Good Film, Rubbish Theory

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2008)

JFK is a film about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and it's aftermath. The film follows Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner), a New Orleans District Attorney, who believed that the assassination was not invested properly and that Lee Harvey Oswald was not working alone. Garrison starts he investigations after the Warren Commission publishes its report and starts to investigate a number of people, questions people from prisoners and witnesses and test the theories behind the assassination. Garrison also meets up and gets information from a mysterious military figure (Donald Sutherland). Garrison ends up getting the police to arrest a local man, Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones), and puts him on trial for conspiracy to murder. He was the only man ever be trialled for the Kennedy assassination.
The film was well researched and written. It looks at the theories and try to prove or debunk them. The story was told in flashbacks which was fitting and told Oliver Stone uses a number of film devises such as real news footage, black-and-white films, a washed-out colour look and normal film. The film has some good acting performances, it was Kevin Costner's best and this is his best film. There also a good large cast, from Tommy Lee Jones to Gary Oldman to Joe Pesci. The film also has a narrated beginning showing the history of the events and subtly sets out Stone's theory.
This film however is not history, but a mix of historical fact and fiction. The theory in this film was that the American Government and Military, including Lyndon B. Johnson, ordered the assassination of Kennedy because they thought he was weak against Communism and wanted to withdraw troops from Vietnam before the war could escalate. This theory is too far fetched and most historians, including American and Cold War specialists at my university believed that American would have gone into Vietnam no matter who was President, Kennedy or Johnson. The film also makes out that Lee Harvey Oswald was a sleeper agent being trained by the American military and was faking being a Marxist and pro-Castro figure.
I believe the lone nut theory, that Lee Harvey Oswald was just working on his own. The wouldn't of been involvement of anyone else, not the US government, the Russians, Cubans, Mafia, etc. A general problem of society is that there are always going to be people who believe conspiracy theories. This has happened time and again. This has happened with Jack the Ripper, Princess Diana and 9/11 and people will swear until they are blue in the face that there was a conspiracy despite the evidence proving against.
As long as you look as this film as a work of fiction then it is entertaining. If you look at it as proving a conspiracy then you are an idiot.