Waco: The Rules of Engagement

It was purported to be collective suicide, the gruesome death of dozens of followers of sect leader David Koresh in Waco, Texas, in April 1993. But in this shocking documentary, filmmaker William Gazecki reveals quite a different truth. The 51-day siege by the American ‘Feds’ of the compound of the ‘Branch Davidians’, as the believers called themselves, turns out to be one long series of mistakes, miscommunication and lies – with fatal consequences. Persistently, Gazecki investigates every aspect of the blockade and what preceded it. He accumulated an inconceivable amount of visual evidence, convincingly refuting the Feds’ version of the facts. The image of the Branch Davidians, spread by the media and the FBI, as antisocial, drug-using religious maniacs appears to be far from the truth, making the extremely cruel siege tactics used by the Feds greatly unjustified. What is more, the conflict could easily have been ended in a peaceful manner, if the FBI had not stopped the negotiations unilaterally. This makes the ghastly culmination of the siege all the more distressing. Gazecki does not spare the spectator; particularly the infrared aerial shots showing the eventual assault and the fire inside the compound are both horrifying and awesome. With WACO: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, now a classic investigative documentary, Gazecki demonstrates how easily the government, aided by the media, can manipulate public opinion, at the expense of a small group of dissenters.