I sometimes find myself wondering if other IMDB reviewers watch the same show I watched when reviewing, and this one is no exception.
If this show is supposed to be Federal Government propaganda, then its makers did a terrible job, because they failed miserably. I don't know how you could watch this and think the ATF and FBI were anything other than chaotic, incompetent and gung-ho. For a start, going ahead with a raid to look for military-style assault weapons, in broad daylight no less, when you already know that you've lost the element of surprise? You don't even have to have a third grade education to know why that's a bad idea. The constant disconnect between the negotiators and the HRT leading to mixed signals. Arresting the Davidians who did come out. And they expected them to just
The documentary makers also did absolutely the right thing in interviewing the Davidians who survived. You can get annoyed all you like about giving these zealots a platform, but I would ask what's more effective? Asking the audience to trust you when you tell them that the Davidians were so completely brainwashed that they allowed 13 year old girls to have sex with a man in his 30s because that man told them he was the second coming of Christ, and that they believed that 13 is when a girl comes of age? Or letting Kathy Schroeder - one of David Koresh's acolytes - say both of those things exactly, in her own twisted words?
There's a reason the Waco siege is a case study in how not to handle a crisis, and using a combination of interviews of people with different viewpoints on both sides of the conflict, very crisp and realistic computer graphics, and some pretty intense footage, this documentary explains exactly why.
If this show is supposed to be Federal Government propaganda, then its makers did a terrible job, because they failed miserably. I don't know how you could watch this and think the ATF and FBI were anything other than chaotic, incompetent and gung-ho. For a start, going ahead with a raid to look for military-style assault weapons, in broad daylight no less, when you already know that you've lost the element of surprise? You don't even have to have a third grade education to know why that's a bad idea. The constant disconnect between the negotiators and the HRT leading to mixed signals. Arresting the Davidians who did come out. And they expected them to just
The documentary makers also did absolutely the right thing in interviewing the Davidians who survived. You can get annoyed all you like about giving these zealots a platform, but I would ask what's more effective? Asking the audience to trust you when you tell them that the Davidians were so completely brainwashed that they allowed 13 year old girls to have sex with a man in his 30s because that man told them he was the second coming of Christ, and that they believed that 13 is when a girl comes of age? Or letting Kathy Schroeder - one of David Koresh's acolytes - say both of those things exactly, in her own twisted words?
There's a reason the Waco siege is a case study in how not to handle a crisis, and using a combination of interviews of people with different viewpoints on both sides of the conflict, very crisp and realistic computer graphics, and some pretty intense footage, this documentary explains exactly why.