Review of JFK (1991) by David F — 28 Oct 2013

It's so impressive the way that Oliver Stone crammed so many thick tomes of information into this movie without it ever seeming like dry, boring exposition. I don't know what I believe after watching this movie but it seems like something definitely is up with the JFK assassination.

And it's a tribute to the films tolerance for complexity, open-endedness and inconclusiveness that by the end of the 3 plus hour runtime you don't know what the film believes either. Stone seems to be saying that History, like Art, is open to interpretation.

A lot of interpretation. There's some great scenes in this movie like Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison, the dogged prosecutor determined to find out what really happened at Dealey Plaza, pointing out all the military and intelligence offices in downtown New Orleans right across the street from each other in a paranoid frenzy.

Or Donald Sutherland ("Call me X") laying out a ton of suspicious information in a few short minutes. John Williams' score which has elements of Coplandesque patriotism along with discordant, frenzied themes deserves a lot of credit for helping to create an atmosphere that resembles a High School Civics class combined with a tense thriller.

Beyond all the fear and the cynicism this is a movie about dedication to high ideals, questioning what you've been told, and the high price paid by those who ask those questions and try to live their lives according to those ideals.