Cinematic art - Historical gibberish

Rating: 6/10 (2 April 2006)

One of the largest ensemble casts ever with Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Jack Lemmon, Laurie Metcaff, Sally Kirkland, Ed Asner, Walter Matthau, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Brain Doyle Murray, John Candy, Lolita Davidovich and dozens more star in the 3 hour epic on the Kennedy assassination from director Oliver Stone. Stone is a skillful director and this is a well made film with an excellent editing job from Joe Hutching and Pietro Scalia who had been veterans of other Oliver Stone films including Talk Radio, Born on the 4th of July and Wall Street as they edited down what must have been hours of film shot for this movie blended with actual archive news footage and the performances of the films many actors. Robert Richardson does a masterful job with the cinematography as well. This film is adapted by Stone and screenwriter Zachary Taylor from the books Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs and On the Trail of the Assassins by former New Orlenas D.A. Jim Garrison, calls for a large cast and gives them plenty to do. Garrison was a controversial figure in life and his book was largely hailed as ridiculous. Garrison's book proved he had no credibility as an expert on the Kennedy Assaination. He had a small role in the film as Chief Justice Eral Warren and has since passed away. Jim Marrs has decided to move on to the equally lucrative flying saucer market with his equally absurd book Alien Agenda. Stone likely has toyed with the idea of an Alien conspiracy movie but in the meantime he's working on a World Trade Center film. JFK deservedly won two Oscars for it's cinematography and editing and received another six Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Tommy Lee Jones, Best Sound, Best Music Score and Best Screenplay. It is a well written screenplay but it's too bad that for many film goers the film is viewed as historical fact rather than melodramatic, dramatized, politicized fiction blended with an actual historical event and a subsequent trial involving Garrison. For all the good work that went into this film it results in a wasted effort and opportunity. I would give this it's cinematic merits but for it's content and the direction it takes I can only give this a 6.5 out of 10.