`Ambush In Waco': It Looks Like World War Iii

"In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco," "NBC Sunday Night Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 5. ------------------------------------------------------------------- NBC might well have designated this as "Reality Week at NBC" - tomorrow night at 9 o'clock the new TV movie will be "Hurricane Andrew," Wednesday night at 9 the new TV movie will be "Terror in the Towers" and tonight's new TV movie at 9 is "Ambush in Waco." It's getting to the point that if you miss the nightly news, it's no big deal: There'll be a TV movie about it in just a few weeks.

I don't know about "Hurricane Andrew" or "Terror in the Towers," neither of which is yet available for previewing, but NBC has turned the tragedy in Texas into a credible movie, partly by using some restraint.

Considering the way the media carried on when the Branch Davidian headquarters burned down, I expected that to be the centerpiece of the film. Instead, it ends after the initial battle between agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and David Koresh's followers 51 days before the fire. One of the federal agents says, as the men are retreating: "We could be here for a long time." Only a crawl at the film's conclusion alludes to the April 19 disaster.

"Ambush in Waco" is part of NBC's continuing series, "In the Line of Duty," focusing on various law-enforcement agencies. Generally, they tend to be rah-rah-cheerleading events focusing on the Good Guys. But Phil Penningroth's script focuses mostly, instead, on Koresh, and it is Tim Daly's dynamic performance as Koresh that holds the movie together. Known mainly as the laid-back star of NBC's "Wings" sitcom (and the brother of actress Tyne Daly), Daly comes into his own in this film. He makes a scary, quixotic, dangerous, yet often charming Koresh (aided by makeup that is also convincing).

And the fact that all of his followers are played by unfamiliar performers reinforces the feeling we're seeing the real thing. Penningroth has tried to probe reasons why individuals would be gullible enough - and needy enough - to swallow Koresh's religious babble whole and, indeed, several dissenters are shown doubting Koresh's claims.

Of course, the film tends to spend too much time on Koresh's sexual antics within the compound: He always seems to be explaining to some nubile young woman how God wants Koresh to share his "seed" with her. How Koresh's followers who survived will view Daly's performance and Penningroth's interpretation of him remains to be seen. But Daly's characterization comes close to the portrait that emerged after the stand-off in Texas began.

The only other familiar faces in the film are Clu Gulager, who plays the sheriff, and Dan "Wonder Years" Lauria, who plays one of the agents. For the most part, however, the agents remain stick figures in the background until the decision to raid Mount Carmel the first time, which resulted in 15 agents being wounded and four being killed.

I don't know if the event was as wild as NBC portrays it, under Dick Lowry's direction, but it comes off on screen like the beginning of World War III. And the film seems fuzzy as to why the agents suddenly decided to invade Mount Carmel. At the end of the debacle, an agent calls Koresh and suggests they talk. A little late!

NO BLISS HERE "Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage," CBS miniseries, 9 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday, Channel 7. ------------------------------------------------------------------- This Sunday's second docudrama begins with the 1956 wedding of Bill Bonanno to Rosalie Profaci, which united two powerful Mafia families. It stars Eric Roberts as Bill Bonanno and Nancy McKeon as Rosalie Profaci but it's Ben Gazzara as Bill's father, Joseph Bonanno, who steals the acting honors.

Unfortunately, for too much of the movie Joe Bonanno is in hiding and we're stuck with Bill and Rosalie. He's always dashing off somewhere to take care of business (or go into hiding, which means she's stuck with the kids and no husband. The last straw is when he comes back home with a bunch of his henchmen and she has to cook and clean for the whole bunch.

You have to care a whole lot more about the Mafia than I do to find any of this interesting. Christopher Canaan based his script on Rosalie's book, "Mafia Marriage," but it's difficult to believe Profaci was so innocent that all of her husband's activities came as a big surprise to her after their marriage.

John Patterson directed the film, which seems rather a muddle. He uses the framing device of having Rosalie talk to a priest about how much she wants to get out of her unhappy marriage and we keep jumping back and forth between the long ago past and the recent past. Almost nothing that happened, outside of Mafia events, is mentioned - Vietnam, President Kennedy's death, the explosive '60s - so it's difficult to place any of the film in context. Sometimes you can tell from the models of cars driven or the shape of TV screens.

But mostly none of this is at all compelling. If you really are into the subject, turn off this movie and rent "The Godfather."

ANOTHER LOSER "Torch Song," "ABC Sunday Night Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 4. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The indefatigable, unstoppable Judith Krantz is responsible for this movie that sounds like it's a docudrama: Famous movie star goes to renowned rehabilitation clinic to dry out, meets younger, handsome blue-collar type, they fall in love and marry. Does this remind you of anyone we know?

This is a situation where truth is not only stranger than fiction but a lot more interesting. Raquel Welch plays the movie star; Jack Scalia plays a fireman with whom she falls in love at the clinic. There's an attempt to have some fun with the "but-we're-from-two-different-worlds" concept: She has to put up with his disastrous family affair where everyone gawks at her; he has to attend her dreadful Hollywood charity affair. But too much of the film concerns the star's whiny teen-age daughter, played self-consciously by Alicia Silverstone.

"Torch Song" is every bit as dumb and dull as "The Last Mafia Marriage" (though, thankfully, only half as long). Michael Miller, who directed "Torch Song," also directed "Heartbeat," a Danielle Steel potboiler. But "Torch Song" desperately needed a very light touch - and that's the one thing that neither Welch, Scalia or Miller have in their repertoire.

HAUNTING IMAGES "The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal," National Geographic Explorer, 6 and 10 p.m. Sunday, TBS. ------------------------------------------------------------------- To mark the 50th anniversary of the battle for Guadalcanal, producer Robert Kenner (and editor Leonard Feinstein) have created a memorable document about one of the turning points in the Pacific part of World War II.

Ostensibly the film is about Dr. Robert Ballard, the undersea explorer who found and photographed the Titanic and the Bismarck, who came to the waters off of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands to research and photograph some of the dozens of American and Japanese ships sunk during the bloody fight for Guadalcanal that began in 1942.

And while those underwater scenes have a certain fascination, they take on an additionally haunting quality because of the inclusion of a great deal of original footage, shot at the time by combat photographers, to give viewers a real sense of the magnitude and the violence of the battle. An additional plus are the reminiscences of veterans, from both sides, who recall the fight for Guadalcanal.

This is an historical, valuable and gripping document about a decisive time in the history of this century.