Guyana: Crime of the Century

Rene Cardona Jnr's attempt to cash-in on the contemporary Jim Jones cult that resulted in the mass suicide of almost a thousand followers. Stuart Whitman plays the megalomaniacal cult leader, deviant, zealot and polygamist who leads his flock into self-inflicted hardship becoming isolated then paranoid to the point of total delusion and eventual self-destruction.

Frequent Whitman collaborator Bradford Dillman plays Jones' doctor-in-residence who administers the fatal dose, Gene Barry is the doomed American senator trying to investigate the secretive community, and a host of former Hollywood heavyweights (Cotten, DeCarlo, Ireland) and welterweights (Young, Chanel, Noriega, Lucero) fill out the expansive acting ranks. Good to see Cardona's preferred local talent Hugo Stiglitz on board along with beauties Jennifer Ashley and Erika Carlsson playing Jones' long-suffering wife (the trio reunited from "Tintorera"). Whilst not to trivialise the subject, you know you're watching an exploitation movie when those guys are prominent.

Fatally overlong, the long-awaited climax is agonising to watch and not necessarily worth the wait although knowing the conclusion doesn't help the pacing, nor is there much attempt at suspense.

Although there's an apparent ambition to present a serious docu-drama, it's firmly exploitation fodder made for a particular audience. If you want to see the more deferential treatment, then the "Guyana Tragedy" (1980) is probably your go-to picture. Whilst sordid and overlong, I'm faithful to the Rene Cardona factory and appreciate his trademark excess, so it's a thumbs up from my perspective.

In 1978, A Mexican film crew (Mismovision) struck a deal with Mexico City Broadcasting (MCB): In the years that followed, they could use their characters in any way they saw fit. MCB producer Memo Vasqueze, who was responsible for bringing many great cult leader shows to TV throughout the 70s, decided to do a Jim Jones series, and wanted the story to remain as faithful to the Marvel comic as possible, but MCB's sponsor Bambino Machino wanted to sell more toys, so there was a major story rewrite, and they had to push a giant robot into the story! MCB's producers thought Bambino Machino was crazy! Nonetheless, this was to be the first time in a cult leader series in which a cult leader figure (as opposed to a regular pilot, such as in the Japanese METZENGINGER Z) operated a giant robot!

The MCB/Bambino Machino project entitled GUYANA: Crimen del siglo a Mexinization of Jim Jones himself (the project was going to be called GUYANA: Robusteza del Mal), but Bambino Machino got more control than Vasqueze, for whom this show was the last straw. When he left evil cult shows (and worked on soap operas at MCB), it was completely Bambino Machino's show from there on. The next Cult Hero Series, Siempre listo en las tinieblas (1980) and ¡Así es mi tierra! (1981) had MCB in the opening credits! Go figure!

Here we have Bambino Machino's GUYANA: Crimen del siglo, which, despite its shortcomings, should supposedly be a treat for fans of that type of thing! I will say that it was better than the short-lived American series starring Powers Booth (which wasn't TOO bad). Before the excellent new GUYANA film starring Stewart Whitman, this is definitely the least historically faithful GUYANA ever portrayed on film! The attitude was right, the poses and stunts were incredible! But the faithfulness ends with portrayal of Cult Leader Jimmy (Jim-Jam) Jones himself. . .

The STORY is what bugs me! The Mexinization is much more extreme than the aforementioned Marvel Comic from the same year, and here, Jim-Jam's regular foes are nowhere to be seen. Also, his origins have been changed completely! He's from outer space, he has a racing car (Messiah-Machine GP-12000) and rides a giant ship called the Marveller (hmmmm . . . Where DID they get that name . . . ), which transforms into the giant robot Assuptionizer! OK, now this is TOTALLY out of place for IL' Captain Koolaid, even more absurd than any of Ralph Bakshi's "drug-trip" Hobbit adventures (from the last two seasons of the classic animated series)! But that's not all! Bambino Machino ran out of money to do the FX prior to the post-production, and Assuptionizer was replaced by a goofy-looking bozo-clown named Senior Bungles, as it was rumored that some nasty fanatic stole the robot costume! So its appearance was limited to stock footage of the robot, with new footage of Senior Bungles' balloon animal antics spliced in!

But now, let'slook at a few the show's minuses: As, moreover, we are forced to endure more Guyana Cult Tragedy action! In fact, the show is VERY violent! incorporating in certain instances real footage of human brain surgery!

