JFK

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a narration (by an uncredited Martin Sheen) showing newsreel footage, including the farewell address in 1961 of outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower, warning about the build-up of the "military-industrial complex". This is followed by a summary of John F. Kennedy's years as president, emphasizing the events that, in Stone's thesis, would lead to his assassination. This builds to a reconstruction of the assassination on November 22, 1963. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) subsequently learns about potential links to the assassination in New Orleans.Garrison and his team investigate private pilot David Ferrie (Joe Pesci), but are forced to let them go after their investigation is publicly rebuked by the federal government. Kennedy's alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) is killed by Jack Ruby (Brian Doyle-Murray) before he can go to trial two days after the assassination, and Garrison closes the investigation.Three years later, the investigation is reopened in late 1966 after Garrison reads the Warren Commission Report and notices what he believes are numerous inaccuracies and conflicts. Garrison and his staff interrogate several witnesses to the Kennedy assassination, and others who were involved with Oswald, Ruby, and Ferrie. Russell B. Long (Walter Matthau), a Democrat senator, privately tells Garrison about the FBI investigation into Oswald and evidence surfaced that it was technically impossible for Oswald to fire off three shots from a bolt-action rifle in pinpoint accuracy that killed John F. Kennedy.Garrison and his associates question Jack Martin (Jack Lemmon) a former private investigator who worked with the late Guy Banister (Ed Asner) where Martin recalls Banister beating him with a pistol that day three years earlier after discovering that Banister's office had been broken into and several files stolen from the office. Banister was a career member of the FBI before he became a private investigator and then died suddenly of a "heart attack" one year after the Warren Commission released its report. Martin tells Garrison that Oswald had met with Banister a few times during his brief stay in New Orleans and that Oswald and Ferrie knew each other and were employed on some special project with Cuban anti-communist militants.Garrison meets with Dean Andrews, Jr. (John Candy), an eccentric lawyer who claims that an alleged phone call was made to him by one of his clients, named "Clay Bertrand" on the day after the Kennedy assassination in which Andrews was asked to represent Oswald in the assassination charges against him. Andrews tells Garrison that he may be in over his head with those who may have been involved.Another witness Garrison meets with is Willie O'Keefe (Kevin Bacon), a male prostitute currently serving five years in prison for soliciting, who reveals he witnessed Ferrie discussing Kennedy's assassination with Oswald, and a group of Latin men. As well as briefly meeting Oswald, O'Keefe was romantically involved with a man he knew as "Clay Bertrand" also known as Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones), a wealthy New Orleans businessman. Upon Garrison's informal questioning, Shaw denies any knowledge of meeting Ferrie, O'Keefe or Oswald, but he is soon charged with conspiring to murder the President.In Dallas, others come forward, including Jean Hill (Ellen McElduff). She tells the investigators that she witnessed shots fired from the grassy knoll and she heard four to six shots total, but Secret Service agents threatened her into saying only three shots came from the book depository; the implication is that changes that were made to her testimony by the Warren Commission.Garrison and a staff member also go to the sniper's location in the Texas School Book Depository and aim an empty rifle from the window through which Oswald was alleged to have shot Kennedy. They conclude that Oswald was too poor a marksman to make the shots, and two of the shots were much too close together, indicating that one or two more additional assassins were also involved.Another person comes forward named Rose Cheramie (Sally Kirkland), a Dallas prostitute who was allegedly beaten up by Jack Ruby's bodyguards. She tells Garrison that she was taken to a clinic on that day where she pleaded to the doctors that the Mafia was planning on killing President Kennedy.After discovering electronic surveillance microphones that had been planted in his offices, Garrison meets a high-level figure in Washington D.C. who identifies himself as "X" (Donald Sutherland). "X" suggests there was a conspiracy at the highest levels of government, implicating members of the CIA, the military-industrial complex, Cuban exiles, the Mafia, and Secret Service, FBI, and even Kennedy's vice-president, Lyndon B. Johnson, as either direct