Why I think this film is brilliant

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2011)

I don't know how much Oliver Stone believed what he showed in this film, but from his claims it's quite a bit. Yet, to me, that's really beside the point, especially since no one with any self respect should ever take any single source as gospel. This film is great because it's not just ABOUT a conspiracy, but it's about why conspiracy's are so fascinating, and why people like to believe in them. The simple answer is they make great stories. I mean, pretend for a second that JFK was a fictional film... exact same film, except nothing was based on actual people. It'd be rightly seen as a brilliant thriller full of plot twist after plot twist.
There's also a lot of black humor in the film I think people miss as they huff and puff about this and that. Personally, do I believe JFK's death was done by the US government as an internal coup from one ideology to another to help jumpstart the Vietnam war and also help line the pockets of companies that build military equipment? No... but it makes a great story. And I find it easier to watch this kinda story, too, when the "official" story makes no sense. Obviously something was going on. The most reasonable "theories" usually deal with some mob connections and a small but powerful group of people behind the assassination. Not a massive governmental conspiracy, but also not just one lone guy. But JFK goes beyond that as a film, and it really represents to me WHY conspiracy theories are so attractive (and why, when things don't add up, we automatically start connecting the dots in the most extreme ways. Foul play may be involved, but not to the level we sometimes wish it was involved).
There's one other film that does this.... Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Another film where people try to claim it's outing the Illuminati or whatever, but that's really not the point of the film at all. In Eyes Wide Shut, we see a man who has lost the passion for life because there is no conflict in his life, so he goes looking for it. It parallels human's need for excitement and challenge with the same needs in marriage and sex, but JFK and EWS go together for me as two sides of the same coin. Different tones and structure, but both are about - beyond everything else - why the idea of conspiracies are attractive, and ultimately, why storytelling can be such a powerful force. Because after all, in the end all a conspiracy theory is is, well, a tall tale.