{"id":4594,"date":"2006-12-04T22:56:55","date_gmt":"2006-12-05T03:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=4594"},"modified":"2006-12-04T22:56:55","modified_gmt":"2006-12-05T03:56:55","slug":"jonestown-the-life-and-death-of-peoples-temple-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/04\/jonestown-the-life-and-death-of-peoples-temple-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jonestown_film_landing\"<\/a>“I’ve never said suicide, I never will say suicide… Jim Jones killed them.”<\/p>\n

One of the most spine-tingling moments of \u201cJonestown: The Life and Death of the People\u2019s Temple\u201d is a simple minute of passive home video footage. Jim Jones opens a box of supplies and explores it: “Here we have rice\u2026 black-eyed peas\u2026 Kool-aid.” How does one man win over 909 people? How does one man convince them he is the second coming of Christ? How does one man convince almost a thousand people to follow him in committing suicide? Prey on their vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the story of Jonestown, Guyama in 1978 is the story of every other cult and religion out there. A man who looks like he has all the answers convinces the vulnerable, the weak, and the heartbroken he can give them what they want, and they follow him without question. Jim Jones was an insane man with a god complex, and he managed to win over many people in search of a direction, without hesitation, and this led to one of the most horrific crimes to hit society in decades. There just isn\u2019t much left to learn about the tragedy of Jonestown, so director Nelson focuses his film on Jim Jones, and really answers no questions. Which is not surprising seeing as Jim Jones is and continues to be a mysterious person whose intentions were never fully known to his friends and family. Was he a man bilking everyone out of their possessions and money, or was he intent on making sure they followed him whether they liked it or not?<\/p>\n

The only thing we become aware of is that this man had too much power, and too much influence, especially since he\u2019s deemed a basically psychotic persona by folks who claim he\u2019d kill animals and have funerals for them. Essentially we were given all the ingredients for destruction. A man with power who almost believed he was a god, with influence on hundreds of followers who believed in him. Jones was a man who preyed on the innocent and used both the fundamentals of religion and the principles of a cult and broke down his followers as much as he could so he could manipulate them. Nelson chronicles the rise of the people\u2019s temple, the formation of this cult of followers by this basic madman, and the eventual mass suicide that shook the foundations of our culture, yet really contributed nothing to our second guessing our own religions.<\/p>\n

Jones used the bible as a tool to bring followers, and he proclaimed himself a preacher, and tested his follower\u2019s loyalty. He believed himself to be a messiah, and only showed how power and insanity can not go hand in hand. Nelson\u2019s documentary is frightening, grueling, and needed in an age where religious fanaticism of all kind reigns. The ultimate moral of \u201cJonestown\u201d is: beware of false prophets. It\u2019s a moral you\u2019d best heed, and it\u2019s a moral many in the largest mass suicide in history never could, because when you gather the weak and miserable, and rebuild them in your image, they\u2019ll follow you anywhere, even to hell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I’ve never said suicide, I never will say suicide… Jim Jones killed them.” One of the most spine-tingling moments of \u201cJonestown: The Life and Death of the People\u2019s Temple\u201d is a simple minute of passive home video footage. Jim Jones opens a box of supplies and explores it: “Here we have rice\u2026 black-eyed peas\u2026 Kool-aid.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[240,246,292,469,515],"class_list":["post-4594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-crime","tag-cult","tag-documentary","tag-history","tag-j"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}