conspirators, co-conspirators, or, as having motives to cover up the truth after the assassination. "X" explains Kennedy was assassinated because his foreign policy would have meant diminished profit for the military-industrial complex, and enraged high-ranking military officials who viewed such diplomacy as weakness. Kennedy ordered control of secret para-military operations to be removed from the CIA and handed over to Department of Defense Joint Chiefs of Staff. This would have diminished the agency's power. Further, the Mafia had helped Kennedy win the 1960 election as a favor to his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr, who had done business with the Mafia dating back to the 1920s, and felt betrayed that he had let his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, continue his crusade against the Mob. Furthermore, the Mob wanted revenge for the April 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco, which they had helped fund and support in order to get their Cuban casinos their biggest moneymakers back from the hands of the Castro government.In flashbacks, "X" reveals how his superior, General "Y", had "X" sent on a trip to Antarctica just before the assassination. One of "X"'s duties was to supplement presidential security. He points out all the lapses in security during JFK's fatal trip to Dallas: the open windows along the route, the hairpin turn from Houston to Elm which slowed the limousine, and bystander activities which would not have been allowed. "X" suggests he was ordered out of the country in order to strip away the normal security measures he would have had in place during Kennedy's fateful trip to Dallas.On his way back from Antarctica, "X" touches down in New Zealand. He reads a local newspaper which mysteriously presents a full dossier on Oswald and his guilt in Kennedy's death. This was hours before Oswald would be charged with the crime and anyone investigating the case knew much about him. "X" views this as clear proof of a cover story of the type used by CIA black ops. In other words, CIA assets in the media were being used to persuade the public of Oswald's guilt."X" further states that Kennedy was intent on pulling U.S. troops from Vietnam by the end of 1965 as evidenced by National Security Order 263. This was countermanded immediately by Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, with National Security Order 273. Therein, concludes "X", lay the foundation of the Vietnam War. "X" encourages Garrison to keep digging and make further arrests.Two of Garrison's staff, one of whom is Assistant District Attorney Susie Cox (Laurie Metcalf), quit the investigation, doubting his motives and methods. Garrison's marriage is strained when his wife Liz (Sissy Spacek) complains that he is spending more time on the case than with his own family. After a sinister phone call is made to their daughter, Liz accuses Garrison of being selfish and attacking Shaw only because of his homosexuality. In addition, the media launches attacks on television and in newspapers attacking Garrison's character and criticizing the way his office is spending taxpayers' money. Some key witnesses become scared and refuse to testify while others, such as Ferrie, die under suspicious circumstances. Before his death, Ferrie tells Garrison that he believes people are after him, and reveals there was a conspiracy around Kennedy's death that involved co-conspirators that were involved in the CIA planned Operation Mongoose.In June 1968, fellow Assistant District Attorney Bill Broussard (Michael Rooker) meets Garrison at the New Orleans airport where Garrison is boarding for Phoenix, Arizona and tells him the Canadian mob will attempt to assassinate him and is about to get Garrison some serious protection when Garrison confronts Broussard about his orders not to pass rumors about someone going to be killed. Broussard tries in vain to get Garrison to listen, but Garrison refuses, dismissing it as "paranoid garbage." He accuses Broussard of disobeying orders and decides to take him back to New Orleans as punishment. Broussard tries to apologize, but Garrison is too busy to accept it. After a few minutes, he has to flee from a public restroom when he hears strange noises in the adjacent stall and is approached by an unknown man who pretends to be a friend of his. Garrison flees after figuring out that he is about to be set up to be arrested by the airport police as part of a plot by the conspiracy to set him up as a homosexual.After Garrison returns to New Orleans, he and his staff discovered that Broussard has joined the FBI and disappeared from his apartment. They argue about the real reason why Shaw has been brought to trial. After Liz retires, he sees Robert Kennedy on TV and witnesses R.F. Kennedy's assassination. Garrison, who predicted it, and Liz, whose faith in her husband is renewed as a result, reconcile.The climax