Guyana : La Secte de l'enfer

Based upon the true story of Jim Jones , as it traces the steps of this peculiar Reverend , a highly charismatic, but profoundly paranoid clergyman , a self-proclaimed prophet of an independent church in the South American country Guyana . In the 1960s , he began as an idealist helping minorities and working against racism . After years of evangelism and good deeds , begins his own church in the mid-western United States . Later on , he increased his power and attention , and Jim Jones became focused on his belief in nuclear holocaust . When Jim Jones (Stuart Whitman) becomes increasingly obsessed with the belief that the CIA is "a wicked enemy" who is out to get him, he emigrates with his congregation to Guyana , where he plans to create an utopia . He had a loyal following of about 1000 people, who had donated their entire life savings to him to join his commune . Being accompanied by a team of advocates (Joseph Cotten , John Ireland) and fanatic supporters (Yvonne De Carlo , Bradford Dillman , Jennifer Ashley , Robert DoQui) . But Jim Jones' utopia consists of a society where he demands his followers turn their minds , bodies and possessions over to him one that is rife with torture of children , sexual relations between kiddies and adults , and other awful happenings . When possible illegal activities came to the attention of the authorities , Congressmen (Gene Barry) and reporters (Juan Luis Galiardo , Armando Calvo ,Hugo Stiglitz , Carlos East) , they started to investigate . Rather that faces the charges , Jim Jones committed suicide , and convinced virtually all of his followers to do the same . But not all of them follow him blindly and begin to think on their own.

This film titled Guyana: Crime of the Century" or "Guyana: Cult of the Damned" results to be a below average version about the real story of the Peoples Temple cult led by Rev. Jim Jones and the events involving its move to Guyana and its eventual mass suicide . It is a lack luster drama that explores the nasty activities carried out by Jim Jones , relying heavily on sensationalistic aspects , eerie images full of nudism and exploitation such as physical violence, orgies , mental torture , sexual abuse of children and many other things . Ultimately , Jim Jones' paranoia reaches a fevered pitch that culminates in him taking savage action against his own congregation . The dialogue used in the mass suicide/murder scene near the end of the film was taken almost word-for-word from an audio-cassette found in a portable tape recorder under Jim Jones' chair ; the tape recorder had weak batteries and was running at a much slower than normal speed, allowing the entire event to be recorded . The flick features many strong scenes , among them the preaching masses of Jones , a gloomy spectacle to watch when Jim Jones/Stuart Whitman is quite commanding in those last moments when the astonishing slaughter happens . Nice acting by Stuart Whitman as the priest who orders his followers to commit suicide , he gives an acceptable acting and captures the sinister evil that was Jim Jones . Support cast is pretty well , plenty of old Hollywood familiar faces such as Gene Barry , John Ireland , Joseph Cotten , Bradford Dillman , Yvonne De Carlo and Spanish actors such as Juan Luis Galiardo , Eduardo Bea , Armando Calvo , Nadiuska , among others .

This horrific retelling of the Guyana tragedy was regularly directed by Rene Cardona Jr . He was a Mexican director and writer, expert on all kinds of genres with a penchant for Terror , adventure and exploitation ; being especially known for The Treasure of the Amazon (1985) , The Bermudas Triangle (1978) , ¡Tintorera! (1977) , Cycone , Fantastic Balloon Voyage , Under Siege , The Night of a Thousand Cats , Survivors of Andes , Beaks , Carlos the terrorist and this : Guayana, El Crimen del Siglo (1979) . It was followed by another American rendition titled ¨Guyana Tragedy : The Story of Jim Jones¨ (TV , 1980) by William A Graham with Powers Boothe as Rev. Jim Jones , Ned Beatty, Diane Ladd , Diane Scarwid , Ron O'Neal , Irene Cara , Veronica Cartwright , Rosalind Cash , Brad Dourif and Meg Foster .

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.

