Here's a miniseries so bad even the laughter it evokes from being stupid end after a while and leave us with a whole bunch of hammy actors running around Hollywood with seemingly no purpose. With a title like "The Users," and a story set in Hollywood, all one can do is sit back and watch the cliches arrive, one after another.
We start on a movie set where start Tony Curtis is having a hissy fit because his scene is not working. In a tank top, jeans and a cowboy hat, Tony already looks past his prime, but he's the leading man. Producer George Hamilton is more patient than the director, calling a wrap for the day. George heads off to his trailer to call agent Red Buttons, relaxing in the hot tub with two women, because he wants the galleys of an upcoming book. Before hanging up, George tells Red to get out of the hot tub. "You can't afford to shrink." "Jealous?" Red answers?
Listening to this whole conversation is Jaclyn Smith, a hooker who charges $100 per night. Hey, it's Arizona. George wants to hire her for a night with Tony Curtis, but doesn't want Tony to know she's a working girl. Apparently, Tony needs a confidence boost because he hasn't had a movie in seven years, since his wife died, and this comeback is his last chance.
Pause.
Okay, including the title sequence, we're about 10 minutes into the movie. Already, we have Tony Curtis as an over-the-hill leading man (true enough), George Hamilton as a slimy producer (drop producer, true enough), Red Buttons as a lusty agent and Jaclyn Smith as a hooker. In a movie about Hollywood produced by Dominick Dunne. Is the smell of delicious cheese as pungent for you as it is for me? "The Users" is going to be mind-melting fun...I can't wait!
Jacklyn, looking so young and dewy, plays her part with Tony at George's party that night. Hooker or not, she's well-read when it comes to Tony and his career. "Do you want me to name every picture you've ever made in chronological order?" she asks. "Don't, please don't." He's hooked. Tony kicks everyone out so he can be alone with Jaclyn. Tony's pillow talk is all about his worries in doing the next day's love scene, but of course Jaclyn is fixing that.
The next morning, Jaclyn returns the money to George Hamilton. She says Tony was able to "perform," and he doesn't understand why he's getting a refund. "You'll see," she says with a knowing glint. Tony repeats the scene from the day before (in a different costume) and with Jaclyn watching, he pulls it off spectacularly. Even he's excited by how well he did, and he attributes it to her, but now he's worried about what he'll do when he shoots the rest in Hollywood without her. He wants her to go with him, but as what? "Agent? Cook? Housekeeper? Companion? Lover?" "How about all of them?" She says she'll get back to him.
Care to know why Jaclyn leads the lifestyle she does in Arizona? She has a sick mother. Well, of course she does! Mom knows all about Jaclyn's evening activities, and she also takes the blame for ruining her life, having to resort to prostitution to pay the bills. She wants Jaclyn to go to Hollywood with Tony, making her promise one thing: "When you get there, let 'em KNOW you're there."
Jaclyn and her one bag (to Tony's huge haul of luggage) arrive at Tony's Hollywood mansion. On the piano are glossy shots of Garland, Sinatra and others, as well as Tony's daughter, Michelle Phillips, also an actress, who has a checkered past with dad. Tony offers a tour, but Jaclyn wants to see "the most important room" and he carries her up to the bedroom.
Michelle, in fact, shows up in the very next scene and as soon as she walks through the door, she tells Jaclyn she knows she's "special." How? Is there some particular way she opened the door with a dish rag over her shoulder that speaks of genius? The two chat over wine and Jaclyn says she loves Tony. Michelle looks like she's ready to pounce at that, but instead says, "I think you mean that" and then begs Jaclyn to get Tony "back on the scene." The two are instant chums, though there's something strangely manipulative in Michelle.
Jaclyn and Michelle have lunch at one of the "really in places," where Michelle has to get past lecherous Red Buttons before finding her table. Jaclyn is curious to know why all of the glamour doesn't matter to Michelle. She's been "hustled" too many times. However, she is in love, but with a married man whose wife has the money. They then go on a jaunt to Rodeo Drive, where they bump into George Hamilton and his wife, Carrie Nye. It's an uncomfortable moment for all, though Michelle pulls them through, buys Jaclyn a gold necklace and treats her to a spa day. It's here that Jaclyn tells Michelle the truth about how she and Tony met (and of course that she gave the money back). And here's the kicker: Tony didn't need to get it up, he just needed someone to talk to. So, we officially cannot have any bad feelings towards Jaclyn because they just talked and she gave back the money, so the love is real. Isn't that a neat little package?
Into the restful spa sweeps Joan Fontaine, a Hollywood stalwart who gets paid to make sure people are seen in the right places. We need a slumming legend (more slumming than Red Buttons), and she fits the bill, a little older, a little heavier, but having a grand time as the mile-a-minute gabber (her sister would take more dignified miniseries roles: the Queen Mother, Grand Duchess Marie of Russia and Wallis Simpson's Aunt Bessie and keep the camp to a minimum--Joan isn't holding back). Jaclyn decides she will use Joan's help to get herself known. After the girls day out, Michelle reminds Jaclyn that if the picture is a bomb, she's in for something "pretty stormy." "I've been rained on before," Jaclyn retorts.
