Waco: The Rules of Engagement

I don't know about you, but I never really bought the FBI's assertion that the Branch Davidians committed mass suicide, if only because people rarely kill themselves by fire--especially not people with ready access to hundreds of loaded firearms. Seeing William Gazecki's Oscar-nominated documentary Waco: The Rules of Engagement has convinced me once and for all that they did not, and that the U.S. government completely botched the Waco standoff from pointless start to gruesome finish. Though somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 minutes of footage has apparently been cut since the film screened at Sundance (it was then three hours long), it's still a frighteningly comprehensive examination of what took place during the spring and summer of 1993, and one which leaves little room for doubt--not only in its accusations of federal incompetence and brutality, but also in its more disturbing implication that an unconscionable campaign of misinformation continues. To this day, for example, the FBI and ATF maintain that they never once fired upon the compound; Gazecki shows us heat-sensitive film of the siege that pretty decisively proves otherwise. As filmmaking, Waco is merely competent (Gazecki is no Errol Morris--whom Oscar overlooked this year); as investigative journalism, however, it's first-rate, and should be required viewing for any U.S. citizen who actually gives a damn about what our elected officials are doing behind our backs. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. D'Angelo)