Waco: American Apocalypse review 2023 - 30 years on, a question remains: Who started the fire?

Waco: American Apocalypse review 2023 -Netflix on Wednesday released Waco: American Apocalypse, a mini-series based on asex cult run by self-proclaimed God, David Koresh in 1993 in Waco city of Texas, US.

The Tiller Russell-directed documentary series chronicles the events that took place during a 51-day siege, from 28 February to 19 April, as cult leader Koresh fought against US federal officials.

Apocalypse means the end of the world. But whose world is ending anyway? It is the world of David Koresh that is about to go down in flames.

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But there are questions. Who started the fire? Was all this because of the grave miscommunication between ATF and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)? Or is it just a heck of a siege, executed in the worst way possible?

But let's take a step back.

In 1993, a man David Koresh, whose real name was Vernon Wayne Howell, claimed to be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the prophet. He was running a cult called Branch Davidians in a sprawling cow field in Mount Carmel Center, a large compound in a remote Texas location.

Now, if one watched Wild Wild Country, the feelings will be readily understood since this man, Koresh, is armed and prepared to defend his so-called family, much like Indian 'god man' Osho Rajnish's devotees were ready to defend their guru.

But, something outlandish was brewing inside this huge building in Texas. Machine guns, hand grenades, .50 calibre guns. Koresh would tell his followers that there will be a fiery end and they will come back with God's avenging army.

You'll be glued to your screen as each strand of the story is revealed with the pensive music playing in the background. Then there comes the tip-off.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) gets to know about the arms piled up at Mount Carmel Centre. They get a warrant against Koresh for violating gun laws.

The next thing you know is the Waco Texas shootout, resulting in the killing of four ATF officers. It soon transforms the crime scene into a war zone, one hell of its kind.

Then comes the point when everything becomes completely silent, no more guns blazing. You might become a little teary-eyed at this point.

On your screen, The White Buffalo's song "Wish It Was True" is playing.

"Country, I was a solider for you
I did what you asked me to
It was wrong and you knew"

FBI felt it is their principal responsibility to look into the killings of four ATF officers. So the ATF and FBI work together, till the latter takes complete charge after a nod from Attorney General Janet Reno.

What follows is the friction between the FBI's negotiating team and Hostage Rescue Team (HRT).

Now, the HRT is deploying the Bradley infantry vehicles first, and later the Abrams tanks, used in war zones, right outside the front gate of Koresh's cult home.

All for one purpose - to take down a not-so-handsome-looking specs-wearingguy who keeps on saying he will come out once he has decoded the Book of Revelation.

Insane?Well, there is more juice.

Even though the FBInegotiations resulted in the release of several women and children, Koresh and his deputy Steve Schneiderremained constantly frustrated by the discrepancy between what the FBI negotiatingteam was promising and what theHRT's tactical gear was doing which is mowing down the vehicles parked outside the cult house.

The tensions heightened with Koresh's frequent back and forth and his resistance to come out and surrender.

Then, HRT chooses to deploy tear gas inside the house, instead of carrying out an assault. Soon they believed that Koresh and his "family" are hiding out in a bunker where the tear gas has no effect on them.

So? HRT uses its enormous tanks to demolish portions of the compound. The scene where the FBI sniper ChrisWhitcomb had Koresh at gunpoint is the most intriguing. Nonetheless, he chose not to shoot, something he says he thinks about every day.

Then things start to go southwards. The building is on fire. There is a massive plume coming out of it. HRT seemed to be in utter confusion. It anticipates that Branch Davidian members will now finally come out. Only seven of them did. Everyone else, 76 Branch Davidians and 25 children, just chose to stand by Koresh and perish in flames next to him.

All of this is pretty straightforward, right? Maybe it's merely the order in which things transpired, but the documentary has a distinctive commentary from the cult's surviving members, like Heather Jones, who was just seven years old at the time. Her emotional recollections in the documentary are presented as though they happened only yesterday and not in 1993.

Kathy Schroeder, another member at Mount Carmel Centre, divulges in the documentary how in a sexual encounter Koresh showed her 'God's will.' Koresh purportedly had sex with young children and other men's wives.

The Netflix three-part docuseries also encapsulates David Thibodeau's views. He is another cult member who escaped the devastating fire by leaping out of a hole in the house.

It further shows how Koresh's mother selected the top defence attorney to assist her son, a self-proclaimed God. It is pretty chilling to see Koresh's lawyer enter the compound without a bulletproof vest because, according to him, he is more terrified of the HRT mistakenly shooting him than he is of Koresh.

The reports from the journalists on the scene are unbelievable too. What they initially believed to be a routine ATF operation that would culminate in some tedious interviews became the biggest story of their lives.

But the question that the documentary fails to tackle is...

Who started the fire? Were there any incendiary devices that the FBI planted inside the house that could have started the deadly fire? Surviving cult member David Thibodeau contends it was not the cult members who put the house on a blaze. FBI calls him a liar.

The 51-day siege from 28 February 1993 to 19 April 1993 has many wild theories and the documentary, 30 years on, fails to give any further clarity.

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