Ongoing Grief Over John F. Kennedy

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2014)

Combining a conspiracy theory of the Kennedy assassination with real film footage and stellar cast, Oliver Stone has fashioned a highly entertaining movie in JFK. In his overall work, Stone has drawn on events from American history that are touchstones for the post-1945 generation and this is certainly one, as was apparent in the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 2013.
Theuse of the Zapruder film and other film recordings are part of the retelling of this event and have long contributed to the public's unease over the conclusions of the Warren Commission Report that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of the President. So once again, the visual evidence forms part of the movie.
The cast is excellent in a drama that gives a fictionalized account of what happened to JFK. Whether or not it represents historical truth is not the point of the movie. Stone is telling a story that shows a certain point of view to an audience that lived through the assassination and craves for some meaning in a tragic event.
The idea that the CIA, the Pentagon, Lyndon Johnson, and a group of conspirators based in New Orleans managed to change the course of history will catch the attention of Americans who remember the event because it was so traumatic. Oliver Stone's success in levering the events of his time into entertainment is his stock in trade and no more on display than here. The acting of Joe Pesci as David Ferrie and Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw were particularly notable, not to mention the mystery man played by Donald Sutherland.
The behind the scenes stories of characters associated with the story lures us into the ongoing temptation of wanting to believe that there is an explanation to bring closure to a loss that haunts many of us, not just Americans. Stone's movie brings it all back and again stirs up the doubts that linger in the public's mind.