American Experience (2006)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Director Stanley Nelson avoids editorializing and sensationalizing in Jonestown, letting the CIA photos and film speak for themselves, and giving a voice to the surviving victims.
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Critic Reviews for American Experience
All Critics (50) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (3) | DVD (1)
Jonestown is a somber and non-exploitive reconstruction of the events that led the members of the Peoples Temple.
Stanley Nelson revisits the 1978 mass suicide of Jim Jones and his flock in Guyana, savoring the horror but offering no new insights.
Ultimately, the film doesn't entirely answer the massive 'why' at the center of this story -- that answer died on that day in 1978 -- but it's a haunting exploration of an event of unspeakable sadness, which still resonates decades later.
A somber, solid documentary [parading] the whole bleak tale before us again, complete with those disturbing scenes of hundreds of corpses in their tees and shorts and flip-flops strewn about facedown in the mud of Jonestown, Guyana.
The last half hour of Jonestown is almost unwatchable. Video footage of the assault on the congressman's delegation gives way to audio of Jones exhorting people to 'die with a degree of dignity' as children shriek in the background.
Jonestown is not an easy movie to watch. But it's a solid presentation of an important chapter in American and religious history. Haunting is the only word that truly fits.
Audience Reviews for American Experience
The Jonestown Massacre was one of the most shocking moments of the late 1970's. Over 900 Cult members committed suicide by drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. This documentary chronicles the history leading up to that event and features interviews with members of the People Temple Church. This was a chilling film that exposed the church for what it was, and it also reveals the story that was hidden from the public eye. Well shot, disturbing, and engaging from the first frame onwards, this is a standout documentary about one of the most shocking tragedies of the 20th century. Here being interviewed are people who left the Church and journalists who have written on the church and the subsequent massacre in 1978. This is a truly unique documentary as there has never been a cult quite like this before or since. This is a hard film to watch due to its subject, but to those interested in the topic, this is a must watch. The film has some riveting footage from the day of the massacre, and eye witness accounts of what happened. Captivating and unforgettable, the film is one of the finest documentaries I've seen. Jim Jones was a mad man, and how he ordered 900+ people to kill themselves is absolutely sickening. The last half of the documentary is truly hard to watch, as the former members of the Peoples Temple describe what happened on November 18, 1978. That was a senseless act ordered by a lunatic, there was nothing to gain with the act, and many people lost their lives for nothing. This is an eye opening, disturbing and powerful documentary that is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Super Reviewer
An interesting look at a horrifying piece of history and at just how crazy religious fanatics (and their followers) can be.
Super Reviewer
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