I'll be as brief on the plot as I can: In space, Professor Jehovah, leader of the Angelican Army (his cronies include right hand woman Oblate Sisters of the Assumption, a similar two Caucasian women, and dove-like henchmen) are in pursuit of the space craft Marveller, which comes to Earth and crashes on a mountain in Guyana, freeing an old hermit named Padre Sebastián, who was from the planet Spider (which the big Prof. plundered and destroyed long ago). After a race show, motorcycle stuntman Bert Powers (Ricardo Carrión) (who lives with his sister and little brother, and has a fashion model girlfriend, who's unaware that her boss is actually an Oblate Sisters of the Assumption in disguise! Wow, and you thought the Branch Davidians of the infamous Waco Massacre were out there!) is fatally wounded by Oblate Sisters of the Assumption and the dove-henchmen, who attempt to remove his brain but are thwarted by Padre Sebastián, the old hermit, who injects "grape koolaid" into Bert's jugular artery before turning back into a starfish!

He also receives a metallic bracelet, which stores his cult leader suit (PLUS!!!), shoots holy fire, and is also a communicator for the Messiah-Machine GP-12000 and Marveller, which he can ride and transform into Assuptionizer, which kills 917 "true believers", as we all know, on that ill-fated day (it hurls its punch bowls at it's prey, as opposed to to merely lacing it with stychnide and leaving it there by the wayside for the followers to imbibe at their leisure)!

**SPOILERS** I will say that, ultimately, though incredibly rushed (especially after its slow first half), has its fair share of sick sick scenes, in particular, those depicting the heaps of stagnant dead bodies rotting in the sun, and accompanied by the buzzing of flies on the soundtrack!

Anyhow, after the Assuptionizer kills the congregation off, Jim Jones comes face to face with Professor Jehovah, who, after a little scuffle with our cult leader, grows to giant size, pounds his chest like King Kong, and exerts "The Angelican Army is immortal!!!" Jim Jones does the usual Marveller/Assuptionizer thing and kills the evil Professor the same way he killed everyone else, but this time, with a bit of fire & brimstone thrown in between for dramatic effect (supposedly taken from real life transcripts of real-life sermons but echoing here via the employment of some audio trickery and thus difficult to understand)

My final take: Bambino Machino's GUYANA: Century of the Crime a fun roller-coaster ride with tons of unnecessary (but not unwelcome) sermonizing, and a must-see for Jesus freaks. I say, don't let the minuses get to you, and just sit back and enjoy the plusses!

Not Recommended.

Stuart Whitman got the part of Reverend James Johnson/Jim Jones the first choice for this type of film Richard Burton who in 1978-79 was regularly doing tax haven made films may have been offered the role of the reverend or maybe one of the US Justice officials looking to bring the reverend to justice but most likely turned it down or the producer couldn't afford him (Richard Burton was along with Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Michael Caine in the late 1970s were the big 4 bankable British actors who would sell cinema tickets all over the world so producers around the world would be sending scripts to their managers/agents for them to look at) this was a Tax Haven funded project shot in the US, Mexico and the West Indies financed in Spain with American stars doing this film to pay off their tax bills.

This is a review of the 115 minute directors cut not the 90 minute American cut.

This is a (supposedly) accurate version of the Jonestown tragedy of 1978 where Jim Jones got his followers all to drink Kool Aid spiked with cyanide and commit a mass suicide. This movie changed the names--JIm Jones is now Jim Johnson--who starts his own congregation in the US. He is deeply distrustful of the US and the CIA in particular and moves everybody to Guyana to start a utopian paradise. Unfortunately he treats his followers like slaves and subjects them to mental and physical torture and prevents them from leaving. The US government hears of this and goes to investigate. It all ends tragically.

Despite its reputation for being graphic and gory this film is really tame. How this got an R rating is beyond me--it's PG-13 all the way. No blood, gore or nudity. That doesn't make it a great movie though. Stuart Whitman plays Johnson and he's pretty good. They also got some respected actors--Gene Barry, John Ireland, Joseph Cotten, Yvonne De Carlo, Bradford Dillman--in major roles and they're all pretty good. It's kind of slow and the DVD transfer is crappy with bad sound and faded color. Still it is respectful and scary story of a tragedy that should never have happened.

I keep getting this movie confused with "Guyana Tragedy", the TV movie based on the Jim Jones incident. But this is a fantastic film, truly bone-chilling and bizarre! I just saw it on TV (on FOX, of all places!) and could not believe how well-made it was. Having heard mostly negative reviews of the film, I am glad to say that they were all wrong. For the most part, "Cult of the Damned" is a lot more accurate than the TV movie and being a theatrical feature, can actually show more of the massacre than a TV movie's restricted budget and audience. Try to find this on TV sometime or even better, search for it on video! It's long out of print, but well worth the time to look around!