Review of Jonestown: Paradise Lost

This documentary is a re-enactment with the aid of actual footage depicting the final days of Jonestown, the Peoples Temple and Jim Jones. Through government information, eyewitness and survivor accounts, the last week before the mass murder-suicide on November 18, 1978 is recreated. California congressman Leo Ryan(Greg Ellwand)makes a fatal journey into the jungles of Guyana, where Jim Jones and his followers carved out their own piece of paradise...the community of Jonestown. Rick Roberts does his best to play the role of Jones, the ego-maniacal pastor. But he falls way short of Powers Boothe's dead on portrayal years earlier. Boothe actually seem to capture Jone's arrogance and charisma. Roberts had the mannerisms, but fell short on...no pun intended...the spirit. Archival footage and in-depth personal interviews gives a glimpse into the inner workings of the tragic cult and its surreal demise. Paradise was lost when the Peoples Temple "drank the Kool-Aid" and Jones put a bullet in his head.