of the film is Clay Shaw's long trial which takes place in January-March 1969. Garrison presents the court with further evidence of multiple killers while attempting to debunk the single bullet theory. Garrison also presents the Zapruder film, a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a 8mm home-movie camera as Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza on that day, thereby unexpectedly capturing the President's assassination. Garrison uses the film to propose a scenario involving three assassins who fired six total shots.But after only one hour of deliberations, the jury acquits Shaw on all charges. The film reflects that the jury's members publicly stated that they really believed there was indeed a conspiracy behind the assassination of JFK, but there was not enough evidence to link Shaw to that conspiracy. The film ends with Garrison stating to reporters that he'll continue to find out what else may be there in the cover up. The final shot shows Garrison and Liz leaving the courthouse together.In the end credits, it is mentioned that Clay Shaw died of lung cancer in 1974, but in 1979 Richard Helms testified under oath that Clay Shaw had, in fact, been a part-time contract agent of the Domestic Contacts Division of the CIA. The Justice Department has done nothing to re-open the investigation of the Kennedy assassination.The end credits also state that secret records related to the assassination will be released to the public in 2029.

Tags: boring, historical, murder, flashback

Review:
JFK runs the difficult task of presenting fact, fiction, conjecture and opinion, twisting them all to present the increasingly difficult to dispute conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone (and according to director Oliver Stone, did not act) in the assassination of President Kennedy.
The film is loaded with quality stars such as Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones (in an Oscar nominated role), Gary Oldman, and Joe Pesci (who share an intense and crucial scene); as well as character actors and actresses such as Michael Rooker, Sissy Spacek, and Jay Saunders.
Oliver Stone's epic film which follows the real-life events of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison is a monumental movie event.
Kennedy has countless achievements and qualities as a president which makes his life and term one of the most incredible and worthy of deep study.Oliver Stone's JFK should go down in film history as one of the most important American films ever produced.
It's interesting that these films, all one-word titled, were made in the same intervals of time and like "Rashomon" and "Z", "JFK" is less a name than a code that encapsulates behind the mystery and the patriotic mask, a more universal truth about humanity.Still, patriotism is seriously involved and it's very significant that Oliver Stone, one of America's most prolific political film-makers, much more a Vietnam vet, handled the subject of Kennedy's assassination.
Garrison's struggle is magnificently conveyed by the sort of inspirational score that only John Williams could have performed."JFK" works on every cinematic level, it's one of the best political films and best conspiracy movies ever made because it doesn't try to tell its own truth but to belie a fallacious version.
Other great appearances include Kevin Bacon, Sissy Spacek, Michael Rooker, and even Walter Matthau in a bit appearance.Many of these fine performances were worthy of Oscars, but if there is one man that deserved an Oscar more than anyone else, it would have to be Oliver Stone, who did not win Best Director OR Best Picture.
Some, like Jim Garrison, tried to present the truth of "JFK", and their efforts are being felt even now.Before I saw this film, I had seen Oliver comment that "JFK" was a movie in which he got all the crazy theories and presented them.
The focus constantly changes -- yes, Costner will smile a bit when he makes a ridiculous remark that everyone rolls their eyes at, yes, even at the end of the film some clips will be left unchecked, and yes, you will see that there is no way that the question "who killed JFK" is answered as simply, solidly, and, dare I say it, Hollywood-esquely as a one man killing.
Even if we concede that some younger viewers knew little about the assassination, the notion of the critics of "JFK" that the film would automatically program their minds is an insult to their intelligence, of the ability of people in general to think and come to their own conclusions.
For no one can be programmed to accept Stone's alternate view.OK, some inaccuracies of Stone can be criticized, such as his portrayal of Garrison (All-American Kevin Costner, natch) as a wholesome hero, and the time-between-shots issue (it is now generally conceded that there was enough time, based on all the evidence, for Oswald to have done it, for those who believe he did).
