Review of JFK (1991) by Kenneth L — 04 Nov 2011

I hadn't seen this movie since 9th grade, and while I remembered that it was really long and had tons of actors, I had forgotten how technically brilliant and how incredibly powerful it is. This is a truly unique movie - a dizzying three-hour conspiracy theory epic about historical events. The movie throws an incredible amount of information at you, but is so well-made that you're able to follow it anyway. Oliver Stone isn't always the greatest filmmaker, but perhaps only he could have given us this one.

The film follows the efforts of New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) in his attempt in the late 1960s to uncover the truth about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. As he delves into the official version of the story and into the lives of associates of Lee Harvey Oswald, he learns that the official version of the assassination by the Warren Commission - that Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy - can't possibly be true. It is much harder to establish exactly what the truth is, however, as Garrison finds out in his encounters with a wide and sinister web of suspicious characters.

Kevin Costner in his glory days plays Garrison, and I think he gives a phenomenal performance. He's fierce and determined without being melodramatic, and his courtroom scenes are just riveting. Tommy Lee Jones is the embodiment of effete creepiness as Clay Shaw, a New Orleans businessman Garrison suspects of involvement in the assassination. Gary Oldman is a very mysterious yet sympathetic Lee Harvey Oswald. Joe Pesci, wearing possibly the worst wig and fake eyebrows in movie history, is terrifically energetic and weird as another suspect. Sissy Spacek is fine as Garrison's wife, though the character is mostly a shrill and peripheral one. A bunch of other actors, including Kevin Bacon, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ed Asner, Donald Sutherland, and John Candy, appear for a scene or two but make very strong impressions.

The film is a technical masterpiece, and indeed won Oscars for its cinematography and editing. It has incredible cinematography that hasn't aged a bit. The editing stuffs in quite a lot of disparate documentary sources, and is particularly amazing during the climactic trial scene as Garrison gives his long monologue explaining why the Warren Report must be wrong. The combination in this long final sequence of Oliver Stone's direction, Costner's performance, and the editing make it a stunning piece of filmmaking. It becomes powerfully persuasive, and (assuming none of the facts given in the sequence are made up) I for one left the movie convinced that there must have been a second shooter, and indeed that Lee Harvey Oswald may have been innocent altogether. That magic bullet theory, if the film is explaining it right, is plainly preposterous. Although I know at least some elements of the film are fictionalized, JFK is nonetheless amazing.