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Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World

Libertarian Movies, Films & Documentaries

Waco: The Rules of Engagement (1997)

Tagged: Democide, Propaganda

WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN DOCUMENTARIES
NOMINEE: ACADEMY AWARD BEST DOCUMENTARY

A critical examination of the 1993 BATF raid in Waco, Texas. [ Waco: The Rules of Engagement credits: Dir: William Gazecki/ 165 min/ Documentary-Educational/ Democide, Propaganda]

“Waco: The Rules of Engagement is a wonderful summation of the case against the government at Waco. It’s well organized, it appeals at both an intellectual and emotional level, and it’s supported both by extensive video footage and expert testimony.”

If you’ve ever wondered what actually happened in Waco, why and how the government was able to kill dozens of people who had never been convicted of anything, watch Waco: The Rules of Engagement. Step by step the government’s version of the story is unraveled, and in its place is left a holocaust that can only be attributed to an incredible abuse of state power.

One of the most important accomplishments of the film is to rehumanize the Davidians, who had been so successfully dehumanized by the feds. As video clips taken at the time of the siege reveal, the Branch Davidians were certainly very religious people but were not mesmerized, or nut-cases, or gun-toting white-supremacists. In interviews shown here they are reasonable, happy, well-educated, and multiracial. Koresh is more off the deep-end, but even he seems just obsessed, not insane. This rehumanization is important because part of the intelligentsia’s disinterest in Waco has to do with its disconnect from stereotypical images of religious gun-toting types.

Next the film addresses the charges against Koresh that initially justified the government’s interest. It succeeds in diminishing those charges but probably not to everyone’s satisfaction. Koresh likely did have sex with young girls but no less than age fourteen, which, as the local sheriff in the film points out, is technically common law marriage with parents’ permission. As for the charge that the Davidians were stockpiling weapons in preparation for an expected conflict with the world, testimony reveals that they operated a legitimate gun business and held an inventory for it (a fact that I had never heard before) in a state where guns are so common they reportedly outnumber people by a wide margin. In any case, most of the Davidians had nothing to do with guns.

Finally, the film deals with the actual events. The BATF’s initial assault was a fiasco and ended in a truce in which the Davidians allowed the BATF to retreat without firing a shot at them (again something I heard for the first time). The government seems to have acted with less honor. After subsequently filling the Branch Davidian buildings with flammable toxic gas, which quickly burst into an inferno, BATF snipers apparently shot freely into the burning structures. The BATF says the Davidians set the fire themselves, but, as the film points out, the Davidians—who were if anything religious—were religiously opposed to suicide.

Waco: The Rules of Engagement is a wonderful summation of the case against the government at Waco. It’s well organized, it appeals at both an intellectual and emotional level, and it’s supported both by extensive video footage and expert testimony. The high quality of this film, and its consequent Academy Award nomination, has given it credibility with all corners of the political spectrum and so has taken the message of what really happened at Waco to audiences that would not normally have heard it. If you’re looking for a film to demonstrate to skeptical friends that the feds are capable of abusing their power—this is the one.

External Reviews

“Whatever happened at Waco, these facts remain: It is not against the law to hold irregular religious beliefs. It is not illegal to hold and trade firearms. It is legal to defend your own home against armed assault, if that assault is illegal. It is impossible to see this film without reflecting that the federal government, from the top down, treated the Branch Davidians as if those rights did not apply.”
–Roger Ebert

“Waco: The Rules of Engagement is a provocative ‘story behind the story’ account of the 1993 clash between federal agents and members of the Branch Davidian religious sect…Relying heavily on interviews, home movies, news footage and C-SPAN coverage of Senate hearings on the Branch Davidian tragedy, Gazecki succeeds in raising serious doubts about what really happened before, during and after the 51-day siege at Waco.”
–Variety

How to See It

Amazon (DVD)  
YouTube Video Search

Online Video Search

Links

Reason: What Happened at iWaco?
Cato Institute: Fanning the Flames of iWaco
South Park Episode on iWaco: Two Naked Guys in a Hot Tub
Book: Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces
Book: Send in the iWaco Killers

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Trackbacks

  1. Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World – The Child Terror (1998) says:
    February 8, 2014 at 12:42 pm

    […] before Janet Reno ordered the bloody raid at Waco “in the name of the children,” she had been at the forefront of another “pro-child” terror. […]

  2. Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World – Stranger on My Land (1988) says:
    March 4, 2014 at 4:52 pm

    […] with overwhelming force, and the rancher and his family would be instantly killed. After all, if there’s one job the feds are good at it’s killing. And, of course, the idea that the press or any other non-combatant would be allowed to witness the […]

  3. Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World – Harry’s War (1986) says:
    March 4, 2014 at 9:58 pm

    […] the actual conflict starts, those familiar with other U.S. government actions against its citizens (e.g., the Waco Massacre) will see some definite parallels. The hero is accused of being crazy and of having hostages; he is […]

  4. Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World – The Official Story (1985) says:
    March 27, 2014 at 9:30 pm

    […] up. It’s something that others take little note of, as though it were a routine occurrence. Given the American context of Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc., this odd sense of private terror amidst public normalcy seems credible. Norma […]

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This site is a collection of films and documentaries of particular interest to libertarians (and those interested in libertarianism). It began as a book, Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film: Movies for the Libertarian Millennium, where many of the recommended films were first reviewed. The current collection has grown to now more than double the number in that original list, and it’s growing still.

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