A masterpiece of propaganda

Rating: 5/10 (21 April 2000)

JFK is undoubtedly Oliver Stone's best film, a powerful piece of political filmmaking that is unfortunately so wide of the mark that it is ultimately a tremendous failure. Stone buys into the theories of the two least credible conspiracists, the egotistical Jim Garrison and the starry eyed Jim Marrs. There's no actor better suited to play Garrison than Kevin Costner, the man whose head seems to expand every time he's in front of a camera. Garrison also reflects the inflated ego of Stone himself, who seems to believe every half baked idea proposed in On the Trail of the Assassins. Also on display is Stone's usual penchant for homophobia, as his limpwristed villain Clay Shaw minces across the screen. (Apparently it wasn't enough that this utterly innocent man had already suffered character assassination in Garrison's book.)
The lowest blow of all, of course, was the casting of Jim Garrison himself as Chief Justice Earl Warren. To impugn Warren's honesty--and his importance as one of the great liberal jurists of this century--is bad enough, but to have a charlatan who questioned the man's character play him is truly despicable.
Terrrific photography and outstanding bit parts by Gary Oldman (a memorable Lee Harvey Oswald), Donald Sutherland, and the always reliable Michael Rooker make JFK a must see. It's on a par with Triumph of the Will or Olympiad 1936: truly one of the great propaganda pieces of the twentieth century.