Waco: Madman or Messiah

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 film features the voice of David Koresh "Vernon Wayne Howell" taken from 247 FBI tapes recorded during the siege.

You can still see the site where plaques are showing where you're standing, as the chapel area, the men's dormitory, and the vault.

The presentation is a tad more inclusive or has time to cover more history of David to the point that is more of visual biography. Some scenes are portrayed by actors as there was no way to be there filming. We get the meaning of the name "David Koresh" (and how to pronounce it.)

We now go into sound bite mode with various presenters that give about 10 seconds of information accompanied sometimes by cartoons.

A pretty good consistent and concise presenter is dick J. Reavis, a reporter for the Dallas Observer. Showing that the ATF needed to have a raid so they would look good for funding purposes. So, they designed "Operation Trojan Horse." This is supported by Keith Constantino of the ATF Raid Team.

You can tell how it is going to go when the ATF indiscriminately shot the dogs before even being greeted. Reminds me of The Wicked Witch of The West "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!"

Yep, everything is playing out as predicted. Phil Arnold (Bible Scholar) offers FBI help and we know their response.

Things heat up then we see "Viewer discretion is advised." Naturally, a Branch Davidian was criticized for saving one of the dogs the FBI did not get a chance to shoot in the beginning.

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.

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.

Meandering mess with an aimless narrative that finds you losing interest too easily. There is some insight but it's far too loose to be truly gripping.