Paranoid conspiracy theorists will love this movie, while other will see it as grotesque falsification and distortion of a national tragedy.

Rating: 7/10 (25 November 2013)

JFK is a political thriller film directed by Oliver Stone that gives up an interesting account on why President John F. Kennedy was assassination in Dallas, TX in Nov. 22, 1963. While, the events leading up to the true real life event is still a mystery and the facts gather up on the case wouldn't be disclose until 2017 and 2029. Oliver Stone gives us his take on what happen, why and how the government might be covering it up in the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). From all the assassination conspiracy theories out there ranging from Mafia connections to Cuba exiles, Oliver Stone picked up one that is a bit outlandish to base his movie around. Oliver Stone largely based his movie on New Orleans DA Jim Garrison's book "On the trail of the Assassins". Jim Garrison's story first off, wasn't a real good choice for a movie. The movie does take a big dramatic license in this story. Stone's depictions of Garrison is that of a fearless seeker of truth who seeking revenge out on New Orleans resident Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) who Garrison charged with conspiring with Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) to assassinate Kennedy. In reality, Garrison was a paranoid, irrational bully who persecuted Shaw in conspiracy so vase it's hard to believe. While other critics might see this as all a misrepresentation of the truth, in my opinion, I really have doubts that this conspiracy theory really happen, but it might had. I'm more open to seeing this movie, than a lot of people, but still can't comprehend the uneven 'facts' the movie is projecting. It didn't help that years later, science would prove most of these claims to be unrealistic. The state-of-the-art forensic and computer analysis of the assassination since 1991, clearly shows that Oswald might had acted alone. All the findings have been consistent with the autopsy findings and demonstrate that both hits- the Kennedy-Connally first shot, and the fatal head wound third shot were fired from the 6th floor window of the Texas Book Depository, not from the picket fence or grassy knoll. The first shot passed through the president and then the governor in a relatively straight line, not the zigzag claimed by the movie Garrison. It's hard to think that Oswald was part of a conspiracy as he was known before the event as a loose-cannon. Oswald was originally trying to kill a general that day, not the president. The film says he was poor marksman, but in real life, he was quite good in his markings. About, Jack Ruby's action were a bit driven by his passion for the president. He did it for revenge. It's hard to think a strip club owner Ruby (Brian Doyle Murray) was part of a conspiracy even if he was part of the Mafia. In the film he's depicted surreptitiously planting the 'magic bullet' on a hospital gurney. The biggest out there claim the film has is the film's implication that President Lyndon B. Johnson was part of a coup d'état to kill Kennedy. Ouch. The idea of that is preposterous in 1991 as it is today, as Lyndon pretty much had no reason to kill Kennedy and Stone knew it. The movie explains Kennedy was assassinated because his foreign policy would have meant diminished profit for the military-industrial complex, and enraged high-ranking military officials who viewed such diplomacy as weakness. This is hardly the case, as Kennedy was indeed one of the men that help the build-up of the military during the Cold War and help put the space race into play that made more profit than ever before. I had study the Warren Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations to the best of my ability, and I just can't find myself, putting Clay Shaw with John F. Kennedy together. The movie also takes some information accounts from Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs as a counter-myth to the Warren Commission's fictional myth. What the movie does so well, is mixing the real life footage with that of the fictionist story as it looks like a veneer of documentary verisimilitude. No wonder, why the film won best editing and cinematography at the Academy Awards. Before the age of the internet, this was the first time, I have ever saw the brutal Zapruder footage. It was really was intense. It's really hard to tell, what is real and what isn't when watching this film. The acting in this cast was really good. The length of the movie is pretty hard to get through if not a history buff. Its 3 hours long, and most of the movie is talking. . It's even worst in the Director's Cut version as there is nearly 54 minutes worth of deleted and expanded scenes. It was a bit too long and excessively detailed. It could be more concise. Overall: a lot of people still believe that JFK die in a conspiracy theory matter. So this movie will continue to find an audience wanting to know more about the event.