Tony is getting a massage from Michael Baseleon, who offers to do Jaclyn next. Jaclyn wants some gossip from him, and she sure as hell gets it. He has a looser tongue than an toothless Alabama grandmother. He tells her that the frost between Michelle and Carrie is due to the fact that Michelle's boyfriend is...you guessed it...George Hamilton! "We all use each other," he tells her and Jaclyn grabs at it. She wants him to spread the word that she and Tony are "terribly happy." It's true, but she wants to make sure everyone knows it.
Having learned amazingly fast, Jaclyn has already arranged a lunch for Tony with Joan, so he can be seen. She intends to make sure this picture is a hit. Jaclyn has all sorts of plans for her life with Tony, but he asks just to sit quietly for five minutes...and they do! They literally sit for five wasted minutes of screen time. And then he opines that they should get married that night. And they do! On their wedding night, he says he doesn't care that she was a hooker because everyone is a hooker, "some more, some less, including me." "You know what that makes us? The perfect couple!" With dialogue like this, how can you not keep watching?
Jaclyn goes to a pool party at Joan Fontaine's. Before they even start, Joan quotes her fee of $500 a week, which Jaclyn can't afford, but Joan is willing to wait because "putting a hooker in the A group, it's my dream come true!" Joan has a whole plan, from redoing her house to redoing her wardrobe. One scheme is to take dresses from stores on approval and get a studio dressmaker to do exact copies, returning the original. This is an insider's guide to Hollywood? They do that in Little Rock!
They can't keep us in suspense any longer. Are you dying to know how fabulously successful Tony's comeback movie is? I know I am (well, not really, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt). It's screened for the executives and it's a big wonderful spectacular...bomb. The head of the studio wants 30 minutes chopped off. To make it worse, said exec tells the director and producer he wants to work with them again, "just bring me a hot star." Oh, man, let's home that doesn't leak out to Tony (the character...oh, wait, and the actor himself, he did have a jolly big ego), because it will take every trick Jaclyn is learning to pull him out of that hole.
There's a crushingly boring scene where Jaclyn visits Michelle at her pool, where Michelle holds court in a shirt and heels. They discuss the reason why George wants Michelle when he has Carrie. "My talents," she says and we know what she's talking about. Jaclyn then says she wants the book George wanted as a vehicle for Tony.
Carrie and George throw a party for Tony. Michelle has her boy toy with her. When Tony asks, "what do you do?" the boy toy says, "I tan." He, at least he's honest. Dumb, but honest. Jaclyn oozes around the room. She starts with George, making sure he keeps her secret and she will keep his about Michelle. Then she moves on to Red Buttons, angling for the book everyone wants ("Rogue's Gallery"). He propositions her with the damn hot tub. "I could help you turn the pages," he says to Jaclyn when she says she might like it as much as reading the book.
John Forsythe is there, sizing up Jaclyn as a mover in an instant, and she tries to get the dirt on him from Joan. Oh, and for comic value, Judy Landers is there, as a character named Merry. Her presence makes this scene an instant rip-off of the party scene in "All About Eve" and she's Miss Caswell. It all ends badly the studio head tells Tony the picture is terrible. We've been told about 14 times that he'll react extremely poorly if the movie is not a hit. Well, bring it on!
He goes to a nightclub where men seem to be the only denizens and Douglas Warner slithers over to him immediately, telling him he's a writer and has the perfect screenplay for Tony. Naturally, the script is back at Douglas' apartment. Sooooooo, when Tony is upset he goes gay? That's the big secret? It's not like he tries to kill himself or someone else or blow up The Brown Derby or steal Chasen's chili from Elizabeth Taylor's plate!
At least this "twist" temporarily woke up a movie in danger of putting itself to sleep.
Jaclyn goes to Red's hot tub, which I hope has been cleaned for all he talks about it. She wants to know how much the book will cost. After toying with her for a while, he says he's already sold the movie rights to John Forsythe. Cue Joan Fontaine, who shows up to distract Red while Jaclyn sneaks a copy of the book out of Red's office. Damn, she's good! Smartest Arizona hooker this side of...well, all the other Arizona hookers. As if the movie couldn't be ANY more obvious, Jaclyn comes home to find a party invitation at John's.
Racing up the stairs to tell Tony all about what she's pulled off, she finds him with Douglas. "If you put this scene in a movie, no one would believe it," Douglas wryly notes. Even worse, Jaclyn tells him he could have told her and she would have understood. If that were the case, dear friends, wouldn't she have stayed instead of flying out the door at top speed?
When she returns home, she finds out that Tony has tried to kill himself (and if you want the laugh of a lifetime, wait until you see him trying to pour from a teapot with bandaged wrists). He would have succeeded if the masseur hadn't come for his usual appointment.
Off to John's party they go. The theme is the gardens at Versailles. Huh? John pegs Jaclyn's earrings as on approval. Party scene, take two. Jaclyn looks radiant in a fur huge gown. Red asks her how she likes the galleys of the book. "The only galleys are on boats," she retorts. Everyone is there, Joan for fun and even Tony's little boyfriend, there with a producer now. Jaclyn hides out in a room where she knows John will find her, and he does. She gets down to business quickly, mentioning Tony would be perfect for the lead in "Rogue's Gallery." He knows her past and is astounded she's not ashamed. "After a few months in this town, I'm rather proud of it," she quips. John plays crystal ball and tells her that even if Tony makes a comeback in "Rogue's Gallery" she'll still need to prop him up again and again because she lacks money. Hmmm, she's gotten this far without it. John basically wants her for himself, but not as a lover. "Power and romance rarely mix," she tells her. "We all exist to be used," he tells her, as the cliche parade that is called a scene here churns on. Both of these pros play it with eyebrows raised and bland sincerity. Jaclyn wants the "Rogue's Gallery" author to come to dinner and that means owing John a favor and she doesn't mind that and the dip at the party is made with too much milk and everyone gets sick and the house falls off the hill and disaster ensues and California slides into the ocean. Okay, okay, noting beyond "she doesn't mind" happens, but I wish it did because damn, it's getting so dull!
