Historical drama about one of the most important events in our lifetime.

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2003)

"JFK" opens with a clip of President Eisenhower delivering his famous farewell speech where he warns the American people about the pervasive power of the military industrial complex. Director Oliver Stone treats it as an omen of things to come.
I'd seen this film when it was released theatrically and just the other day I rented the directors cut on video, and there's no other way to regard this film than as a masterpiece of American cinema. No other event in recent history has impacted our lives more than the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Oliver Stone presents his theory about the events surrounding that November day, basing it all on verifiable facts that are meticulously presented throughout the film. What he's saying is that a coup d'etat probably took place against the President of the United States and that it was carried out by people within our government who considered Kennedy a communist sympathizer and traitor. The huge defense contracts that were contingent on our government pursuing a pro-war policy in Vietnam also were a factor in his assassination.
I'm not an expert on these matters. I lived through the Sixties and vividly recall the day Kennedy was shot. I also remember the aftershocks when Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated in 1968. Those were strange times and the American people weren't sophisticated enough to understand everything that was bubbling beneath the surface. Oliver Stone has obviously researched this subject thoroughly, and I find his explanations very plausible.
Perhaps the best argument for a coup having occurred takes place when Donald Sutherland's character, a mysterious black ops ex-military man, explains it all to Jim Garrison during a walk around the Reflecting Pool in Washington. It's a terrific scene and one that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. This character puts everything into context, the history of the CIA from the end of World War II through the Cold War, and when he's done, you can't help but feel some people in our government had Kennedy killed.
The acting in this film is terrific. Kevin Costner plays Jim Garrison, the New Orleans attorney investigating the assassination, very well. His closing argument in the trial of Clay Shaw where he presents all the evidence of a conspiracy to the jury is a classic scene.

Besides Donald Sutherland, several other great actors take turns playing bit parts: Walter Mathau plays a cynical Sen. Long, Ed Asner plays an ex-FBI agent turned rabid rightwinger with chilling accuracy, Jack Lemmon plays a drunken hanger-on, Gary Oldman is good as Lee Harvey Oswald. There are many others but I can only name a few.
The blending of dramatic action and real news clips taken at the time is superb. Oliver Stone builds his story scene by scene, revelation by revelation, until the dramatic ending where Garrison makes his case to the jury. Only the most stubborn, ignorant viewer could disagree with his conclusion that a coup d'etat took place that day. The idea that Oswald acted alone is just plain ludicrous.
Kennedy's assassination is the greatest mystery of our time. Will we ever learn the truth or has it been buried forever? I'd like to believe we're strong enough as a nation to survive the shock of knowing what really happened, but I have my doubts whether the government will ever release the files locked up.
Until then, this movie will have to stand as the defining explanation of what happened November 22nd, 1963.