Its no more a hidden truth that JFK was murdered as his ideologies went against the interest of the Military Industrial Complex.The government,CIA,FBI and Corporate Mafia were all involved in this conspiracy.May be this movie has went above the head of some idiots who call it a speculation and a propaganda or a conspiracy theory.The subsequent expenditure of trillions of American Taxpayers money to wage war by various presidents especially President Bush(both senior and junior) establishes the fact that America is a democracy not of American people but of American Capitalist Mafia.Imagine how much money the American government spends on countering Terrorism and then think who benefits from these investment..
The first film in Oliver Stone's films about the American presidency, JFK is a historical drama exploring a popular conspiracy theory regarding John F.
Some scenes in this movies are so interesting and amazingly filmed that created goosebumps every time i watch it, specially the assassination scene [2:54:32 to 3:07:30] in 3h 21m Director's Cut. The main key points to watch JFK are:1.
Stone obviously believes there was a conspiracy in the JFK assassination so of course that is the story his film will tell.
All three movies; "Natural Born Killers" "Talk Radio" as well as "JFK" were Oliver Stone films which depicted the numerous demented mannerisms that are indicative of many reprobates in the Dixie region of this country.
i have resisted the urge to view this film until now because having studied the JFK events and all the theories and stories surrounding the assassination, i came to the conclusion that Jim Garrison was very single minded and conspiracy crazy in his investigation of the fatal event that day in Dallas.As an Englishman and a believer of scientific and methodical reasoning and deduction through facts and not fairy tales, I looked at this event in an unbiased way and decided to read all i could find and form my own opinion based on facts available.
I have followed the investigations of Mr Howard Donahue, a very respectable and totally sincere man of outstanding abilities, and his credentials as an expert in ballistics and weapons etc are in my opinion, second to none, and after reading the book by Bonnar Menninger "Mortal Error", it is quite obvious that his conclusions are fact not fiction as in this film.There are very many things stated in the film that are factually incorrect, especially the point that garrison makes about the possibility of Oswald not able to get off the shots in time, which Mr Donahue proved is possible and actually beats that time!
It is amazing to me how many continue to believe that Oliver Stone's movie is somehow the truth behind the Kennedy assassination.
In which case, I would suggest you go for the Transformers sequel, as most of the world seems to be.Kevin Costner plays Jim Garrison, the New Orleans DA, who (after 3 years) discovers that things were just not right with the investigation and findings of the Warren commission regarding the murder of John F.
Mr. Postner directly discredits every "conspiracy" that this movie (read-Oliver Stone) claims to be the "truth."The real truth is the Garrison was a strong-armed zealot who threatened people to get testimonies he wanted, not the real ones.
The real life Jim Garrison ultimately lost his case against Clay Shaw and Stone loses his case as well by attempting to glue together a variety of conspiracy theories, many of which had been debunked long before the release of the film in 1991.
The problem, however, is that those theories are presented in "JFK" as historical verities, and large numbers of viewers haven't the historical grounding in the facts of the assassination and the scores of investigations conducted since to know where Stone is taking "artistic license" and the actual facts of the case.
Other memorable performers include Ed Asner, Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Laurie Metcalf, Sally Kirkland, and Donald Sutherland--and in a wicked twist of irony Jim Garrison himself appears as Justice Earl Warren.The film is available on VHS and in several DVD packages, including a "director's cut" special edition that includes a number of extras, including an often interesting director's commentary, an interview with famous conspiracy theorist Prouty, and a documentary on certain intriguing records recently declassified by Congress as a direct result of this film's impact.Historians and theorists will probably wrangle over the JFK assassination for decades, perhaps centuries to come.
Second of all, people who never believed that anyone besides Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK say that - after seeing this movie - they are now ardent believers that there actually was a conspiracy.