Michelle and George steal a few minutes together to plan stealing a few minutes together. If they fling one more double entendre at each other, someone is going to end up with a broken nose. They agree to meet in the sauna, which has a lock on the door from the outside, always trouble. Carrie follows her cheating husband and confronts them half dressed. She lowers the boom that the only way George can produce the film is if Michelle agrees to star in it. More users, we get it.
From that party, we go right to the party Jaclyn throws for the author of "Rogue's Gallery," who has casting approval. Did they simply change the sets around the actors? That might have been cheaper than moving the actors to a new set. But, the plans are foiled when the author shows up, or seemingly so. John, suddenly gone stupid, tells Jaclyn where the author is without realizing it (everything but the number of the bungalow in Santa Barbara) and she hightails it over there, leaving her own party.
The author who has been at the center of this whole story is Darren McGavin, entering nearly two hours into the movie. "You wouldn't come to my party, so I decided to come to yours." "There's no party here," he says." "Not yet," says the ex-hooker as she pours herself a bourbon to impress him. I hope in quoting these lines, the four-year-old who wrote them get some pleasure out of hearing them again. Jaclyn thinks her best weapon his honesty and admits her past, which also impresses Darren. Darren swears that he never gets drunk, no matter how many he has. Jaclyn bets him that he can get drunk, going drink for drink with him, and then can't actually "perform." The stakes in the bet? She wants the role for her husband and if he wins..."neither one of us loses." That hardly seems fair. Tony gets a movie role and Darren gets a few minutes in the sack with a pro?
As you would expect, because he's a human being Darren actually does pass out, losing the bet. She sweeps out once he wakes up, snatching her fur and telling him her husband will be wonderful in the movie. When she arrives at home, Tony is cheery because the party went so well. He doesn't seem to mind that she was out all night. When she tells him that she's secured him the lead in "Rogue's Gallery," Tony shows the most emotion he has so far. He's excited and then curious as to how she worked it out, but she doesn't tell him. In fact, she tells him it's "goodbye." Her speech about parting is awfully confusing. Something about both of them having what they want, no regrets, best time of their lives coming. I can't say I quite understood it. He has his part and she's going "where I belong." That would be John Forsythe's bigger mansion, of course.
It's Oscar time! "Rogue's Gallery" is a gigantic hit and both Tony and Michelle are nominated. They arrive together and the crowd of extras jump up and down so hard they must have been fed sugar pills. Tony and Jaclyn meet on the red carpet and neither is upset. "Did I ever say thanks?" Tony asks and confesses his love for her. John and Jaclyn are interviewed by Army Archerd, perplexing because John is only the movie's executive producer and when was the last time you saw one of those interviewed? Army asks Jaclyn if she's proud and she says, "you know, I'm not actually in the business." Freeze, cut and print.
Help me out here: is the movie titled "The Users" because of the characters and their actions or because it uses plots from so many other movies ("All About Eve, "Sunset Boulevard," "A Star is Born," you name a Hollywood-based movie and "The Users" finds a way to rip it off)? Watching Jaclyn Smith play a bad girl is kind of neat, but she's so damn wholesome that she's not fully successful. All of the other wax figures just say their lines and collect checks, except for Joan Fontaine, who, by that point in her career, had nothing to lose.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980)
In the history of American cults, Jim Jones and the People's Temple tragedy are unlikely ever to be forgotten, despite the decades that have passed since everyone drank the Kool-Aid. The true story is so outlandish that it's ideal for a screen representation. The atrocities speak for themselves, but one thing made Guyana stand out above all else: Jim Jones. A maniac, insane, drug-addicted, power-mad egotist, Jim Jones was so forceful a personality that he duped thousands. However, in order for this to work as a miniseries, it needs a strong leading man, a problem because, especially in the later years, Jim would merely sit on his throne and bark orders into a microphone, dynamism be damned. Luckily, Powers Boothe is on hand (in an Emmy-winning performance) to all but channel Jim Jones. His performance is what makes this movie so fascinating. If not for him, he would almost seem like fiction, and bland fiction at that. The writing is merely functional, but the characterization of Jim Jones so strong, it off-sets any problems. Let's face it, cults themselves are all about brainwashing, which in itself is not inherently dramatic as its too internal and psychological, but a pill-popping sex fiend who thinks he is God IS the stuff to propel a miniseries.
True to genre form, the film starts at the end, with Jim Jones telling everyone to drink the juice as he's shot, the "enemy" on the approach.
PSYCH! It was a "loyalty test." No one has been shot and the juice is just juice. But, it proves how much of a hold Jim Jones (Powers Boothe) has over his followers. It's close to the end in 1978 and Representative Leo Ryan (Ned Beatty) is on his way to Guyana to ascertain exactly what's happening down in Guyana.
