In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco

If you want to know the truth about what really happened in Waco, TX between February 28th, 1993 and April 19th, 1993, this IS NOT the film to see. The writers claimed at the movie's beginning that this film was a result of "extensive research" concerning what happened, yet there is hardly any truth in nearly every scene in this film. It not only is a villification of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians but also a portrayal of the AFT as "brave heroes" who risked their lives so as to protect society from these dangerous lunatics. It fails to mention the point that the only reason that the AFT made the raid in the first place was because they had budget hearings pending and they needed a good publicity coup for those hearings.

The only error this film makes concerning the February 28th raid that is worth mentioning here is the fact that it omits the role of the helicopters in the raid. Anyone who has studied the facts of the raid knows that it was the helicopters who fired the first shots when they straffed the building. It was also one of the helicopters that, when making a straffing pass over the building, fired the shots the killed Peter Gent as he was climbing from out of the water tower. In this film, the Davidians (including some late-middle aged women) are shown to ambush the AFT as they approached the front door. It was too bad that millions of people formed their opinion concerning Koresh, his followers and the entire Waco incident from this piece of trash.

If someone really wants to know the truth of both Koresh and his followers and the entire incident from beginning to end, the best references are the books "The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation" by Dick J. Reavis and "A Place Called Waco" by David Thibodeau. Also, the video "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" is a excellent piece of documentary film making.

There is no denying that Tim Daly's performance is stunning. But, it would seem that he was the only person working on this cartoonish debacle who did any research.

Now, what we have here is a question of motive. Why did they make this film without any access to the facts? (After all, the film was in post production before the siege was over) Were they making art? No. Were they documenting the truth? No. They didn't know what the truth was at that time. Were they trying the save the ATF from budget cutting and possible disbandment? I'll put my vote on yes.

This is a dangerous piece of propaganda, which holds murderers up as heroes, and displays people who are defending themselves as psychos.

Oh, and where was the scene where the FBI agents opened fire on the women and children who were hiding in the kitchen area to protect themselves from the CS gas? In fact, where was the CS gas?

This slip-shod piece of government propaganda was rushed to production before the final fire killed over 75 men, women and children. Although the disclaimer at the beginning of the film claims it was thoroughly researched, the stereotypes in which the characters were portrayed were comical, if not tragic misrepresentations. Filled with downright lies, the writer of this garbage later apologized to the surviving members and the families of those lost for his role in perpetuating the horrible myths surrounding David Koresh and his followers. (See David Thibodeau's _A Place Called Waco_, page 207 and writer Phil Penningroth's own "Righting Waco: Confessions of a Hollywood Propagandist" available at http://www.killingthebuddha.com/dogma/righting_waco.htm) This piece does play a role in the history of the standoff, as a clear example of the dead wrong information surrounding the standoff and raid. Therefore, take it with a grain of salt.

This is quite a good movie, even though I remember it being started while the siege was still underway. The tension ratchets up throughout as we see Tim Daly do an excellent job as David Koresh ruling over his acolytes, alternately bullying and charismatic. He gives a convincing portrayal of a "sinful messiah" which certainly raised concerns in the straight-laced Baptist community of Waco, Texas. This is what initially attracted the attentions of various law enforcement agencies.

The interest of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is piqued, but never fully explained, as it is to this day. Both sides are then set on a course that ultimately leads to violence, leading up to the climactic attack of the Branch Davidian compound, which caps and concludes the movie. The siege and its fiery conclusion are not seen.

The movie doesn't portray Koresh as a frothing at the mouth religious fanatic but as a true believer in what he says. Thus, the viewer is left with the ambiguous feeling that he may not have deserved his fate. The ATF agents are never fleshed out and we don't feel any real sympathy for their deaths. We end up not totally understanding why this tragedy occurred, which is exactly how we felt then, as now.

Several up and comers appear in this film, including Neil McDonough (Band of Brothers and Medical Investigations) and NYPD Blue's Gordon Clapp. Lewis Smith is wasted as one of the slain ATF agents.

Historical accuracy: 8

Acting: 6 Dialogue: 7 Camera work: 7 Editing: 7 Budget: 7 Story: 6 Theme: 6 Pure entertainment factor: 7 Video quality: 5 Special effects: 7 Pacing: 7 Suspension of disbelief: 7 Non-cringe factor: 7 Lack of flashbacks: 10

My second In the Line of Duty movie. First one was great. This is a step down as expected, but I actually still enjoyed it so I will for sure watch them all. It is TV movie quality. You see this in the acting, the camera work, the editing. But it also creates a unique cozy feeling of the 90's. A bit more simplified movie making.

The tension remains high and they really double down on the evilness of the cult leader who had kids with underage girls and slept with the wives of his followers. Also here seen as forbidding anyone else to have sex altogether. Which of course makes you question how a man this mad and insane could be charismatic enough long enough to gain followers ready to off themselves for him. So maybe the movie goes a tad overboard with his depiction, but this is not a good guy. Imagine a person convincing his friends, both moms and dads, to let him impregnate their underage daughter. His depiction here going over the history and what he did is great.

We follow them as they collect weapons to prepare for the end. Fighting the evil outsiders somehow. FBI prepares to take the kids away and storm the complex and the Waco people return fire. I do think the Waco TV show is better. Higher budget, amazing acting, and some more developed tension. This movie basically shows us clips of what happened without explaining much. The movie for sure has 5 times as much info about the cult itself. Waco took the side of the cult leader. He was seen as unwilling to have sex, the underage stuff was ignored, basically nearly most negative stuff about the cult was hidden away and we saw FBI storm the compound as the evil guys just interested in media exposure. This movie on the other hand skips everything outside the compound to a degree where it feels simplified. And it ends with FBI storming the compound with bullets flying everywhere. That's like half the way into the full story. We still have the negotiation and fire. The fire is the big event here. We know the cult members set it, but the gas FBI shot into the building caused it to be a greater disaster killing most people inside. Even the kids that the cult on purpose locked inside a room they couldn't escape from. The ending really lets it down as it has none. The FBI storming the compound is also quite nonsense here and mostly fiction. But we kinda understand what happened in real life. Just overlook 90% of the bullets.

I recommend the TV show, but it's so extremely pro cult that it feels bad to recommend it alone. I could recommend this movie to people needing more info on the cult itself, but you can also watch a documentary for that. It's ... mediocre. You will not be bored and the one romance is great here, but with the low budget and too fast pace it feels like it doesn't quite tie it all together.