There was even a new doc as of last year that had survivors recalling the events. Any doc on this subject has been 10x more intense, and the audio recordings of Jim Jones himself were much more chilling than anything in the movie. Confused as to why Ti West wanted to tackle this movie but it was a swing and a miss.
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It would been a really good movie without the original event. But I don't understand why they did that. It was 50% less effective for me. A real horror survival movie would have been better.
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This is what annoyed me about The Sacrament, and why it's a bad movie instead of a good one.
He didn't want to say "Based on a true story" anywhere, which sucked me into seeing the movie, because I thought it was a fictional story that was similar to Jonestown but went somewhere else with it. I did not think it was going to be exactly the same, otherwise I wouldn't have seen it. I've already seen the documentary, and is a lot better than this.
While he didn't want to say "Based on a true story" he wanted to use a real company(Vice). So which is it? Is it a fictional story, or a story based in this world? If it's a fictional story based in the same world that Vice exists, it shouldn't be so similar to Jonestown, since they both exist in the same world and it ends up being stupid. It's a bad mix of fiction and non-fiction.
Would have been much better if he didn't use the Vice name, and made it a different story than almost exactly what happened in Jonestown.
Claiming writing credit on this is bad, bad, bad. It's not an original story and it's not an original company. What really did he write? Some dialogue that could have just as easily been all improvised? 99% of this story was already written, and he didn't do a good job with the 1% he added himself.
You know what? The Jonestown massacre is a pretty entertaining story. So, it's surprising no one made a movie based off it before.
"Entertaining"??You *"#*# ghoul! You think what happened in Jonestown was...entertaining??
You need your head examined...for the good of your surroundings. Stop watching horror movies, playing TV games and get yourself sectioned!
Crazy religious people doing crazy things in the name of their religion, same **** different day.
shareFor the record, Jonestown was a godless, Communist cult. This film almost seems like an effort to slap a religious/Christian label on top of Jonestown to perpetuate the myth that it was a bunch of Christian wackos.
They came from San Francisco. Jones was heavily involved in liberal Democratic politics there. He was a Communist/Marxist. He did not believe in god.
Except there have been a lot.
Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones
Guyana: Cult of the Damned
are the fictional ones, and then there's a ton of documentaries. So your point is...what, again?
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"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch
You claim there's been a lot of movies about it and then you list two with some documentaries. That's not a lot.
shareAs I said elsewhere in the thread, Google is your friend. Am I required to educate you about history or film? I don't think so, and besides, that would take away all your fun. Go forth and learn, little man.
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"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch
If you're going to claim there's a lot of movies, then the burden is on you to back it up not just list two and then say "google it."
shareThis is what's wrong with people today. They want things handed to them on a silver platter. They don't experience any joy in looking for things on their own, they just sit there, screeching like baby birds in the nest, waiting for mommy and daddy to regurgitate the information into their throats so they don't have to do the work.
GTFO and go do the work, slacker baby.
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"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch
The only one screeching like a baby bird is you, whining about the movie but unable to back up anything you say. You want everybody to google it because you don't even know what you're talking about.
shareKeep avoiding google for...what reason? I've already seen them. Go forth and do likewise. Research is your friend.
Nighty night, crabby baby.
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"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch
YOu made yourslef look like a total douche here
shareWhy because I wouldn't google some guys incorrect statement to try to prove his own point for him? He couldn't even back up his own post without googling it in the first place. Moronic.
shareYou cross paths with two people in an argument.
One of them hurls insults, the other argues a point...
And you accuse the one being insulted of being a douche?
Makes sense.
http://www.imdb.com/list/YU6USnpUaJ8/
"This is what's wrong with people today. They want things handed to them on a silver platter."
Or they make outlandish claims, offer the bare minimum of evidence, and follow with boisterous claims of intellectual superiority.
Quite a few ad hominem attacks from someone who thinks of themselves as learned.
http://www.imdb.com/list/YU6USnpUaJ8/
Do you want shorts as well as feature length? Are you limiting your request to films that are directly about Jonestown, or can they be films like this one, where the story is altered but is still clearly about Jonestown? Will you accept foreign films which use it as the central conceit, filtered through their own culture's sensibilities? Can they be part of anthologies?
You're right. I am learned.