Even as a 10-year old child in 1941, Jim was a bully and a religious zealot. He's in charge of leading the funeral for a pet, with only other children watching. His sermon goes on so long that the other kids get fidgety, but he's not afraid to smack them with a stick to keep them in line. Toting around a Bible, he tells other kids they are going to hell. The only voice of reason against Jim's fundamentalism is his father, Jim Jones, Sr. (Ed Lauter), who tells him all he's going to get for egging on the other kids is a beating. Mama Lynette (Diane Ladd) is more practical, wanting her lazy husband to go back to work. Jim's only solace is with Mrs. Kennedy (Colleen Dewhurst), the woman responsible for teaching Jim her version of the Good Book. "Get out of my way, you Psalm-singin' little creep," Jim Sr. tells the boy as his mother plots their escape.
Eight years later, Jim is fully grown (and ready to be played for maximum bang by Powers Boothe). Working at a hospital, he meets Marcy (Veronica Cartwright), a nurse. I don't know that his tactic is exactly foolproof, because he spews more religion than love, but she's hooked.
Jim has a way of turning even the best moments into religious lunacy. He's getting a hair cut when a black child walks in for one. The owner refuses to cut his hair and Jim is furious. Okay, so far, so good, he's not racist. But, he blows it by then damning the owner to hell and spouting off.
He marries Marcy and then is invited to run a church where membership is dwindling. At first, he's depressed at the lack of turnout, but he is hell bent on getting youth involved in the church. He even goes after the town's prostitutes, and it works. Hooker Rosalind Cash believes in him instantly and wants to go to church, but she worries about how the others will look at her. He tells her to come anyway and she remains fiercely loyal to him, staying all the way through the end in Guyana. Depressed pet shop owner Randy Quaid decides to come to church just to see how the whites will react to the blacks, but at least he's there. . The church elders aren't thrilled with the mixing and goons even throw a dead dog through the window. He's fired by the bigots, and decides never again to work for a church with "small minded me with no vision!"
So, he does what any preacher without a church would do--he goes to the ghetto and starts praying on the rubble. He finds an abandoned synagogue and turns it into "The People's Temple." Again, so far, so good. He's a bit nutsy in his religious fervor, but he wants people of all shapes, sizes and colors. His specialty is ministering to the so-called lost puppies, overwhelming them with kindness and earning their undying (oops, bad word choice) loyalty.
As Jim struggles to make a go of it, he visits Father Divine (James Earl Jones), who may actually believe he's God. He asks Father Divine what to do about the feelings he's having for some of the female parishioners. Basically, celebrate it and help them bring it out. "Mary wasn't a virgin," Father Divine notes.
A medley of all the good Jim does wanders a breakneck speed as a hymn is sung. The man sure as hell seems a saint at this point, ministering to the poor and downtrodden, worried about each and every parishioner with such passion. Heck, even I could forgive some overzealous behavior since he's doing so well. His wife tells him to delegate and his response is, "does God delegate?" Ah, that seems like a crack in the plaster. Does he think he's God now? He brings some old-time tent revival shenanigans to his services, healing the sick, though they are actually just his loyal friends in disguise. Starting to believe he's God, he feels he has the right to sleep around. When is wife sees him with a young girl, he says he "has to be all things to be all people." That's a nice excuse that covers just about anything possible. It's an all-encompassing tent of free space for him to do whatever the hell he wants. It seems that any young woman who walks into a room where he's sitting ends up having sex with him.
Jim is named to the city's Human Rights Commission, which gives him the power force the mixing of the races, such as a cute scene where Jim rams his whole congregation into a movie theater flashing his credentials and cash.
He takes in a drug addict to prove he can cure him by holding him in the bed, where it looks a little more touchy-feely than doctor/patient. He also starts to use drugs himself. Hidden behind sunglasses most of the time, Jim has officially turned the corner on the way to Nutsville.
By 1965, things are booming at The People's Temple so much that they can move into fancier digs and Randy Quaid can propose to and marry Meg Foster. Randy is unusually sanguine about Jim's role in his wife's life. He's simply willing to accept it. As for where all the money is coming from, it's from the members. All of the senior citizens sign over their welfare checks or anything else they have.
After having saved Brad Dourif from a life of drugs, Jim makes the moves on his girlfriend Diana Scarwid in the forest using some honey-coated phrases that prove only that he's horny. He also still has Brad in his bed and under his thrall. This last fact has Diana being one of the first to question Jim's methods. "He has special needs," Brad says, after Rosalind tells her sins in the Bible don't apply to people like Jim who is spreading a special message (his sperm, mostly, because the rest of the message is getting increasingly muddled). Diana convinces Brad to escape with her, but Jim finds them. "I saved him and I will not lose him to you, to drugs or to anything else," Jim declares. There is one too many of the letter I in that sentence and not enough about religion. Jim insists that Diana stay in the room while he and Brad get it on.
His speeches are also more about himself than anything. "It wasn't God that brought you here," he tells a packed crowd, "it was Jim Jones." He says this before revealing tableaux of lynching and welfare and scary film clips of the atomic bomb. In essence, he's scaring his followers into staying in line. He's theatrical, show biz, flash and dazzle. He's also the father of Meg's baby, as opposed to her husband Randy. Every member is his personal plaything.
Within a few years, Jim has taken his People's Temple country-wide, busing everyone this way and that and playing to gigantic tabernacles and halls. Linda Haynes is sent to Geneva to deposit hoards of cash in a Swiss bank and Randy is sent to San Francisco to find a permanent (and huge) base there.
In 1971, Jim decides to open up in Guyana. "Bring plenty of money," he tells Randy. He buys 3000 acres there and then tells the government that they need special protection. In other words, heavy artillery. The government official can hardly say no the way Linda is silently flirting with him. She's learned from the master, and after she's done with him, he'll allow all of Jim's needs.
Super-rich Brenda Vaccaro shows up to see if there is anything Jim can do for her mother, dying of cancer. Jim snaps that the doctor's assessment that she's beyond help, "is a medical myth" and mom is brought in on a gurney during one of his over-the-top prayer services. Mom is a big watcher of Jim on TV, so she's ready to believe. In a bit of outrageous theatrics, he pulls the cancer out of her, although to anyone paying attention, it's only a piece of raw meet that was in the palm of his hand, the oldest card trick in the world! But, Brenda believes in him and Brenda happily joins the flock of women who belong to him sexually.
Mayor Mosconi selects Jim as his Housing Commissioner because he preaches to be a friend to everyone, white and black, rich and poor, gay and straight. During a service, a lackey of Jim's finds LeVar Burton sleeping and he's brought into the aisle to be slapped in public. LeVar argues that he was up all night painting the nursery, at Jim's insistence, but Jim says that was only a small thing, that he needs to devote himself fully. Okay, now they are just bullies. The next time LeVar falls asleep, he's flogged. "This is worse than the Klan, for God's sake," his father says. Oh, and by now everyone in the congregation is calling him Dad.
LeVar's father goes to Rep Ned Beatty with his fears, but Ned is skeptical. After all, Jim is the Housing Commissioner, but he decides to check into everything, including bank accounts. Jim decides to turn this on his congregation. "Who is my Judas?" he asks the congregation. LeVar's mother, deep into Jim's teachings, doesn't even realize it's her husband, but to teach the family a lesson, LeVar is locked in his painting shed with a lit cigarette and blown up (though he survives, with nary a scratch). With investigations closing in, it's time to move to Jonestown, Guyana. A spirited version of "Down by the Riverside," excites people so much that they can't say no. Once again, theatrics have won the day.
LeVar does not want to go to Guyana, especially since he's met a new girl. His mother is upset because her husband has left. "The family has never been apart," she says, the last vestige of her old life still alive in there somewhere. But, she leaves without LeVar.
Guyana certainly looks like paradise, but the crops are going to fail because Jim has driven the natives from the land instead of listening to them. "I will make it happen here with God's help," he barks at the government official who is trying to help. His ego has grown so large that he can't be bothered listening to anyone.
Indeed LeVar does go to Guyana, with his new wife Irene Cara in tow. Upon arriving, everyone gives up all passports and travel documents. No one seems to find that strange. LeVar finds it strange and he and his wife are not being housed together, but those are the rules. Jim keeps all of his hens together without any other roosters to get in the way.
Jim's nightly new broadcasts are a mixture of rambling paranoia and no-nonsense instructions. Richard and Irene do not fit in well. Jim summons Irene. He drugs her and has his way with her, pissing off LeVar, but LeVar has little choice as Jim outlaws marriage. His reasoning is beyond wacky: that marriages outside of the church are made of mismatched people and have to be destroyed. LeVar stands up and objects, so Jim proclaims him a homosexual, which is why his wife came to Jim in the first place (remember, she was summoned and drugged). Spewing all sorts of anti-gay rhetoric, he works the congregation into a dither enough to put LeVar in a small box for a few days. He's not judge and jury. There's only one step left.
From San Francisco, Randy calls to tell Jim he's off the housing commission and that he should return to the states to answer the charges against him. Naturally, Jim refuses, knowing that's he's guilty and will be arrested. "Is Jim as out of control as he sounds on the radio?" Randy asks when he arrives in Guyana? His wife says it's actually worse. They decide they have to take their son and leave. Randy tries his best to reason with Jim as Ned Beatty widens his investigation, but Jim has a fit, going through every level of melodrama to defend his position. Randy wants to take his son back to the US and Jim will not let that happen to "my son." He's manipulated so many minds, the kids follow whatever he wants. Randy and his wife decide to leave. Since his wife Meg is being sent to Brazil to deposit more illegal cash, and they decide not to go back. He calls Ned and begs for his help in order to get his son out of there. He even asks Ned to go to Guyana to see for himself. Jim spins this to the faithful as the CIA spending spies to kill him.
When Brenda's mother dies, she realizes she's been had. Not only did he not cure her mother, but he's taken her family and money from her. However, LeVar and Brenda do not add up to much. Ned, his staff, Diana, Meg and Randy arrive in Jonestown with reporters, but Jim's minions will allow only the Congressman and his aide, though Diana and Brenda's husband somehow gets to go too. They are greeted by a very chipper Veronica, who takes them to his throne. Brenda launches an attack that Ned can hear, but Jim sweeps her away, saying that she has simply lost her faith. Veronica shows Ned and his aide around, but of course only the parts that are complete safe to report on. The whole commune is fed a gigantic meal, something they have never had so far. "I must admit, Mr. Jones, I expected to come down and see a hell hole," and says that instead he found a wonderful place. For crying out loud, Jim tosses in a chorus of kids to sing.
Some of Jim's goons see LeVar making moves to perhaps attempt an escape, so they "stash him in the jungle." Then there is Brad, who encounters Diana. He believes that as the cult doctor, he has saved lives and will never leave. He tells her to stop living in the past and forget him.
