It's Amazing...

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 1999)

It's truly amazing how a film like JFK can stir up so many strongly opinionated responses. An issue such as this (the assassination of a president and the possibility of government conspiracy) is obviously very important to people. Therefore, I think that Oliver Stone was very right in making his film, and making it the way he did. Whether or not you believe him, believe some of what he says, or hate him for all of it, still he makes you think about the event, makes you remember it and become emotional about it (angry, curious, sorrowful, etc.) I think the greatest filmmakers are those who can interest and involve the viewers in their personal statements. Does Oliver Stone hope that everyone will fall for his version? I doubt it. Does he want people to question things? Yes. He wants you to question the events you heard the first time, whether it was on the news, in a history book, or from word of mouth. And yes, even his own accounting of it. The fact that so many people reacted to it means that there is something more to it than a paragraph in a history book. Was it communists? Was it the mob? CIA? FBI? Even LBJ?!? I don't know. I wouldn't bet on it, but I wouldn't bet against it either. THAT'S the point.