Waco movie review 2023

Documentaries are having a hard time competing with the ever-diminishing attention spans of viewers who have an overwhelming amount of options to choose from in the streaming era. While it's a common problem that filmmakers face, it seems to have been only resolved in the short term with the heavy-handed approach seen in "Waco: American Apocalypse," now on Netflix. Many modern documentaries begin with sensational thesis statements that promise the viewer an exciting experience, but "Waco: American Apocalypse" is more like a 150-minute trailer with minimal emotional investment, despite the intricate material, difficult questions, and expansive grey areas that come with retracing what happened in Waco, Texas, in 1993. The series focuses on the 51-day standoff between heavily armed cult leader David Koresh, his Branch Davidian followers, and American armed forces, which began when ATF agents were following through on a warrant for illegal machine guns. A shootout ensued, with dead and wounded on both sides. For Koresh, it was a prophecy. He had been calling himself Jesus Christ to his flock of approximately 100 people and had been hyping them about defending themselves during an apocalypse, one that was brought to their door.

Multiple accounts, including that of a local reporter who was present when the shooting started, recreate the chaos for the viewer. "It was like going to a theater and watching a war movie … but it was real life," says another talking head. Director Tiller Russell uses never-before-seen footage to create some immersive intrigue, but then lays on the war movie aesthetic with editing and gunshot sound effects. The score goes “BRAHM!” like a Hans Zimmer motif, and at one point, it goes “DUN-DUN-DUN-DUNDUN!” like the jingle from “The Terminator.” Although the violence in this first episode is horrifically real, the filmmaking is gross on its own. For instance, it flashes one woman’s childhood self over her current face as she speaks about watching someone die in the compound.

The series aims to chronologically focus on the experience of what happened around the Mount Carmel compound, but in purporting to be about both sides of the standoff, it feels as if it has skipped an episode. The series interviews Branch Davidians like Kathy Schroeder and David Thibodeau but gives them little time to explain how they ended up there, why they so desperately wanted to stay, or how they were able to survive as long as they did in Mount Carmel. That feeling becomes more glaring when a producer plays the last phone call with her father for former Branch Davidian Heather Jones, who died in the compound. The scene would be more powerful if its sole purpose weren’t just to see her well-up and gobsmacked. The series treats Koresh’s ascent to power, including manipulating a cult that had already been in place since 1955 and which later helped him sexually abuse children, with the same cursory nature. Everyone's vulnerabilities in "Waco: American Apocalypse" are handled like one would move pieces on a chessboard.

The three-part series struggles to explore the ideas that lead to something like Waco, including the militia mentality and how an American like Koresh could have obtained his arsenal. "Waco: American Apocalypse" is instead satisfied to exist only as a clumsy study of the tactics put into play by American forces, hoping to save the children, prevent more loss, and stave off nightly news horror. The series illustrates how tactful efforts were made by negotiators to convince Koresh and others to play ball, but those were thwarted by aggressive acts from the FBI and the Hostage Rescue Team. There are so many questions we’ll never know about how close the Branch Davidians might have been at certain times to.