Review of Executive Action (1973) by Van R — 06 Dec 2009

This landmark movie integrates authentic newsreel footage of the historic Kennedy assassination with speculative footage of a conspiracy to kill the President. The cast headed by Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Will Greer as the conspirators is prestigious.

Producer Edward Lewis was no slouch either, having produced the volatile political thriller SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, but the clincher is that former blacklisted Hollywood 10 scenarist Dalton Trumbo penned the script.

Initially, Trumbo said that he did not believe in a conspiracy, but after he read several books on the assassination as well as the Warren Commission Report, he changed his mind. Director David Miller of LONELY ARE THE BRAVE helmed this interesting film that consists largely of men who assemble in rooms and talk about the plan.

Indeed, this semi-documentary approach creates some question about the findings of the Warren Report that concluded beyond a doubt that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, gunned down the President on November 22, 1963.

Nevertheless, EXECUTIVE ACTION did not stir up the controversy that the Oliver Stone movie JFK wityh Kevin Costner generated many years later. Nonetheless, in light of everything, EXECUTIVE ACTION constituted a bold move.

This was actor Robert Ryan's final film appearance. Randy Edelmanwrote the haunting theme music. The film ends with the observation that an inordinate number of eye witnesses to the assassination died afterward of unusual causes.