Ned does ask Jim about the financial irregularities and sexual offenses. Jim has excuses to cover them all. Jim says he slept with only one woman other than Veronica, and it resulted in his son (Randy's son, but Ned doesn't know that). The way he delivers the speech makes one thing that not only is he acting just the way Ned will appreciate, but that he even believes his own lives by now. Ned isn't really buying it and neither is his assistant, who says they need to leave immediately. Ned tells the whole commune that anyone wanting to leave can do so the next day with him.
Only a few people actually take Ned up on his offer. Jim is worried about the lies they will spread and his head of security wants to stop them. "It's all over, it's all over. I've been betrayed...ask everyone to come to the pavilion, I have to talk to them," he cries to Veronica. Kool-Aid time! "Sounds like Dad wants us to have another one of his loyalty tests," LeVar's mother says and everyone arrives like sheep. To hammer in what's about to happen, the movie shows us hobbling old people and infants being brought.
Jim gets one last speech to the flock. "If we can't live in peace, then let's die in peace," he rails to the cheering crowd. He says that the Congressman is going to be shot (though saying that he didn't ask anyone to do it--of course not, he's never to blame). Suicide is merely a revolution. When someone disagrees, he says he would rather choose his own time of death, rather than live in torment. He's got an answer for everything, no matter how nonsensical it sounds.
At the airstrip, everyone is killed, the Congressmen included. A cameraman filmed it until getting shot, but the camera kept rolling.
In Jonestown, the juice is given to everyone. People who try to refuse are forced. The bodies pile up, but Jim continues to ramble through his microphone, saying death is better than living with what is to come. Only LeVar and his brother run into the forest. Randy and Jean arrive at the airstrip, see the dead bodies and are themselves killed. Linda tries to run away with the money, but she's shot too. With everyone dead, it's down to Brad, Veronica and Jim. And yet Jim still pontificates, only now to hundreds of dead bodies. Finally he too dies.
Airing this miniseries in 1980 was taking a risk. After all, it has been only two years since the deaths in Jonestown and the details were still fresh in everyone's minds. So, is this sordid calculation? Perhaps. But, it's also riveting storytelling, with Powers Boothe so eerily channeling Jim Jones that one begins to think perhaps Jim Jones lived on a bit longer to inhibit Powers Boothe and make sure his message wasn't completely dead.
True to genre form, the film starts at the end, with Jim Jones telling everyone to drink the juice as he's shot, the "enemy" on the approach.
PSYCH! It was a "loyalty test." No one has been shot and the juice is just juice. But, it proves how much of a hold Jim Jones (Powers Boothe) has over his followers. It's close to the end in 1978 and Representative Leo Ryan (Ned Beatty) is on his way to Guyana to ascertain exactly what's happening down in Guyana.
Even as a 10-year old child in 1941, Jim was a bully and a religious zealot. He's in charge of leading the funeral for a pet, with only other children watching. His sermon goes on so long that the other kids get fidgety, but he's not afraid to smack them with a stick to keep them in line. Toting around a Bible, he tells other kids they are going to hell. The only voice of reason against Jim's fundamentalism is his father, Jim Jones, Sr. (Ed Lauter), who tells him all he's going to get for egging on the other kids is a beating. Mama Lynette (Diane Ladd) is more practical, wanting her lazy husband to go back to work. Jim's only solace is with Mrs. Kennedy (Colleen Dewhurst), the woman responsible for teaching Jim her version of the Good Book. "Get out of my way, you Psalm-singin' little creep," Jim Sr. tells the boy as his mother plots their escape.
Eight years later, Jim is fully grown (and ready to be played for maximum bang by Powers Boothe). Working at a hospital, he meets Marcy (Veronica Cartwright), a nurse. I don't know that his tactic is exactly foolproof, because he spews more religion than love, but she's hooked.
Jim has a way of turning even the best moments into religious lunacy. He's getting a hair cut when a black child walks in for one. The owner refuses to cut his hair and Jim is furious. Okay, so far, so good, he's not racist. But, he blows it by then damning the owner to hell and spouting off.
He marries Marcy and then is invited to run a church where membership is dwindling. At first, he's depressed at the lack of turnout, but he is hell bent on getting youth involved in the church. He even goes after the town's prostitutes, and it works. Hooker Rosalind Cash believes in him instantly and wants to go to church, but she worries about how the others will look at her. He tells her to come anyway and she remains fiercely loyal to him, staying all the way through the end in Guyana. Depressed pet shop owner Randy Quaid decides to come to church just to see how the whites will react to the blacks, but at least he's there. . The church elders aren't thrilled with the mixing and goons even throw a dead dog through the window. He's fired by the bigots, and decides never again to work for a church with "small minded me with no vision!"
So, he does what any preacher without a church would do--he goes to the ghetto and starts praying on the rubble. He finds an abandoned synagogue and turns it into "The People's Temple." Again, so far, so good. He's a bit nutsy in his religious fervor, but he wants people of all shapes, sizes and colors. His specialty is ministering to the so-called lost puppies, overwhelming them with kindness and earning their undying (oops, bad word choice) loyalty.
As Jim struggles to make a go of it, he visits Father Divine (James Earl Jones), who may actually believe he's God. He asks Father Divine what to do about the feelings he's having for some of the female parishioners. Basically, celebrate it and help them bring it out. "Mary wasn't a virgin," Father Divine notes.
