J F K

Many have shaken their heads or even condemned "JFK", which to me is one of the most powerful movies ever made. It's easy to understand why some people would not enjoy it. The subject matter is very controversial and explosive: the possible conspiracy that was behind the assassination of our last courageous president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Oliver Stone is known for being a conspiracy theorist. Now, I admit that talking about conspiracy theories, urban legends, etc is very fun and even intellectually stimulating at times. But, any educated person would agree that dwelling on such things is trivial and ultimately pointless, especially if we are powerless to actually have an effect on the things being discussed. So, is "JFK" merely a crackpot conspiracy theory backed by a $40 million budget, directed by an extremely ambitous director, edited by the talented Pietro Scalia and Joe Hutshing, and scored by the great John Williams? To me, the answer is a resounding no.

From what others have written and said, the majority of America in the 1960's didn't buy the Warren Commission's findings on Kennedy's death. I can't imagine what it must have been like to be alive when the president was murdered. I'm sure I would have demanded an explanation, but I have no idea if I would or wouldn't have accepted Lee Harvey Oswald as the explanation. But there is one thing I do know. The home video that Abraham Zapruder was filming during that fateful day in 1963 proves that three of the wound inflicting bullets were fired in a span of 2.6 seconds. And a reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from that video is that at least one of those bullets came from the front of Kennedy's motorcade (Oswald was in the book depository, which was behind the motorcade). Those two ideas are enough to suggest to me that Oswald was not acting alone. Well, I can only hope that the Warren Commission's findings are actually released when they are supposed to be in 2035. My question is, why were they sealed to begin with? If the truth is contained in those documents, and it indicates that there was no conspiracy, why is it not available to the public? These are questions that linger, and often fester inside me. I can only hope to find the answers.

Oliver Stone, the cinematographer Robert Richardson, and the editors mentioned above have assembled an enormous amount of information into a very coherent and powerful 189 minutes (or 206 minutes in the director's cut). John Williams wrote what I think is his most original and effective score to date. All of this, combined with great casting, writing and acting results in a haunting film that echoes the thoughts and fears of all those who have ever given the Kennedy assassination a second thought.

Here are a few reviews that show different opinions, and interesting analysis, of "JFK":

Roger Ebert's review
Peter Travers' review in Rolling Stone
Ebert's retrospective review for his 'Great Movies' project

On the packaging for the DVD of "JFK", Oliver Stone shares with us some of his thoughts regarding the state of our country since Kennedy's death. He writes:

"We remain haunted by John Kennedy's ghost and his unfulfilled dreams. Through the '60s, we watched in horror as the opponents of those dreams profited from the closing of the New Frontier. Since November 22, 1963, we have endured Vietnam, Watergate, race riots, assassinations of progressive leaders, escalating war budgets, recession, poverty, crime, drugs, loss of trust in the government and, most of all, fear - the fear that makes law and order so falsely attractive. We must start to change things. We must start to look at the '60s not as history but as a seminal decade for the postwar generation coming into power in the '90s. We still have a choice. What is past is prologue. To forget that past is to be condemned to relive it."