"CONSPIRACY:" The American marginalization of a "time honored" concept.

Rating: 10/10 (1 February 1999)

Perhaps most people don't know, the original script for JFK was based on (partly written by) attorney Mark Lane's book "Plausible Denial." The book describes in blow-by-blow, minute detail the actual trial in a Miami Federal Court in which a jury agrees that JFK was murdered in a conspiracy. [Isn't it "funny" that YOU haven't heard much about that trial and its outcome?]. Naively, Mark Lane assumed the federal trial (which featured subpoenaed witnesses who were CIA officials at the time of JFK's assassination) would settle the issue of JFK's murder. I said, "naively."
Oliver Stone and Lane disagreed on content and certain characters. Lane insisted on complete accuracy while Stone insisted on artistic control. Stone won. Lane did not wish his name to appear in the credits to preserve his credibility (but Lane and Stone still parted friends).
Having said that, JFK is after all a brilliantly made film. Also, the bad press received by the film was more of the American journalistic Establishment covering its self-righteous collective ass; taking offense at an effectively executed in-your-face conspiracy movie. Perhaps not so oddly, when the movie was first released the Establishment attacked the film's premise (based on "Plausible Denial") rather than its art ... which SERIOUS and impartial critics had to agree was good.
If nothing else, The Warren Commission Report is clearly a conspiratorial work. As far as the men who murdered Kennedy in Texas... obviously they got away with it. Stone's movie is rather mild on that score. But it is excellent theater and a good suspenseful mystery.