A medley of all the good Jim does wanders a breakneck speed as a hymn is sung. The man sure as hell seems a saint at this point, ministering to the poor and downtrodden, worried about each and every parishioner with such passion. Heck, even I could forgive some overzealous behavior since he's doing so well. His wife tells him to delegate and his response is, "does God delegate?" Ah, that seems like a crack in the plaster. Does he think he's God now? He brings some old-time tent revival shenanigans to his services, healing the sick, though they are actually just his loyal friends in disguise. Starting to believe he's God, he feels he has the right to sleep around. When is wife sees him with a young girl, he says he "has to be all things to be all people." That's a nice excuse that covers just about anything possible. It's an all-encompassing tent of free space for him to do whatever the hell he wants. It seems that any young woman who walks into a room where he's sitting ends up having sex with him.
Jim is named to the city's Human Rights Commission, which gives him the power force the mixing of the races, such as a cute scene where Jim rams his whole congregation into a movie theater flashing his credentials and cash.
He takes in a drug addict to prove he can cure him by holding him in the bed, where it looks a little more touchy-feely than doctor/patient. He also starts to use drugs himself. Hidden behind sunglasses most of the time, Jim has officially turned the corner on the way to Nutsville.
By 1965, things are booming at The People's Temple so much that they can move into fancier digs and Randy Quaid can propose to and marry Meg Foster. Randy is unusually sanguine about Jim's role in his wife's life. He's simply willing to accept it. As for where all the money is coming from, it's from the members. All of the senior citizens sign over their welfare checks or anything else they have.
After having saved Brad Dourif from a life of drugs, Jim makes the moves on his girlfriend Diana Scarwid in the forest using some honey-coated phrases that prove only that he's horny. He also still has Brad in his bed and under his thrall. This last fact has Diana being one of the first to question Jim's methods. "He has special needs," Brad says, after Rosalind tells her sins in the Bible don't apply to people like Jim who is spreading a special message (his sperm, mostly, because the rest of the message is getting increasingly muddled). Diana convinces Brad to escape with her, but Jim finds them. "I saved him and I will not lose him to you, to drugs or to anything else," Jim declares. There is one too many of the letter I in that sentence and not enough about religion. Jim insists that Diana stay in the room while he and Brad get it on.
His speeches are also more about himself than anything. "It wasn't God that brought you here," he tells a packed crowd, "it was Jim Jones." He says this before revealing tableaux of lynching and welfare and scary film clips of the atomic bomb. In essence, he's scaring his followers into staying in line. He's theatrical, show biz, flash and dazzle. He's also the father of Meg's baby, as opposed to her husband Randy. Every member is his personal plaything.
Within a few years, Jim has taken his People's Temple country-wide, busing everyone this way and that and playing to gigantic tabernacles and halls. Linda Haynes is sent to Geneva to deposit hoards of cash in a Swiss bank and Randy is sent to San Francisco to find a permanent (and huge) base there.
In 1971, Jim decides to open up in Guyana. "Bring plenty of money," he tells Randy. He buys 3000 acres there and then tells the government that they need special protection. In other words, heavy artillery. The government official can hardly say no the way Linda is silently flirting with him. She's learned from the master, and after she's done with him, he'll allow all of Jim's needs.
Super-rich Brenda Vaccaro shows up to see if there is anything Jim can do for her mother, dying of cancer. Jim snaps that the doctor's assessment that she's beyond help, "is a medical myth" and mom is brought in on a gurney during one of his over-the-top prayer services. Mom is a big watcher of Jim on TV, so she's ready to believe. In a bit of outrageous theatrics, he pulls the cancer out of her, although to anyone paying attention, it's only a piece of raw meet that was in the palm of his hand, the oldest card trick in the world! But, Brenda believes in him and Brenda happily joins the flock of women who belong to him sexually.
Mayor Mosconi selects Jim as his Housing Commissioner because he preaches to be a friend to everyone, white and black, rich and poor, gay and straight. During a service, a lackey of Jim's finds LeVar Burton sleeping and he's brought into the aisle to be slapped in public. LeVar argues that he was up all night painting the nursery, at Jim's insistence, but Jim says that was only a small thing, that he needs to devote himself fully. Okay, now they are just bullies. The next time LeVar falls asleep, he's flogged. "This is worse than the Klan, for God's sake," his father says. Oh, and by now everyone in the congregation is calling him Dad.
LeVar's father goes to Rep Ned Beatty with his fears, but Ned is skeptical. After all, Jim is the Housing Commissioner, but he decides to check into everything, including bank accounts. Jim decides to turn this on his congregation. "Who is my Judas?" he asks the congregation. LeVar's mother, deep into Jim's teachings, doesn't even realize it's her husband, but to teach the family a lesson, LeVar is locked in his painting shed with a lit cigarette and blown up (though he survives, with nary a scratch). With investigations closing in, it's time to move to Jonestown, Guyana. A spirited version of "Down by the Riverside," excites people so much that they can't say no. Once again, theatrics have won the day.
LeVar does not want to go to Guyana, especially since he's met a new girl. His mother is upset because her husband has left. "The family has never been apart," she says, the last vestige of her old life still alive in there somewhere. But, she leaves without LeVar.
