Waco: Madman or Messiah

The BBC typically produces pretty high quality documentaries. Unlike Discovery/History Channel, they tend to be more informational, better researched and less sensational.

Waco: Madman or Messiah starts off alright, providing well-corroborated background on the Branch Davidians and David Koresh. However, towards the end of part 1, things start going downhill. It starts with cheesy graphics and music to play up the Seven Seals nonsense that Koresh spouted. But what's really unforgiveable is how, in part 2, they turn a well-documented and heavily investigated event into a subjective, he-said/she-said, "pick your own facts" story.

Air time in part 2 is heavily skewed towards the Branch Davidians and their sympathizers who make multiple false claims. They do also interview a negotiator and a member of the tactical team. However, the false claims made by the Branch Davidians are never addressed, even on key facts like whether the ATF went in guns blazing and would have killed all the women and children if the Branch Davidians hadn't "defended themselves" as the Branch Davidians claim or if the Branch Davidians had shot the ATF first, causing them to return fire as they rescued their injured colleagues (several of whom died).

This is a really well studied and heavily litigated incident. So there would have been tons of evidence based on ballistics, the footage from numerous TV crews, police reports and interviews, etc. But instead of actually figuring out what happened, the BBC chose to leave out all the direct evidence, giving each side equal weight in the program.

They don't even mention the fact that the Brand Davidians started the fire (arson investigators found that the fire started simultaneously in three separate parts of the building, and arson detection dogs alerted to the presence of chemical accelerants at each of these locations). Contemporaneous news reports didn't have access to these facts, but decades later the BBC did and simply chose to conceal it to make their documentary more open-ended.

This whitewashing of the Branch Davidians as harmless religious eccentrics who were innocent victims of jackbooted government thugs is extremely dangerous. The documentary makers know full well how dangerous this is given that they showed footage of Timothy McVeigh, the KKK and other far-right anti-government crazies rallying in support of the Branch Davidians during the siege. But they still chose to promulgate the surviving Branch Davidians' false narrative.

Well,ive seen a few docus evolving the waco incident,and ive been quite shocked every time, but this docu were just explosive,very informational,two sided if not even more sided.whats true i shall not tell,but as a documentary it is chillingly well constructed,the use of music enticing,and the way everybody were able to speak for themselves,amazing.do whatch it if you dare,its a thrilling true happening......after all.....

When an apocalyptic cult arms themselves with a huge stockpile of automatic weapons, things are never likely to end well. Nonetheless, the siege of Waco, which ended in a terrible fire resulting in the death of David Koresh and sixt followers, might have turned out better, if not for the gung-ho attitude of the law enforcement agencies. That's the take home message from 'Waco: Madman or Messiah', a documentary which reconstructs the events with the aid of testimony from witnesses and survivors. In places it's repetitive, and it would have benefitted from the participation of more senior members of the authorities to justify their decision making - it feels as if that part of the story is missing. One thing that's amazing is that several of the latter remain faithful to their former leader, even though he seems to have been a monster with no conventionally redeeming qualities, beyond, of course, his claim to be God. The broader message is the tragedy of a highly-armed society: the United States has no monopoly on lunactics, but there is something uniquely American about this story.

The producers went to great lengths to condemn the Davidians, repeating many of the falsehoods and smears that were used to initiate this debacle in the first place but they also try hard to be sympathetic to the children.

Not once did they seem to seem to question the principle concern with this event - The government invented a reason to raid this group of people and then they shot them and burned them alive and for what?

The government deployed a troop of M2 Bradely Armoured Fighting Vehicles, AFV's against a bunch of families, helicopters, snipers, about a battalion sized element of government agents against a bunch of bible bashing families who appeared to have been no danger to anyone.

About the only genuine crime that seems to have been carried out by Koresh was that he may have had improper relations with teenage girls. Why on earth then was he not arrested and tried before a jury of his peers? When did raiding a property, shooting first, bringing in tanks and burning them all alive become a proportional response?

This docuseries is eye-opening to just how cruel our government can be to its own citizens. I was child when the ATF wrongly invaded the home of David Koresh, so I was only aware of one side of the story. This show shares the other side, the side of the Branch Davidians, and reveals why these agencies felt the need to hide their wrong doings.

All of the ATF and FBI agents who fired weapons or used deadly force of any kind should be in jail. And that especially goes for the leadership. Both agencies need their funding completely cut. The events shown in these episodes clearly demonstrates their massive overreach and how these agencies work for their own power and not the American people.

While I don't agree with the beliefs of the Branch Davidians or even those the Christianity, this series provided insight into how this group thought and functioned. The story is very said, but I think it's an important one to tell.