WACO: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
"Are you goin' to come in and kill me?"
-Voice of little Branch Davidian girl on the phone
"No, no one's going to come in and kill you."
-Agent Jim Cavanaugh in reply to her
Documentaries can provide in-depth examinations into worlds or subjects that you may know little about. The best documentaries force you to reexamine some of the "facts" that you already know.
The even-handed and highly acclaimed new documentary, WACO: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, is an astonishing piece of work. Those like me who knew, or thought they knew, what happened to those "crazy" Branch Davidians in their confrontation with law officers, will not be able to watch this film without many second thoughts. It changed my mind completely, but even those who remain resolved to believe the media reports will leave with some nagging doubts in the back of their minds. And no one can watch this film by producers Amy Sommer Gifford and Dan Gifford and director William Gazecki without an appreciation for the quality of the film itself. A tour de force that should get an Academy Award nomination but probably will not, given the historic eccentricities of the documentary branch of the Academy.
The film uses a wide variety of footage to examine what happened in Waco and to explore who the Davidians were. Excerpts from the Congressional hearings as well as infrared aerial footage taken during the day of the final raid on the Davidian's home provide the most enlightening pieces of the story.
Most of the documentary is pieced together from historic tapes, but some fresh material is presented as well. They interview the local Sheriff who says the Davidians were a polite group who worked at odd jobs around town to support their religious activities. He says he thought their views about Christianity were unusual and certainly different than his own, but not harmful. The ATF and FBI used inflammatory words like "bunker" and "compound" to refer to the Davidian's home, which made it seem like the government was at war. (In the end, one of the agents raised the ATF flag on the Davidian flagpole like victors in a war.)
One of the many members who did not fit the media stereotype of the religious fanatic, for example, was a middle-aged, black graduate of Harvard Law School. The film shows the history of the Davidians in that area back to 1938.
Their leader, David Koresh, with his constant two-day-old beard and his curly hair, looked like someone from central casting, but the other Davidians seemed much less mesmerized by him that one would expect.
One of the key issues of the case was the stockpiling of arms, but the film points out that this is nothing unusual in Texas. As a native Texan, this logic certainly rang true. Part of the reason for the search warrant was to look for illegal weapons, but a local gun dealer reported telling the ATF that he had Koresh on the phone and Koresh was inviting the ATM to come over and inspect his weapons without any warrant. The ATF agent passed on the opportunity the night before the raid, the film argues, because the ATF viewed the raid as a major publicity opportunity.
The ATF had 100 agents for the initial assault. They trained for days at a military base, having told the military that it was a drug raid. They knew they needed surprise to pull it off without killing the kids inside the Davidian home and without being killed themselves. Even so, they let it out to some of the media in advance with the result that the media was there 30 minutes before the raid.
When their Davidian undercover agent told them to call off the raid since the leak had gotten back to Koresh, they didn't. In the resulting two hour hailstorm of bullets, four ATF agents were needlessly killed. (The Davidians were later acquitted in court for the ATF agent's deaths since the Davidians were believed to have been protecting themselves.)
Easily the most convincing material in the documentary concerns the final assault by the government. They sprayed a highly flammable gas inside the Davidian's home for hours in an attempt to drive them out from the fumes. When the inevitable firestorm occurred that burned the bodies of scores of people, including young kids and the elderly, the government said that the Davidians set the fire themselves and that they shot their own members. A government infrared tape shows 2 people with machine guns shooting from the backyard into the only available exit. This backside of the building could not be seen by any of the media, and this area was controlled by government forces. The only conclusion possible seems to be that the government fired, killing the people attempting to escape the fire, but the testimony from the hearings are that only the Davidians fired on that final, deadly day.
The producers were at a special screening I attended. They said they believed the official line until they were shown the tapes and began to dig into the story. They made the point that most ATF and FBI agents are hard working defenders of the public. Nevertheless, they argue that Waco is a huge black eye on law enforcement agents.
The producers, after being turned down by distributors even though they have gotten rave reviews from the national film critics, decided to distribute the film themselves. The result is that they have seven prints showing in exactly seven theaters in the United States.
So, are there flaws in the documentary? Undoubtedly, but overall it is a convincing and surprisingly well balanced presentation. My only quibble is with the length. The filmmakers got a bit too involved in their material with the result that the film goes on about a half hour longer than it should. A shorter, more focused film would have had more impact. When I asked the producers about it, they disagreed and argued that they had already chopped thirty minutes from the version shown this year at Sundance.
The best films are those you'll never forget and those that cause you to reexamine your assumptions. WACO: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT is just such a film.
WACO: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT runs 2:16. It is not rated but would be an R for the mature subject matter and a few scenes of charred bodies. It would be fine for serious teenagers. I recommend this picture to you highly and hope to see it at Academy Award time. And, I give it *** 1/2.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: September 21, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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