Guyana certainly looks like paradise, but the crops are going to fail because Jim has driven the natives from the land instead of listening to them. "I will make it happen here with God's help," he barks at the government official who is trying to help. His ego has grown so large that he can't be bothered listening to anyone.
Indeed LeVar does go to Guyana, with his new wife Irene Cara in tow. Upon arriving, everyone gives up all passports and travel documents. No one seems to find that strange. LeVar finds it strange and he and his wife are not being housed together, but those are the rules. Jim keeps all of his hens together without any other roosters to get in the way.
Jim's nightly new broadcasts are a mixture of rambling paranoia and no-nonsense instructions. Richard and Irene do not fit in well. Jim summons Irene. He drugs her and has his way with her, pissing off LeVar, but LeVar has little choice as Jim outlaws marriage. His reasoning is beyond wacky: that marriages outside of the church are made of mismatched people and have to be destroyed. LeVar stands up and objects, so Jim proclaims him a homosexual, which is why his wife came to Jim in the first place (remember, she was summoned and drugged). Spewing all sorts of anti-gay rhetoric, he works the congregation into a dither enough to put LeVar in a small box for a few days. He's not judge and jury. There's only one step left.
From San Francisco, Randy calls to tell Jim he's off the housing commission and that he should return to the states to answer the charges against him. Naturally, Jim refuses, knowing that's he's guilty and will be arrested. "Is Jim as out of control as he sounds on the radio?" Randy asks when he arrives in Guyana? His wife says it's actually worse. They decide they have to take their son and leave. Randy tries his best to reason with Jim as Ned Beatty widens his investigation, but Jim has a fit, going through every level of melodrama to defend his position. Randy wants to take his son back to the US and Jim will not let that happen to "my son." He's manipulated so many minds, the kids follow whatever he wants. Randy and his wife decide to leave. Since his wife Meg is being sent to Brazil to deposit more illegal cash, and they decide not to go back. He calls Ned and begs for his help in order to get his son out of there. He even asks Ned to go to Guyana to see for himself. Jim spins this to the faithful as the CIA spending spies to kill him.
When Brenda's mother dies, she realizes she's been had. Not only did he not cure her mother, but he's taken her family and money from her. However, LeVar and Brenda do not add up to much. Ned, his staff, Diana, Meg and Randy arrive in Jonestown with reporters, but Jim's minions will allow only the Congressman and his aide, though Diana and Brenda's husband somehow gets to go too. They are greeted by a very chipper Veronica, who takes them to his throne. Brenda launches an attack that Ned can hear, but Jim sweeps her away, saying that she has simply lost her faith. Veronica shows Ned and his aide around, but of course only the parts that are complete safe to report on. The whole commune is fed a gigantic meal, something they have never had so far. "I must admit, Mr. Jones, I expected to come down and see a hell hole," and says that instead he found a wonderful place. For crying out loud, Jim tosses in a chorus of kids to sing.
Some of Jim's goons see LeVar making moves to perhaps attempt an escape, so they "stash him in the jungle." Then there is Brad, who encounters Diana. He believes that as the cult doctor, he has saved lives and will never leave. He tells her to stop living in the past and forget him.
Ned does ask Jim about the financial irregularities and sexual offenses. Jim has excuses to cover them all. Jim says he slept with only one woman other than Veronica, and it resulted in his son (Randy's son, but Ned doesn't know that). The way he delivers the speech makes one thing that not only is he acting just the way Ned will appreciate, but that he even believes his own lives by now. Ned isn't really buying it and neither is his assistant, who says they need to leave immediately. Ned tells the whole commune that anyone wanting to leave can do so the next day with him.
Only a few people actually take Ned up on his offer. Jim is worried about the lies they will spread and his head of security wants to stop them. "It's all over, it's all over. I've been betrayed...ask everyone to come to the pavilion, I have to talk to them," he cries to Veronica. Kool-Aid time! "Sounds like Dad wants us to have another one of his loyalty tests," LeVar's mother says and everyone arrives like sheep. To hammer in what's about to happen, the movie shows us hobbling old people and infants being brought.
Jim gets one last speech to the flock. "If we can't live in peace, then let's die in peace," he rails to the cheering crowd. He says that the Congressman is going to be shot (though saying that he didn't ask anyone to do it--of course not, he's never to blame). Suicide is merely a revolution. When someone disagrees, he says he would rather choose his own time of death, rather than live in torment. He's got an answer for everything, no matter how nonsensical it sounds.
At the airstrip, everyone is killed, the Congressmen included. A cameraman filmed it until getting shot, but the camera kept rolling.
In Jonestown, the juice is given to everyone. People who try to refuse are forced. The bodies pile up, but Jim continues to ramble through his microphone, saying death is better than living with what is to come. Only LeVar and his brother run into the forest. Randy and Jean arrive at the airstrip, see the dead bodies and are themselves killed. Linda tries to run away with the money, but she's shot too. With everyone dead, it's down to Brad, Veronica and Jim. And yet Jim still pontificates, only now to hundreds of dead bodies. Finally he too dies.
Airing this miniseries in 1980 was taking a risk. After all, it has been only two years since the deaths in Jonestown and the details were still fresh in everyone's minds. So, is this sordid calculation? Perhaps. But, it's also riveting storytelling, with Powers Boothe so eerily channeling Jim Jones that one begins to think perhaps Jim Jones lived on a bit longer to inhibit Powers Boothe and make sure his message wasn't completely dead.
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