Released 1997
Documentary
Directed by William Gazecki
Reviewed May 19, 1999

An extremely one-sided look at the debacle in Waco, when David Koresh and his Branch Davidians were burned to death after a standoff with the FBI of almost 2 months. There is a lot of interesting and good evidence here about the ATF's motivation for the original raid and about how the FBI botched the final raid, but this compelling evidence is overshadowed by the documentary's point of view. It wants to drive home its belief that these people were deliberately killed for a publicity stunt and for their religious beliefs. While it is entirely plausible that the motivation for the initial ATF raid (just a couple of weeks before budget hearings) was to repair their damaged reputation from the Ruby Ridge incident, it's also true that the Branch Davidians were trafficing in illegal automatic firearms. Because of this last point, the ATF had every right (and I would say duty) to investigate and arrest these people. They chose to do this in a very high-profile manner, however, which backfired when a gun-fight erupted. After this fight, 4 ATF agents and 6 Davidians were dead. Several others on both sides were wounded. Who started shooting? That's the key question that can't be answered. Everything hinges on that question. This film argues ineffectively that the ATF shot first and planned to open fire, but I find this very hard to believe. The media was present, and the ATF videotaped the entire confrontation (of course the key videotape was destroyed or lost somehow, further fueling conspiracy claims). I can't see any reason for the ATF to want this confrontation to be violent, however, because I can't see how it could benefit them in this particular situation. I think they rolled in in heavy numbers to put on a display, and someone on either side took a shot and started the whole thing.

In the end something had to be done to force those people out. The stand-off lasted for 51 days at a cost of one million dollars per day. It was embarrassing to the government and the rest of the country. The majority of Americans wanted the FBI to roll in and end the stand-off, but it was horrible how it ended. The use of the toxic tear-gas was disastrous and probably resulted in the massive fire. I think it's paranoid to believe these people were deliberately killed, but I definitely believe their deaths were the result of incompetence and frustration on the part of the FBI. It's truly a shame what happened to all of the people on both sides who were killed, but the Davidians had the power to end the stand-off at any time. I wish they would have come out peacefully.

Summary by Bill Alward