Best Oliver Stone film so far!! Have yet to see NIXON...

Rating: 9/10 (29 August 2012)

Saw this film last week and was very impressed with it.
From Costner's performance as Jim Garrison to a stellar supporting cast of such greats as Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Donald Sutherland, Ed Asner, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Candy (in a rare serious role), Sissy Spacek, etc. All brilliant stuff!!
I know Oliver Stone can be a controversial figure but I just think this film ran like a well-oiled machine. It was super-long and yet I didn't feel bored or tired. It sucked me right in. From Robert Richardson's cinematography (which won an Oscar) to the brilliant editing (also won an Oscar) it ran like clockwork. I love the documentary style of filming that Stone employed here. You have clear cinematography interspersed with grainy cinematography, you've got real live footage mixed in with the actors, you've got flashbacks and present day, you've got newspaper clippings and slow-motion shots. Heck, you've got every single film technique employed here and it all works! Plus you've got multiple stories running simultaneously. Love this stuff! You feel like you're right there in the thick of things.
Plus this film points out what many people suspected for years and still do - that the JFK assassination was indeed a conspiracy and not the work of some lone gunman. Heck, my parents always maintained it was Krushchev. Others say it was Castro or the mob. Stone (or at least the Jim Garrison character that Costner plays) says it was our own government and the war-profiteering big shots in Washington (perhaps even LBJ himself). JFK was going to end the Vietnam War. So he had to be killed. Same with RFK. Obviously the conspiracies differ - but one thing that most seem to agree on is that it was not the work of a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald. A conspiracy did exist. The Warren Commission Report was indeed very sketchy, to say the least. I'm inclined to believe this as well.
When it comes to Stone's films I thought PLATOON was merely okay. Nothing special. Same thing with WALL STREET. I found W. somewhat amusing - probably because of its satirical approach. Josh Brolin was pretty good as Dubya but Dick Dreyfuss was a real hoot as Dick Cheney! Alexander was crap! But JFK is the first Stone film that I'd say was really very good. I am now looking forward to NIXON with Anthony Hopkins. Stone describes JFK as a labor of love (and it shows in the execution) and calls it his GODFATHER. He says NIXON is his GODFATHER II. So I'm looking forward to it. Might need to check out SALVADOR at some point too.
By the way, the version I saw was JFK: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT. Haven't seen any other versions so I don't know what the differences are.
P.S. I forgot to mention the score by John Williams. Amazing piece!! Very atmospheric and effective - both the main theme and the conspiratorial theme.