Universal released and re-edited this Mexican film starring an all-star cast! I saw both prints and it's intresting how Universal added a voice over of a survivor, and made the film more fast pace. I hate to give this film any credit, but some of it more accurate than the TV film GUYANA TRAGEDY. And Stuart Whitman as Jim Johnson (jones) gives a pretty good performance. The rest of the cast looks like they did this film for the money as they look very tried. This film was hated by most critic (especially Siskel & Ebert) and is very offensive at times. If you have to see it, I strongly recommend you see the short version for it more professional put together. But I doubt Universal will ever put this film on tape.

Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979)

** (out of 4)

Reverend James Johnson (Stuart Whitman) leads his church worshipers into the jungles of Guyana in South America where his cult begins to reach the views he had in plan. The only problem is politician Congressman Leo Ryan (Gene Berry) who sees something wrong with this group but before anything can be done tragedy strikes.

GUYANA: CULT OF THE DAMNED was the first attempt at telling the tragic story of Jim Jones and his church members, which led to a mass suicide in Jonestowan. This film comes from director Rene Cardona Jr. who also had his hand involved in other "true story" films like SURVIVE and THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE. This film here was released in America in a cut version, which added narration but I viewed the uncut version that clocked in at 115-minutes. I can't comment on the American version but I will say that this here appears to be a little bit better. Having read reviews of both, it's clear this film is hated by most and many violently attack it for exploiting the real people by trying to make a quick buck.

I understand where people would see this as exploitation but the film itself really isn't as bad as many make it out to be and not nearly as graphic as its reputation. In fact, for a film that has the reputation of being an exploitation movie, I'd say this is incredibly tame. Yes, there are scenes of torture but none of them are graphic and in fact they're less graphic than something you'd see in a PG-13 movie of today. The mass suicide at the end really just shows people getting shot or falling to the ground. Again, nothing too graphic. The attacks about the vile nature of the movie isn't from anything we see on the screen but I think it comes from people simply protesting that a "cheap" movie was made about such a tragic event.

As for the film itself, I'd be lying if I called it good. There's no question that the entire film has a very rushed feel to it. There's also no question that Cardona just wanted to get anything on the screen no matter if it was the truth, a lie or somewhere in between. The story structure is what really kills the movie because the first time we see Jones (named Johnson here) he's already a raving maniac so it's hard to believe that, by looking at him, anyone would follow him into a jungle. Had the film showed whatever character he had to talk people into following him then I think it would have paid off a lot better instead of having him be a maniac throughout. The film, in its uncut form, also runs a bit too long with too many repeat scenes of Jones just rambling.

There are some good moments in the film that are often overlooked and this includes the final twenty-five or so minutes once the Congressman arrives on the scene with the media. The final moments of the story are quite entertaining, although many of the death scenes are handled so poorly that it was hard to get any real impact from them. Another good thing was the performance of Whitman. I thought he was actually quite believable in the role and it's too bad he didn't get to play this character with a better screenplay. Berry was also good in his supporting role and there's never a bad time when you get to watch Joseph Cotten and John Ireland.

GUYANA: CULT OF THE DAMNED has been overshadowed by other, more graphic films from the director as well as a made-for-TV movie that followed. Still, on its own terms, the movie isn't nearly as awful as its made out to be. Who knows. Had the director actually taken his time with the material and had a better screenplay, it had the elements for something better.

From the Mexican film crew that gave us the infamous 1976 exploitation flick SURVIVE! comes the equally disgusting GUYANA: CULT OF THE DAMNED, loosely (and I do mean LOOSELY) based on the events leading up to the Rev. Jim Jones leading more than 900 of his cult followers to a cyanide-laced death in the Guyana rainforest. Only this time, however, the filmmakers managed to bribe a lot of big names to play real people whose names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. Gene Barry, John Ireland, Stuart Whitman, Yvonne DeCarlo, and a whole host of others can hardly call this either one's shining hour.

But just as SURVIVE! necessitated the making of ALIVE, CULT OF THE DAMNED would be followed (inevitably, and much sooner) by the superb 2-part TV film GUYANA TRAGEDY: THE STORY OF JIM JONES. This film is simply nothing more than gruesome horror exploitation that even slasher film exploiters in the American market would have had a hard time stomaching.