You can't handle the TRUTH!

Rating: 9/10 (13 April 2002)

I know, I know already that that tag-line actually comes from A FEW GOOD MEN; it seems apropos however that the filmmaker/script adapter has such a low opinion of his film audience. Not only does Mr. Stone believe that the American film audience can't handle the twists and turns of that tragic day when President Kennedy was murdered, he believes that he has to MAKE US see according to one scenario. This is a prime example of a biopic that devises its own criteria for TRUTH and REALITY (2001 has A BEAUTIFUL MIND) but succeeds wildly in its own extravagance. Today in mid-April 2002 I happened on its re-broadcast on a local TV affiliate and was startled how the sanitized dialogue segments seemed kind of like a badly dubbed Chinese kung fu extravaganza. The film's power in images is still highly recommendable; go see it on DVD if you're over 18 and fully ready for the script's adult profanities. It really shouldn't be broadcast without some sort of WARNING label that it is only skewing toward the TRUTH as we mortals can know it. The re-enacted sequences are still jarring and disturbing for me just as they were when I saw this film ten years or so ago for the first time.