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The New York Times June 13, 1997 Waco: The Rules of Engagement By STEPHEN HOLDEN An atmosphere of stomach-clenching dread suffuses William Gazecki's grim documentary film, "Waco: The Rules of Engagement." This methodical indictment of the U.S. government's siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, four years ago has awful lessons to teach about governmental hubris and how a deliberate failure to communicate can have catastrophic consequences. That siege left 4 federal agents and 76 members of the Branch Davidian sect dead. Most of those who perished were incinerated in a fire that destroyed the Mount Carmel compound on April 19, 1993. Among the film's most unsettling images are lingering close-ups of the charred bodies of women and children who died in the inferno. In the official version of what happened, disseminated through the media, the Branch Davidians were a dangerous trigger-happy cult and their leader, David Koresh, was a Jim Jones-like madman who at the last minute incited his flock to commit mass suicide. But the film tells a different story. Taped interviews with the survivors and a replaying of the government's tape of the negotiations between the FBI and Koresh make a strong case for seeing the killing of the federal agents as an act of self-defense against an armed government assault. Once federal blood had been shed, the movie says, the government decided to move in for the kill. The most damning evidence against the FBI, which took over the case from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, is found on heat-sensitive infrared videos shot by the FBI from an aircraft flying over the compound. In the film, technological experts testify that strange flashes on the videos almost certainly came from automatic gunfire directed at the compound from government tanks. This contradicts the FBI's insistence that during the entire 51-day siege, federal forces never fired a shot. The visual evidence also suggests that a tank ran over the body of one or more sect members and that gunfire from federal troops ignited (perhaps deliberately) the highly flammable tear gas that had been pumped into the building. How persuasive is the evidence? It depends on how much you trust technological expertise. Infrared photography measures only heat. It doesn't show clearly defined images of people, places and things. Reconstructing events from such pictures is a matter of educated inference and guesswork. Given the scope of the tragedy being investigated, "Waco" is remarkable for its lack of overt passion. The surviving Branch Davidians who lost loved ones in the siege have heartbreaking stories to tell, but the film doesn't dwell on them. Instead of appealing directly to the emotions, the film maintains the detached, scholarly tone of a courtroom inquiry. Excerpts from congressional testimony are woven together with interviews and extensive television coverage of the siege into a plodding (sometimes exhausting) narrative that has the feel of a siege. But the images of the final fire are as horrifying as newsreels of war-torn Beirut. These Branch Davidians were not the insane cult that the government painted. A religious sect spun off from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, it took its eschatology from the Book of Revelation. And its leader did not present himself as a messiah but as a prophet. Allegations of child abuse against Koresh, the film insists, need to be evaluated in the context of the church's doctrine that its leader should beget 24 children who would one day become church elders. Although the history of the Branch Davidians includes some incidents of violent internal strife, the sect's attitude toward the outside world appeared to be defensive rather than belligerent. The film puts the group's stockpiling of weapons in the context of the local gun culture and notes that the buying and selling of guns is a profitable business. The movie suggests that the confrontation was conceived as a scheme by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to improve its tarnished image as a rogue agency: a tragedy that left 80 people dead began as a publicity stunt. WACO: The Rules of Engagement Directed and edited by William Gazecki; directors of photography, Mr. Gazecki and Rick Nyburg; music by David Hamilton; produced by Mr. Gazecki and Michael McNulty; released by Somford Entertainment. Running time: 135 minutes. Rating: This film is not rated. Copyright ©1998 The New York Times

 



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