It's just that - once people started looking in that particular area - the Triangle began to seem like the disappearance capital of the world.In the case of JFK, it seemed that Stone proved by example that - if you look hard enough - you can come up with evidence to support the theory that Santa Clause was behind JFK's assassination.It seems to me that - after watching JFK, you either have to come to the conclusion that a) everyone in the known universe (except, of course, Lee Harvey Oswald) was in on the assassination, or b) that pretty much all of the conspiracy theories are the result of overactive imaginations.The only points I give to JFK are for effort and for an impressive cast.I give it 3 out of 10..
Plot In A Paragraph: Jim Garrison, a New Orleans District Attorney, discovers there's more to the JFK assassination than the official story.Does anyone still believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman??
I'm sure Stone must have also taken some pointers from the first movie about the Kennedy assassination, 1973's Executive Action.JFK continues the tradition of films such as The Longest Day in which a large ensemble cast of familiar faces and great screen presences to help guide us through the story.
I can't say for certain what they were like in real life but the in film I grew to dislike her character.JFK draws no conclusions, it doesn't prove who assassinated Kennedy and allows the viewer to make up their own mind.
I do not honestly know many facts about the killing himself, just as much as probably everyone else, therefore seeing things in "JFK" made me think otherwise to official story and a theory that was presented by the end by Jim Garrison sounded very, very convincing to me.
As much as I could gather, according to Oliver Stone in this movie, the assassination of JFK (as well as RFK and MLK) seems to have been carried out by a conspiratorial network consisting of people drawn from:a) disgruntled right-wing extremists in this country; b) fanatical Cuban nationalist mercenaries; c) the FBI; d) the CIA; e) the Dallas police department; f) the more secret echelons of the conventional military; g) members of Kennedy's cabinet, including then Vice President Lyndon Johnson; h) organized crime; and i) Big Business.The reasons for the assassination include (but aren't limited to):a) punishment for Kennedy's backing out during the Bay of Pigs; b) Kennedy being soft overall on Communism, and c) being too tough on organized crime; d) his perceived desire to ratchet down the cold war, including e) his plan to end US involvement in Viet Nam, which would in turn f) deprive the military of a much desired war and concomitant inflated military budget, which would then in turn g) deprive Big Business of lucrative military contracts.Lee Harvey Oswald is portrayed as a CIA operative who was only peripherally involved in the plot, but was then used by the masterminds as the "patsy." Oswald was particularly attractive for this role because, as part of earlier operations, he had developed a pro-Communist persona that had allowed him to infiltrate and spy on left-leaning groups.
They could have easily supplied billions of dollars worth of military equipment to South Vietnam ( America did do this under the Vietnamization program in the early 70s ) without getting caught up in the quagmire themselves Oh and there's several other points the script kicks up that can't be proved or disproved like Lee Harvey Oswald being a double agent working for the CIA against world communism , a mysterious character only known as X who sees senior military chiefs planning to do away with Kennedy etc , things that only probably only exist in the imagination of Jim Garrison and Oliver Stone.
One of the largest ensemble casts ever with Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Jack Lemmon, Laurie Metcaff, Sally Kirkland, Ed Asner, Walter Matthau, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Brain Doyle Murray, John Candy, Lolita Davidovich and dozens more star in the 3 hour epic on the Kennedy assassination from director Oliver Stone.
This film is adapted by Stone and screenwriter Zachary Taylor from the books Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs and On the Trail of the Assassins by former New Orlenas D.A. Jim Garrison, calls for a large cast and gives them plenty to do.
This film had managed to collect two Oscar awards due to the fact that it is well made and the reconstructed 1960s scenes are very good featuring Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison, the DA in "search for a truth" in the wake of the Kennedy assassination in 1963.
Being directed by Oliver Stone, many of Oliver Stone's films focusing real life events have since then become subjects for love/hate theories and JFK is a classic example due to the fact that it is notorious for lots of inaccuracies as shown on such website; The Assassination Goes To Hollywood.
