Paramount’s Waco: Hard Topic, Fresh Approach

Waco
Source: The Daily Beast

The 1990’s will forever be remembered as the dawn of a new millennium. The 20th century was coming to a close, and a hopeful future was on the horizon. While many awaited a real-life Jetsons experience, a number of groups saw signs of an impending apocalypse that would consume the world.

One such group was the Branch Davidians, as they came to be known. Originally an offshoot from the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Branch Davidians were a small but apocalyptic group, which saw the Rapture on the horizon and prepared for it in the usual manner – with guns, Bibles, and toilet paper. This sect was led by the charismatic leader, David Koresh, who took upon himself the role as a spiritual leader at the dawn of the new age. While he and his group openly awaited the great tribulation to come, they were well-known and respected in the city of Waco, Texas and mostly left alone.

It wasn’t until reports of illegal arms trafficking and child abuse at the hands of Koresh reached federal authorities that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms decided to get involved. On February 28th, 1993, the ATF launched a disastrous raid which resulted in the deaths of 4 agents and 5 Davidians. The ensuing 51-day standoff at the Davidians’ Mount Carmel Center sparked much debate over gun rights, personal sovereignty, and religious freedom. Tragically, the confrontation came to an end when the ATF decided to gas out the remaining Davidians in the Mount Carmel Center. Under mysterious circumstances, a fire broke out which consumed the building and nearly all of the Davidians in less than 10 minutes. This episode would forever leave a scar on the nation’s conscience and an even more profound scar for all federal agencies involved.

Since then, many documentaries and dramas challenged the official narrative that the Davidians committed ritualistic suicide in the same fashion as the People’s Temple or Heaven’s Gate cults. Some suggest it was all a plan by the ATF to destroy any evidence of wrongdoing. Others say it was all part of the globalist New World Order plan to enslave humanity and whatnot. While the events in Waco were marred by controversy, there was never a real attempt to uncover the most critical aspect of this tragedy. Who were those involved? What did they want? And, above all, what could they have done to produce a different outcome?

Which brings us to the mini-series Waco, directed by John Erick Dowdle and Dennie Gordon. This six-part mini-series, released on the Paramount Network on January 24th, 2018, is the latest attempt in taking on the events at the Mount Carmel Center in 1994, and it just may pay off for once.

In the first episode alone, we’re given a unique approach to the story as the lines are blurred between good guy and bad guy. The film is based on a number of direct sources, primarily Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator, by Gary Noesner, and A Place Called Waco by David Thibodeau, himself one of the surviving Davidians. Both Noesner and Thibodeau are portrayed respectively by veteran actors Michael Shannon and Rory Culkin. This portrayal of both FBI and Davidian perspective offer a unique insight into the trials and errors of both parties involved in the affair.

The series opens with the initial moments of the raid that would doom all involved. At the sound of the first gunshot and subsequent title drop, we’re transported back nine months.

In the first camp of the story, we meet David Koresh, the charismatic leader of the Mount Carmel group. Portrayed by Taylor Kitsch, he is neither a madman nor a saint. Instead, he is a man firmly rooted in his convictions to the point of alienating himself from his followers. He is compassionate towards those in need of spiritual guidance, but he is also aware of the power he holds over his followers – so much, that he goes as far as to impregnate the wives of some of his male followers while ordering them to remain celibate. Kitsch could have easily gone off the deep end with his portrayal of Koresh, as is the case with other bizarre leaders such as, say, Charles Manson. Instead, he gives us a compassionate and solid performance which enables us to see why a small, but significant, number of people from all races, classes, and creeds fell under a spell so powerful, they chose to go up in flames with their leader instead of surrendering.

The Davidians themselves are portrayed as a close-knit group which is very devout in their beliefs, but they’re not raging cultists as one would expect. One of the members, Steve Schneider (portrayed by Paul Sparks), is one such character who is given a very human treatment. On the one hand, he’s David Koresh’s right-hand man who traded a good life in Hawaii for salvation at Mount Carmel. Despite this, he is torn by his resentment of Koresh for impregnating his wife while ordering Schneider himself to remain celibate, along with all the other men in the group. This clash of values is what is needed to create tension in a character, and every character is given said treatment.

In the opposing camp, we meet Officer Gary Noesner, a crack FBI agent with an extensive background in hostage negotiation. As Noesner, Michael Shannon gives us a superb portrayal of a man dedicated to his job while trying to tackle the empathy he feels for those he’s negotiating with. One such incident was the Randy Weaver affair, a similar standoff the previous year in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. While speaking with Weaver in an attempt to draw him out, he states, “Dead men don’t talk. Dying gives every man a free pass.” Said words ring true, considering what would take place in Waco a year later. While Randy Weaver would walk a free man, David Koresh and his followers would be savaged by federal agencies and media outlets for years as “cultists” and “Waco Wackos.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyJMdoHaHyM

Likewise, the ATF is viewed through a specific lens that may give us a hint of who the “bad guys” are in this series. Many of these men and women are officers of the law trying to preserve the peace. However, their efforts are hampered by outdated tactics which seem to do more harm than good. The Ruby Ridge standoff results in bad PR for the agency after they are reported to have a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to these situations. In the aftermath, the ATF is under a lot of pressure from both the federal government and the American people to do better. The reports of both arms trafficking and child abuse in Waco present a golden opportunity for the ATF to repair all damages done at Ruby Ridge. The question remains, though, as to whether they learned their lesson from Ruby Ridge or not.

As this is still an ongoing series, I’ll hold off on any major plot spoilers – but you can probably guess how it ends. The series will no doubt have its weaknesses in juggling the ethics behind both parties involved. While the ATF was foolish with their Rambo approach to the situation, this doesn’t deter the fact that David Koresh used his position of power to take predatory advantage of his followers. But where the strengths will undoubtedly lie in this series is the humane and calculated approach needed to tell the story from all angles. We as an audience deserve to examine and understand the events, and those involved, should any Wacos rise again.

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