There is a joy in looking for and finding films, discovering them through luck or actively searching. I've been doing this since I was a kid and there was no google then to help me. I would ride the bus to the library downtown and dig through shelves for hours. Film is the one thing in life that makes me truly happy, from the dreck to the sublime. I'm really, really passionate about it. Even *beep* films can make me happy if there's a nugget of an idea there. I feel sorry for, and am suspicious of, people who don't get any pleasure out of finding treasures on their own. It tells me something about the level of their passion and their desire and love for film.
I am also an enormous *beep* snob. This doesn't bother me overmuch. I own well over 12k films, on various forms of media. My house is crowded but movie night is always fun as *beep*.
I don't know of any great directors who ever asked anyone if you could tell them what movies they should be watching because they were too lazy to go and find out for themselves. I don't even know of any bad directors who do this.
Sorry you have a problem with people who think that it's ultimately more pleasurable to discover things on your own--things which again are clearly, easily found by the use of google and line up for you like ducks in a row once you hit youtube need to be told to do precisely that.
Here's a tip: you can find a lot of them via the google search "films based on Jonestown". You will receive a number of hits. Lots of them link to youtube, where you will see similar subjects that are not necessarily Jonestown as we know it but are filtered through the foreign sensibility I mentioned earlier. Some of them are playing on the streaming service Fandor right now.
I have nothing else to say in this thread and won't respond to your inevitable snide reply which means zilch, nor will I respond to anyone else in this thread who asks because a bunch of lazy people demand that I do the work--which is actually rewarding and fun--for them.
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"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch
What the hell kind of ninny says "I've not seen" and not "I haven't seen"
I recommend the documentary called "How to grow a pair" - Membrane26 needs to take extra notes!!!
Baba O'Riley... the crappiest song in the world
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I just happened to see the movie The Sacrament last night, and it brought me here. Who would I run into but the paranoid "Mr. troll hunter" who is a troll themselves.
And what's this about boyfriends? I don't know what you mean. But you're showing your obvious anti-homoexual agenda ... you a charter member in the KKK?
Baba O'Riley... the crappiest song in the world
I am very knowledgeable about Jonestown, have seen all the documentaries, and have significantly researched it. With that said, I LOVED this film. I thought it hit the nail right on the head. It was excellent.
shareWhy? Why would you want to watch something you already know everything about, only worse and watered down? Kill count from 900+ to 160? Why? Congressman to a Vice reporter? WHY?
What was the point on watering down two stories? That's what I don't get. What's the point of this movie!? (other than to make money)
You could say that about any horror franchise. We all know what's going to happen in the Halloween, Elm Street, Hellraiser, and Chainsaw movies.
If I want to hear the pitter patter of little feet, I'll put shoes on the dog.
Same here. Some people are overthinking this. It's a movie. A good one, too. I watched it on NF streaming & will probably watch it again.
There's more than one way to tell a story.
Why did you think it was excellent?
I thought it took a truly horrifying real life event and made it into a derivative, bad horror film. MMV, I guess, but personally I thought it was garbage. Reading about Jonestown and/or listening to the tapes is more frightening than this movie.
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"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch
Are you suggesting that one can't (or shouldn't) enjoy a movie with similar themes to other movies?
Phits
It is a fairly odd choice to basically make a movie based on events of the Jonestown incident and not just come right out and say that's what it is.
That said I think the film is well made and well acted but it just ends up being sort of flat if you are already aware of Jim Jones and what he did. This film is sort of a "watered down" version of the actual event and modernized to make it appeal to a younger crowd while using the tired trappings of the "found footage" genre.
Which documentary are you referring to?
Walter Sobchak: Am I wrong?
The Dude: You're not wrong Walter. You're just an a*shole.
Good inaccurate generalization. I enjoyed the movie AND have seen multiple documentaries concerning Jonestown, having been fascinated by the events for awhile. This film puts you inside the complex, all the way, even throughout the entirety of the flavor-aid mass suicide, of which there is no actual footage. I found it very chilling to depict the deaths so realistically. While some were disappointed to find, in the 2nd half, that the film was going full-on Jonestown, I found it very interesting and even had a macabre excitement about it. It was a cool sort of anti-twist to discover that, for me.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turnin' every good thing to rust
There are audio tapes of the entire suicide. Close your eyes while you listen and chances are you'll find yourself 'inside the complex'. This movie is *beep* and anyone who actually knows anything about Jonestown will recognize it as such.
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"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch