Review of JFK (1991) by Shane S — 13 Dec 2010

An astounding film as made by noted pacifist Oliver Stone, this take on an independent investigation led by New Orleans DA Jim Garrison surrounding the death of President John F. Kennedy is not only extremely entertaining, informative, and mythological as the real event was, but is also the subject of many a probing into the death of one of the most celebrated American presidents of all time. Equally condemnatory on Garrison's obsession with studying this case to the point of driving his wife insane and his meeting with Mr. X (who brings an interesting theory as to why Kennedy was shot), this film is practically Oliver Stone's greatest achievement as a director. Forget about the schizophrenically sadistic "Natural Born Killers" and the stoic "Platoon" - for relative cinematic nirvana by one of America's most celebrated directors, "JFK" is hands down the way to go.

While strange in presenting the alternate myth that Lee Harvey Oswald had absolutely nothing to do with the shooting and had actually acted with a group of homosexual renegades led by David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) just so he could get some information about this assassination attempt that they were going to do just because Kennedy "gave the niggers their rights", the film does accurately debunk the infamous "magic bullet theory" that Earl Warren gave to us. After hearing Costner explain how insane such a shot that is (and especially after looking at the Zapruder film through his eyes), we can either be convinced that Kennedy was killed just to kickstart the Vietnam War (and look what we made out of that) or that Stone is just a crazed nut.

The truth is: it's just a movie. Watch it and you'll like it. You'll find something that you haven't heard before. And trust me, I'll never look at the Zapruder film in the same way ever again.