Excellent!

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2003)

Oliver Stone's "JFK" is a masterpiece! Kevin Costner gives possibly his best performance ever as Jim Garrison, the D.A. of New Orleans. The ensemble cast is excellent as well. Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Walter Matteau, Donald Sutherland, Wayne Knight, Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon all give outstanding performances, mostly in walk-on roles. Gary Oldman plays such a good Lee Harvey Oswald it's scary.
The movie is based on "On the Trail of Assasins" by Jim Garrison. Garrison begins to investigate the murder of the president, and he soon finds that he's getting more than he bargained for. He unravels a twisting tale of secrets and clues in his attempt to discover what really happened on November 22, 1963. Cuba, the mob, the FBI and CIA, the White House - nobody is spared in Garrison's investigation.
Stone has put together a visual masterpiece. His incredible blending of movie footage and real-life footage makes you wonder what is real and what isn't. In addition, John William's score is, as always, awesome.
The big question viewers of this movie always have is: how accurate is Stone's conspiracy theory? Upon its release, it received critism from many sources, including THE GOVERNMENT ITSELF (perhaps because someone finally caught on to them?) It is hard to say if Stone is completely correct, but there are certain, undeniable facts. There is the magic bullet theory, which Coster shows must be a lie because it is simply impossible. There is also real footage of the assassination which shows Kennedy's head moving back and to the left, meaning the shot had to come from the front right. This film proves that Oswald - shooting from behind and above Kennedy - could not have been the lone shooter. (In fact, Stone argues that Oswald didn't fire a single shot that day). These facts and others show that Stone hits most, if not all, his marks.
This is one of the best movies of all time and a movie that all Americans should see!