Guyana – Crime Of The
Century (Cult Of The Damned/Uncut)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C- Film: C+
What is an exploitation film? Is it something that takes advantage of a situation or
audience? Is it just a work that cashes
in on events? Is it only a low-budget
work that gets to be labeled as such?
Certainly since the 1980s, we have had enough big budget rip-offs that
exploitation deserves a new category the major studios would prefer not exist. Rene Cardoza, Jr. is not the greatest filmmaker,
usually making lame low-budget cheapies that are usually worth skipping. His Guyana feature film in 1979 about
the deadly Jim Jones and his cult was actually picked up and reedited by
Universal Pictures, including the addition of a voice over narrator.
The idea was to allow audiences to distant themselves form
the horror of the situation and still revel in the darkness enough to sell
tickets. VCI has found an original 115
minutes-long uncut version that shows the film worked even better than expected. For all intents and purposes, this could
have been a bold TV movie of the week back in its day, but the curiosity on the
subject meant more money in theaters.
Stuart Whitman is a hit or miss actor, especially in the
roles he often took, but he is on target with his portrayal of “Reverend Jim
Johnson” and how he manipulated thousands to follow him and then commit mass
suicide. Even uglier, the film claims
(very believably) that besides the torture and other “punishments” that were
going on, several of the followers were murdered cold-bloodedly when they would
not agree to commit suicide.
This is the best cast Cardoza ever had to work with, as
well as the best script and material he ever had. Gene Barry, John Ireland, Jennifer Ashley, Yvonne De Carlo, Bradford
Dillman, Mel Ferrer and even a brief appearance by Joseph Cotton head off the
unusually good cast. The film has the
guts to not hold back about how sickening Jones/Johnson really was and what
happened here goes on all over the world all the time. That includes many governments, religious
organizations and organized criminals.
That Jonestown/”Johnsontown” had these things happen in the name of some
morality or “God” does not matter, proving innocent people can be easily
brainwashed at any time.
The only problem is that the film may not have gone far
enough in so far as not showing the brutality might make too light of it. That debate recently surfaced with Mel
Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ (2004) where people thought it was
too brutal. The R-rated megahit was
issued the next year in a PG-13 version, but the R-rated could have went much
further, as an NC-17 film would have been able to really show how brutal the
events really were. The R cut is even limited. More graphic and effective was Pier Paolo
Pasolini’s ever-controversial Salo (1975) set in WWII as Fascists take
over an Italian town and decide to systematically torture, humiliate and kill
the children of the slain very slowly so there cannot be no retribution. A future film on Guyana that goes that far
could say more than this film stops short in doing, but it is not as exploitive
as one might think, as it chronology is well rounded and makes it worth
watching.
The film is still dated, as is the print, presented here
in a soft, color-troubled 1.85 X 1 print and transfer. The film as shot by Leopoldo Villaseñor is
not bad and the shots chosen make you feel too uncomfortably like you are
there. That is surprisingly effective,
in a sort of original Texas Chainsaw Massacre way. Too bad this was not a restored print with
an anamorphic transfer. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is also on the worn side, though some of the music is
effective. Extras include four text
biographies and three trailers. If you
have not seen it, Guyana – Crime Of The Century is definitely worth a
look, despite its age and shortcomings.
- Nicholas Sheffo
