I couldn’t look away. I tried. I had to watch it all the way to the bitter end, when the crying of babies could be heard over Jim Jones‘ desperate droning, “come children, come children, sleep children, sleep.” How is it religion serves a good purpose again? Isn’t Jim Jones exactly what is wrong with our inclination to give over our own power to another? If anyone read this blog I know I would get ripped a new one for that comment, but since it just you and me and the quiet, no one will ever know.

Jim Jones: shorter, fatter than I’d thought. Jim Jones: a better version of him was played by Powers Booth. Jim Jones: just a desperate, power-hungry psychopath.

Nonetheless, the real story of Jonestown is only hard to deal with in those final moments, when he makes them all kill the babies and children first. He knows that no mother would let her baby die alone. Now, how’s that for cheery? Happy Easter and all that.