Even the weaknesses of Stone's JFK can be traced to its filming stages when the press began to get their claws out claiming Garrisons's investigations to be a fraud and saying that Garrison was a bizarre DA from New Orleans whom said that the assassination was carried out as part of the CIA cover-up, he even managed to put a hapless man on trial.
Whatever your opinion of the American government, the assassination of John F Kennedy and the war lobbying, "JFK" is an fine example of great acting by Costner and impeccable screen writing, in a highly engaging movie.
Kennedy is arguably the most interesting one, stemming from the subsequent lack of a clear, satisfying & irrefutable explanation for how the machinations of assassinating the United States President was carried out, and what exactly was the motive behind it.JFK is a 3-hour long political thriller that takes all the theories surrounding the case into consideration, looks for the inconsistencies in the Warren Commission, and then concocts a cleverly structured & masterly edited account that steadily grabs hold of the viewers' attention, only gets more gripping as plot progresses, and finally concludes by implanting a reasonable doubt in their minds..
Oliver Stone's ambitious, flawed, yet endlessly interesting drama which recounts New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's obsession with finding the truth behind the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
All of those elements make JFK a classic political Thriller/Mystery,an outstanding piece of cinema and Oliver Stone at his best.Based on the books On The Trail Of The Assassins by Jim Garrison and Crossfire:The Plot That Killed Kennedy,JFK tells the story of Jim Garrison(Kevin Costner),a New Orleans District Attorney who is investigating the Assassination of President John F.
While some think it was just Lee Harvey Oswald(Gary Oldman)alone that did the shooting,Garrison thinks that there was others involved and that there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy and Jim Garrison is investigating the events that lead up to the assassination.Released in 1991,JFK is an amazing film that was controversial even before was released into movie theaters and is still one of the most controversial films of all time because some critics and the media felt that director Oliver Stone was taking liberties with historical facts and events.
Oliver Stone may (or may not) genuinely believe all of Jim Garrison's conspiracy theories – which implicate everybody up to former President Lyndon B.
Kevin Costner is very much on form and so is his support cast most notably, for me at least, Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald who really excels at showing the different aspects of the character as the film develops.With the director's cut coming in at 3 hrs 18 mins, it may be slightly too long, but with a powerful story line this is not noticed as much as one might expect.
JFK is in reality a film ABOUT America, about the feelings that go with a national tragedy, the assumptions, the cover-ups, the fears, control, and head question- why?Stone makes Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner in one of his few superb performances, as a man who starts off believing the Warren Commission following the assassination on the day 11/22/63.
2) in the exceptional cameo by Donald Sutherland as Mr. X, when he refers to the military industrial complex, and to the fact that in other parts of the world people already were hearing the entire history of Oswald was the killer before people in the United States even knew about the man, also to the black operations, which I definitely don't doubt exist.However, by the end of the 205 minute investigative epic into the "coup de-ta" of our 35th president, even those who may question Garrison's (as well as Stone's) views can still see the film as a masterwork of feelings, an atmosphere of a specific time and mood of a country.
What a fantastic movie, I hadn't seen this in several years but enjoyed Oliver stones controversial version of the events surrounding President Kennedy's assassination just as much in my re-watch as I did back in 92.Led by new Orleans DA Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) Wow, what a cast, it's almost a who's-who here with amazing performances all around; Ed Asner (is a bad, bad man) Joe Pesci, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Oldman in particular stand out.
This comment is really TWO comments: One of Oliver Stone's movie itself and a second one on the premise of the film.First: The film is excellent in telling the story of the various theories surrounding the assassination.
Oliver Stone may honestly believe Jim Garrison was a great man, but his film (ironically enough) makes him (Garrison) come off as the nut he was.Conspiracy theories, as we know, rely on belief rather than evidence.
Oliver Stone directed this (still) extremely controversial film that takes the viewpoint of Louisiana District Attorney Jim Garrison(played by Kevin Costner) who believed that U.S. President John F.