Guyana: Crime of the Century (1980)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Better Late Then Never

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

If you take a look at Rene Cardona Jr.'s credits, you'll quickly discover that he jumped on every bandwagon that passed by. Tintoera is his Jaws "inspired" film. Cyclone is his cash-in on the disaster movie boom. The Bermuda Triangle is his link to the unexplained mysteries craze of the 70s. And I'm sure you can find similarities between Cardona's The Treasure of the Amazon and either a Hollywood movie like Romancing the Stone or a watered-down Italian cannibal film. With Guyana: Crime of the Century, Cardona wasn't trying to rip a movie, but instead choice to latch onto the coattails of one of the biggest news stories of the 70s – Jim Jones and the People's Temple.Compared with Cardona's other films I've seen, Guyana: Crime of the Century comes off as a much more serious work. Cardona appears to be going for fewer of the exploitation elements he loaded his other films with and, instead, is going for something more true to life and realistic. Don't misunderstand, there are scenes of exploitation in Guyana: Crime of the Century, they are just not played to the max the way they are in something like Tintoera. Being based at least somewhat on an actual event, Cardona was handcuffed by the reality of what actually took place in the jungles of Guyana. As a result, this movie is not as "fun" as Cardona's other films. Much of the first 2/3 of the film is very slow with little more to enjoy than the wild, crazed dialogues of the good reverend. The last 1/3 does pick up the pace, culminating with a satisfactory finale that is very well done by Cardona's standards. It's a moving and fitting end to the film.In addition to comparing Guyana: Crime of the Century with his other works, I can't help but compare Cardona's movie with the 1980 TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. I haven't seen the TV movie in a decade or more, but I remember it being a better made film that probably sticks to the truth of what happened at Jonestown better than Cardona's movie. Also, the 1980 film stars Powers Boothe as Jim Jones. His portrayal of the crazed leader of the doomed cult is light-years ahead of Stuart Whitman's turn in the role. Boothe delivers an incredibly powerful (pun not intended) and believable performance.Speaking of Stuart Whitman, Guyana: Crime of the Century is filled with over-the-hill, past-their-prime actors in most of the major roles. Whitman was the youngest at 53. Yvonne De Carlo was 57. Gene Barry was 60. John Ireland was 65. And Joseph Cotton was the oldest at 74. For Cotton, Guyana: Crime of the Century is about as far away from Citizen Kane as you can get.

**Possible Spoilers Ahead**This flick opens with a disclaimer that "names have been changed to protect the innocent," then shifts to a scene where a reporter blows his brains all over a bathroom mirror. At that point, something told me this movie would be a real p***er. As the verbose "Reverend Jim Johnson", Stuart Whitman has more dialogue in the first ten minutes than in all his other movies combined. His attorneys are played by Joseph Cotten (who would hit rock bottom in HEAVEN'S GATE the next year) and John Ireland who looks mighty strange in a beard and horn-rimmed glasses. Gene Barry appears as congressman "Leo O'Brien," Yvonne DeCarlo is Johnson's liason with the real world and Robert Doqui and Jennifer Ashley are two of his disciples. Cardona regular Hugo Stiglitz is on hand as a reporter. Bradford Dillman is the resident doctor who mixes one mean Kool-Aid cocktail. This version leads us to believe that Reverend Jim was terminally ill and wanted to take about 900 people with him. Prior to that outrage, his followers punish a deserter by drugging him and leaving him on railroad tracks right before the next train roars through. Three boys steal food and are punished with snakes, water torture and shocks to the genitals. Two teenagers are caught doing the Featherbed Mambo; the cult leader hands the girl over to the biggest stud in "Johnsontown" and orders the boy to have sex with another man and all I can say is, thank God this discipline takes place offscreen. The original film runs 109 minutes that fly right by, if only because you can't believe what you're seeing. Universal cut it down to 90 minutes when they released it Stateside as GUYANA: CULT OF THE DAMNED. One thing I'll say for the Guyana Tragedy: you didn't hear many jokes about it. That's because the punch lines were too long.

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.