Waco

Following something of a stressful and traumatic childhood and some problematic religious stints, young Vernon Howell moved to Waco, Texas, joining with a religious splinter group (it’s kinda complicated) called the Branch Davidians.  Soon gaining power and then leadership of the group, claiming the power of prophecy and subsequently being seen as the final prophet of the movement, Howell changed his name to David Koresh, evoking the spiritual lineage he purported to have (ie. he was “descended” from the line of King David and drew comparisons with the semi-messianic Cyrus the Great (called “Kōréš” in the Bible)).  Due to his group’s religious practice of spiritual marriages with many of the resident women, allegations flew regarding polygamy, child molestation, and rape, statutory and otherwise.  Worse for the group, though, was their apparent stockpiling of automatic weapons and explosives, which caught the attention of the ATF.  (It should be noted, though, that this stockpiling was nominally, at least, prepping for sales at gun shows, for which the group always had to proper paperwork to ensure compliance with the law.)

After a sloppy reconnaissance campaign of the compound, a search and arrest warrant was issued for Koresh and his followers, which the ATF attempted to execute on February 28, 1993, with a surprise raid on the Davidians’ compound at Mount Carmel.  The group was tipped off about the raid, however, when a delivery driver, coincidentally Koresh’s brother-in-law,  was asked for directions to the compound by a journalist assigned to document the raid.  Koresh ordered the women and children to seek protective shelter, while some of the men armed for defense.  An ATF mole was apprised of the group’s knowledge of the raid, and he attempted to stop the operation, citing the lack of surprise.  It was in vain.  The ATF rolled to compound en masse.

It’s still not clear who fired the first shots, as both sides claim innocence, but regardless a firefight broke out, leaving four federal agents dead and sixteen wounded, while five Davidians lay dead, more injured, including Koresh.  What followed was an extended standoff between the ATF, soon joined by the FBI and elements of the military (including tanks!), and the Davidians that lasted fifty-one days.  During that time, several attempts at negotiations went through, but there was a growing sense of impatience and futility amongst the federal forces, and psychological warfare was introduced, including the nightly blasting of strident and discordant music and sounds and the cutting off of water and communications.  Finally, on April 19, with the sanctioning of the President and the Justice Department, federal agents went ahead with their final assault, plowing holes into the compound with CEVs and pumping in CS gas (a strong tear gas).  Still the Davidians refused to leave the compound.  Once again, we’re left with a “they said/they said” situation, as fires began to break out in the compound, each side blaming the other for starting them.  Regardless of the cause, the fires and CEV damage caused much of the structure to cave in.  Many of the Davidians were trapped and buried by the various materials and/or suffocated from the fire; others suffered other fates, like cyanide poisoning (a potential consequence of burning CS gas) and blunt trauma.  Koresh himself was shot and killed by one of his followers, who then turned the gun on himself.  In total, seventy-six Davidians died in the conflagration, about a third of which were children; nine managed to escape.  As one would expect, the government’s handling of the situation received heaps of criticism.

This debacle was chronicled in a six-part miniseries on the Paramount Network, finishing on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the start of the siege.

This miniseries deserves a helluva lot of praise:  It’s pretty factually accurate, fictionalizing/dramatizing things we just can’t know about (the usual stuff, like conversations and whatnot); it’s surprisingly balanced, thanks largely to the sourcing of two different accounts (one from surviving Davidian David Thibodeau and one from FBI negotiator Gary Noesner), humanizing the Davidians who have otherwise been treated as only fanatical and lunatical since the siege and showing that the federal agents, though misguided at many points, still tried the handle things properly; and it’s stunningly well-acted, highlighted by headliners Michael Shannon as Noesner and Taylor Kitsch as Koresh.

Kitch’s Koresh certainly illustrates his notorious charisma and zeal, but it never leaps over the top and maintains an air of a confident, driven man butting heads with powers and events beyond his control.  Similarly, Shannon’s Noesner constantly finds himself at odds with other elements of the federal team, trying desperately to broker a peaceful negotiation and stall a potentially bloody conflict, all while meeting nothing but resistance from both sides.  The series deftly shows how laudable ideals with clearly beneficent aims can fall apart due to external forces, no matter how strongly said ideals are clung to.  There is a definite feeling that said ideals, and ideals in general, really, are only able to come to fruition if people are willing to make it so.

Aside from the leads, plenty of outstanding performances come to mind.  Paul Sparks (who can be seen on House of Cards and Boardwalk Empire) brings the same kind of humanity and grounding to Koresh’s best friend and right hand man, Steve Schneider.  Simultaneously dealing with the stress of the Davidian lifestyle (particularly his wife, one of Koresh’s spiritual wives, having a child with the leader) and being tasked with keeping the compound together during the siege, Schneider’s character is fully realized by Sparks, who shows the gravity of the situation bearing down on Schneider at all times.  Melissa Benoist (probably best known for playing the title role on Supergirl) also shines as Koresh’s wife (primary wife, I guess) Rachel, showing at turns the vulnerability of a mother trying to keep her children safe in an extremely dangerous situation and the inner strength of a group leader trying to hold everything together, but I feel her role was cut down from what it could have been.  Shea Whigham (who’s shown up clandestinely in all sorts of things, like Boardwalk Empire, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Kong: Skull Island) provides the source of the more militaristic side of things as FBI agent Mitch Decker, whose grim worldview and harsh methodologies clash with Shannon’s.  And Rory Culkin (has it really been sixteen years since Signs?) brings a quiet sense of humanity and understanding the the aforementioned Thibodeau, who we see join the group, get involved with the members personally, and ultimately somehow come out the other side alive.  In a nice little nod to the sources, Noesner and Thibodeau both appear outside the courtroom at the end alongside their screen counterparts.

Most appreciable, though, is the series’ depiction of the event’s contexts.  We don’t see a mindlessly ardent FBI rushing in with guns blazin’ ’cause that’s who they are, but rather we see the mishandling of the Ruby Ridge incident less than a year before and the repercussions of that affair, particularly in the inter-departmental friction between the FBI and the ATF.  We’re not shown much of Koresh’s rise to power, rather the Davidians are just going about their business as though everything were the usual usual; Koresh’s personality, charisma, and control are shown organically, often through the eyes of neophyte Thibodeau, allowing us to see how their views came to dominate their lives and just how, well, human everyone truly was, no matter their beliefs.  We get a good sense of why things went down the way they did, why the siege became so protracted and ended so violently.  Admittedly, the creators took a decidedly anti-government stance at the end, repeating how on several occasions the government as overstepped their law-enforcement bounds and gone overboard with CS gas, seemingly every time leading to fire and disaster, but this is part of the underlying message:  Only by recognizing the humanity in our fellow man, by seeing each other as more similar than different, can we ever hope to achieve understanding and peaceful conflict resolution.

This miniseries was a complete blast, dramatic, harrowing, and, at times, deeply emotional (the end of the series is something of a throat punch, lemme tell ya).  The high caliber acting, the strong production values, the messages portrayed, it’s all very good.  It’s definitely worth a watch if available, and the nearly six hours of runtime flies by.  I can only hope we get more series like this in the future, powerful and well-done, rather than pointless and drawn-out.