Message Film With A Gripping Plot

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2015)

Will we ever solve the mysteries of the JFK assassination to everyone's satisfaction? No, I don't think so. LBJ's Warren Commission (WC), with cheer-leading from the mainstream press, tried to sell the public on the Oswald-as-lone-gunman idea. After a brief, national acceptance, the public began to question the WC conclusions. Ever since, the public's collective belief that Oswald acted alone, as measured by opinion polls, has been trending steadily downward.
The general impression is that the WC did not set out to find the truth. Instead, they set out to build a case that Oswald acted alone, a man who had long since been silenced by Jack Ruby. The WC built their lone-gunman case by cherry-picking those bits of information that would fit their predetermined conclusions. But an excess of bizarre coincidences, torturous logic, and massive inconsistencies of every sort in every facet of this multifaceted case overwhelm officialdom's weak arguments, and make the mainstream press look sheepishly beholden to Washington insiders.
The script's arguments for a conspiracy are compelling. Unfortunately, Stone's script tells the story from Jim Garrison's POV. Garrison's case against Clay Shaw was tenuous, at best. Result: officialdom and the press ... pounce. That Shaw may not have had a proved link to the assassination, however, does not in any way, plug up the massive holes in the conclusions of the Warren Commission. So a conspiracy is still a possibility, sans Garrison's theories. As a result, we're back where we started, with a silly lone-gunman theory, and some vague "conspiracy". What a mess!
As cinema, Stone's film is brilliant. The plot is gripping, riveting, mesmerizing. With an all-star cast, there's not a weak link in the bunch. Lighting is stylized and at times 1940's noirish. The dignified and profound musical score by John Williams enhances a tone of mystery and intrigue.
Editing is terrific. An enormous amount of information is telegraphed in the well-over three-hour production, information that could not have been included without split second cuts. As a result, the film's pace oscillates nicely between casual and rapid-fire.
A message film that persuasively demolishes the WC conclusions yet suffers from a too-literal belief in the Jim Garrison narrative, leaves us with a lot to think about. To a person with an open mind, the "mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma", as David Ferrie called it, is just as deep, just as profound now as it was fifty years ago. It probably always will remain such ... the stuff of legend.