The best Peoples Temple documentary so far, but there remains considerable room for improvement. "The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" glosses over numerous bizarre events in the life of Jim Jones, such as his acquaintance with Dan Mitrione--an infamous undercover CIA operative who was assassinated in Uruguay in 1970--and Jones's extended stay in Brazil during the early 1960s. (Mitrione was there at the same time, working for the U.S. State Department, and the CIA has admitted that it opened a file on Jones when Mitrione was dispatched to Brazil in September 1960). These are established facts, not unverified rumors, so it seems simply lazy to exclude them from what purports to be an evenhanded account of Jones's quasi-religious Marxist cult. Also unexamined here is the medical evidence indicating that most of the 913 victims at Jonestown did not commit suicide, but were murdered. Survivor Stanley Clayton, who is interviewed in the film, saw adults being forcibly injected with cyanide before he escaped from the isolated jungle settlement (see Tim Reiterman's "Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People"), which appears to confirm the findings of Guyana's chief pathologist Dr. Leslie Mootoo, who was the first to examine the bodies. Those findings, however, are not discussed in the documentary. Were mind control experiments being conducted at Jonestown? (There were large amounts of drugs like sodium thiopental and chloral hydrate in the compound's medical facilities.) Was Jim Jones connected to the CIA, and did the agency seize the perfect opportunity to silence Congressman Leo Ryan, one of its most vocal critics? "The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" eschews these questions, predictably reducing the story--once again--to a real-life soap opera about a megalomaniac and his tragically misguided disciples. The interviews with those who knew Jones and worked alongside or followed him are fascinating, but significant and perhaps crucial chunks of the Peoples Temple saga are missing from this film.