Guyana: Crime of the Century backdrop
Guyana: Crime of the Century poster

GUYANA: CRIME OF THE CENTURY

1979 • MX HMDB
September 20, 1979

This horrific dramatization of the Guyana tragedy traces the steps of Reverend Jim Jones, a highly charismatic, but profoundly paranoid clergyman, who after years of evangelism and good deeds, begins his own church in the mid-western United States. When Jim Jones 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 a utopia. 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 orgies, physical violence, mental torture, and sexual abuse of children and adults. Ultimately, Jim Jones' paranoia reaches a fevered pitch that culminates in him taking savage action against his own congregation. (VCI Home Video)

Directors

René Cardona Jr.

Cast

Stuart Whitman, John Ireland, Joseph Cotten, Bradford Dillman, Gene Barry, Jennifer Ashley, Yvonne De Carlo, Nadiuska, Tony Young, Robert DoQui
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REVIEWS (1)

MC

Marco Castellini

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Based on a real event: a religious fanatic who calls himself Father Johnson gathers his followers and moves with them to Guyana to found "The People's Temple," a self-managed and self-sufficient community under his total control. When the American authorities decide to intervene to try to free the followers from the game of submission of the false saint, he orders a collective suicide... A fairly faithful account of the terrible bloodshed that occurred in 1978 in Guyana, which saw the collective suicide of nearly a thousand followers of Father Johnson's sect. Directed with a documentary style by Cardona ("The Bermuda Triangle"), the film, interesting mainly from a "historical" point of view, benefits from the good performances of Yvonne De Carlo and Joseph Cotten.