't point out who may have shot Jones (I always believed it was LeVar Burton!). Since then I have seen things such as History Channel programs showing Jim Jones on that fateful final day, and the audio recording of the suicides is even played, which apparently was recreated for the movie.In the late eighties I would cross paths with a young man who lost his mother to the Guyana tragedy.Even 20/20 has shown a program of Jones two sons, one an actual son from his marriage to the woman portrayed by Veronica Cartwright (by chance he was out of the country, perhaps in America, when this took place, but he wasn't there) and the other, an adopted Black boy.When they visited the site of the camp, now a desserted field and found only a piece of a bench was all that was left, the birth son became very upset. He would spend the night out in the woods where they stayed. It's impossible to judge anyone who followed Jones and made this story true, because there but for the grace of God go I.