Conspiracies May Be Dumb, But Make For Great Cinema

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2006)

In the words of Kevin Costner's character, "I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone." Costner's character in "Bull Durham", that is... not "JFK". Because here we are given quite the opposite picture. Oswald is assisted by everyone: the Mafia, the CIA, the military, Cuba and even President Johnson.
And if you're someone who plays Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, you want to have this film under your belt: an ensemble cast of Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Sissy Spacek, John Candy and many more.
While I don't think the picture presented in this film is true, it was a great movie nonetheless. Costner brings in the performance of his career, providing a character with passion and courage and one of the best monologues I have ever heard. Pesci is a little wired, but it fits his character. Bacon is great as usual. Oldman could easily be mistaken for the real Lee Harvey Oswald. And Jones? One weird individual, though I think this is what the real Clay Shaw was like as I understand it.
You will have to pay close attention or take notes to fully understand what is going on, since even though you get three hours the complexities fly at you all the time and you're left thinking either this is the biggest cover-up ever, or the main character (Jim Garrison) is completely stark raving mad.
But I was kept in suspense all the way through, because I tried to keep an open mind and I didn't know how the real story ended up... so it was almost all new to me. And worth every minute.