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J.F.K

Summary and Critique of J.F.K.

The movie J.F.K. is basically about a District Attorney from Louisiana who is trying to prove that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Jim Garrison the district attorney makes trips to Dallas where the assassination took place he along with his co-workers from the his office would put together a plan of how the assassination happened.

Throughout the movie witnesses of the assassination are interviewed and stories are told from the day of the presidents killing. The District Attorney Jim Garrison and his staff also watch the assassination on tape many times coming up with a theories of multiple shooters, the government interfering with the assassination, and magic bullets. At the end of the movie the District Attorney Jim Garrison finally gets to present his case to the courts system where he opens a lot of people’s eyes to the possibilities of other ways that the president could have been killed. Unfortunately for him his all of his ideas is rejected and he is sent home with no respect or dignity after Mr. Garrison’s case fell through.

During the entire movie the government is trying to interfere with the investigation by the District Attorney and his co-workers. The government cuts Garrisons funding and takes away any other government help that Garrison was using to investigate.

I felt this movie was very well done in its historical accuracy. The customs and setting around the characters made the movie very believable.

The movie was drawn out though. This was the only downfall I thought in the movie since it was three and a half-hours long it seemed like the movie just might never end. If the movie had been cut down to two hours or two an half it would have been much more effective and had a bigger impact on the viewer.

This movie could open doors to an investigation on the Kennedy assassination because the things that happen in this movie could be a possible reality. The facts they present including the lone shooter theory and the magic bullet theory could very easily be true. Much of the people that couldn’t come out with the truth back when the assassination took place could now possibly see this movie and maybe won’t be afraid to come out with something that could help solve this case.

Overall the movie is worth seeing if you are interested in our nations past. It is also a good movie to see for those like conspiracy theories or thinks that the government is hiding things from the American public. But you better have a lot of time to watch it because it is very drawn out and takes a long time to watch.

Production and Reception

When JFK was first released in 1991, it attracted both acclaim and criticism from the general public and critics alike. Simultaneously hailed as "Stone’s best film" (O’Brien) and denounced as "playing fast and loose with historical fact" (McAdams), the one thing everyone seemed to agree on was that JFK was a controversial and hotly debated film.

Many positive comments were made about the film and its director, Oliver Stone. JFK won the Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing in 1992. In addition, Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Zachary Sklar and Oliver Stone were nominated for Best Writing, John Williams was nominated for Best Original Score, Oliver Stone was nominated for Best Director, and the film itself was nominated for the coveted Best Picture award. Stone and his colleagues used innovative techniques in making the film – mixing different film stocks and color and black and white film, and using creative camera angles to convey the confusion this historical event brought about. The film’s fans considered it a strong political story with an important humanistic touch, and were impressed by its blending of documentary footage from the time of John Kennedy’s assassination with fictional, hypothetical footage from the film studio. This is thought by most to be JFK’s strongest point: the creative merging of actual footage (such as Zapruder’s home video taken at the time of the assassination) with documentary-style footage shot on rough grain film stock to enhance its realism and the slick, smooth grain film stock used to shoot the courtroom scenes and clips inside Garrison’s home.

But in spite of all the film’s acclaim, many people were upset by its distortion of real life events and facts. Stone was accused of combining myth with reality in JFK so smoothly that it is easy to get wrapped up in the movie’s exaggerations and half-truths. Even conspiracy theorists disagreed with some of the film’s suggestions as to the myriad of people and government organizations that were involved in Kennedy’s death. Jim Garrison’s book, On the Trail of the Assassins, which served as the basis of the screenplay Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar wrote, is considered by many to be an unreliable source of information about the Kennedy assassination. Oliver Stone was criticized for "turning history upside down" and distorting facts in the name of entertainment. One man even published a book to discredit the theories Stone presents in JFK, as well as other conspiracy theories that have come up in the years following Kennedy’s death. Gerald Posner came out with Case Closed in 1992, and was even nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work.

Perhaps Stone’s greatest achievement with this film is that he made his audience think – about the assassination, about the role the government plays in all of our lives, about the degree of control others have over us. Though his movie did not consist entirely of proven facts, its possible that this was not his intention, as many have pointed out. JFK never claimed to be a documentary itself – it was simply entertainment, like most films. But it is intelligent entertainment: the controversy and debate it sparked when it was released is proof of this statement.

JFK: What Really Happened?

Will anyone know what really went on the date of November 22, 1963? Oliver Stone put this question to the test as he directed the film JFK. This documentary film brings us back through time as we relive the 60s through the live broadcasts and home videos of various people. Film viewers begin to understand the tragic events that transpired before, during and after Kennedy’s death. They also begin to understand the historical events of the 1960s, such as President Kennedy’s involvement with the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his arrival with the First Lady in Houston as they began their heartbreaking tour through Texas. Also included are the assassinations of Lee Harvey Oswald, Bobby Kennedy, and the famous Martin Luther King.

The first incident, as we all know, occurred in Houston, as the Kennedy’s motorcade continued down Dealey Plaza until the three shots were fired: the last fatally wounding JFK in his head. After Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00, the inauguration immediately began to swear in Vice President Lyndon B Johnson. Soon after the new president took his office, Garrison came to find that the only suspect in Kennedy’s murder was shot and killed on the same day as JFK as he was being taken into court by Jack Ruby, while officers intended to protect Oswald stood by his side. President Kennedy’s death changed the lives of all Americans and left them with many unanswered questions. While watching this film we begin to ask questions as Garrison did as he worked to solve this unsolvable mystery. One might ask, "Will we ever know the true conspiracy story behind his death? Why did the government lie about the events involving Oswald? Who were the other shooters present at the scene? Why was the security so slow, why did the driver of the car stop when it should have kept going and why was the parade rerouted to conveniently suit the shooters?" These questions may not have successfully answered in the film, but as anyone would know, they came as close as anybody could possibly have come.

As the investigation of JFK’s death by Garrison continues into the late 1960s we too become witnesses in two more famous assassinations. We learn about these dreadful incidences through Garrison’s own television as he sits in his living room watching the headline news. These assassinations both took place in 1968: Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles on June 5, and Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4 - on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Kennedy had just finished his speech, and headed through the kitchen when confronted by a Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan and was shot in the back. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot by a man named James Earl Ray after a day of helping low-paid sanitation workers.

This film is jam packed with the historical events that took place in the 1960s. The effectiveness of the abundant characters, the factual script and the uses of the live footage make it one of the best documentaries written for film. By the end of this film, the facts and mysteries it has brought up leave you wanting to know more and resolve those unanswered questions.

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