Waco: The Rules of Engagement is a 1997 documentary directed by William Gazecki about the 1993 Waco siege, a 51-day standoff beginning with the February 28 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms assault on the Branch Davidian church and home outside of Waco, Texas, and ending with the April 19 Federal Bureau of Investigation assault on the building. Following the assault, the building caught fire, killing the remaining inhabitants.
Production The film was spearheaded by gun rights activist turned filmmaker Michael McNulty, who spent twenty-eight months and $400,000 developing the film. Later former CNN business news reporter Dan Gifford and his wife Amy Sommer Gifford came in as co-producers, supplying almost another one million dollars. Director William Gazecki joined McNulty in traveling the country to interview and film participants for the film.Susan Faludi, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, Harper Perennial, 2000, p. 425-426,
Summary The resultant film, with Dan Gifford narrating, combined FBI negotiation tapes, Davidian home videos, footage from Congressional hearings on Waco, and extensive interviews with Davidian survivors, representatives of law enforcement, independent investigators, scholars and scientists. The film painted a dark picture of law enforcement actions, accusing FBI agents of shooting into the building at Davidians on April 19.Susan Faludi, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, p. 426.
Reception and legacy The film was unveiled at the Sundance Film FestivalWaco, Ruanda, the CIA and Domestic Violence: These and More at the 1997 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival|International Documentary Association on January 25, 1997.Variety
It won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative JournalismNews & Documentary Emmy Awards (1999) and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.1998|Oscars.org
Because of a falling out between Michael McNulty and Dan and Amy Gifford,Susan Faludi, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, p. 445-447. different cuts of this documentary have been produced. The version available today on video is a 135-minute cut. Michael McNulty would go on to make Waco: A New Revelation released in 1999 and The F.L.I.R. Project released in 2001.The F.L.I.R. Project at IMDB.
The film was released on DVD by New Yorker Video on December 9, 2003.DVD Talk
References
External links
The Film vs. the Facts at Southern Poverty Law Center