On November 22nd, 1963, top government officials all the way up to LBJ himself had President John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas, for the most part, in order to keep the soldiers in Vietnam. There were many people involved in his death, but LBJ was the most senior man in on the attack.
Lee Harvey Oswald did not shoot President Kennedy, or at least, he wasn't the only one involved. That much is TRUE. Yes, there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll. There was a conspiracy to kill the President of the United States of America.
The Warren Commission's report was a bunch of bullshit and a waste of taxpayer dollars. If you believe that trash, then you'd believe Elvis Presley is still alive. The Warren report isn't worthy of being bathroom tissue, let alone anything else.
If you have not yet seen Oliver Stone's JFK, then you have not seen one the greatest films of all time.
In November 1963, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison learned by a TV report that Lee Harvey Oswald had spent the summer of 1963 in New Orleans. Oswald was often seen with David Ferrie, a member of the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
Garrison arrested Ferrie because of his phoney alibi for November 22. After he turned Ferry over to the FBI, they released him, clearing him of any involvement in the Kennedy assassination. Ferry was murdered in 1967, to shut him up.
During the investigation, the name Clay Bertrand turned up again and again as a business associate of Ferrie. Clay Bertrand was the alias of Clay Shaw. Clay Shaw, a homosexual and businessman who, by the alias of Clay Bertrand, was accused of aiding the assassins.
As the film delves deeper and deeper into the conspiracy, we learn more and more that it was practically impossible for Oswald to have acted alone.
By the time the case goes to trial (Clay Shaw having been charged with aiding the assassins), several key witnesses have been murdered, and even Garrison's family has been threatened. Garrison himself is on pins and needles, fearing anyone and everyone. The media is against him, and most people think he is a crackpot. Any attempt to obtain government documents and evidence is thwarted at every turn.
The film constantly picks up speed until the very end of the film were everything comes out in a fast paced, emotionally charged monologue (given brilliantly by Costner) that trumps even Olivier's best Hamlet monologue. This monologue gives us every detail of the conspiracy from what happened to whodunit.
If you were never convinced a conspiracy existed before, by now, you should be.
The acting is superb, despite the large cast of stars. Kevin Costner steals the show with his best performance second only to Dances With Wolves. His emotionally charged monologue, which basically takes up the last 30+ minutes of the film, gives you everything you want to hear and more. It brings the house down, so to speak. It sucks though, because he wasn't even nominated.
We must also give many kudos to the exceptional supporting cast (Sissy Spacek, Wayne Knight, and of course Tommy Lee Jones) who helped make this film the riveting docu-drama that it is today.
The directing by Oliver Stone is superb; he definitely deserved the Oscar for direction over Jonathan Demme for his direction of The Silence of the Lambs (although Demme did a great job, too). Stone got right into the assassination and every single detail. He left no stone unturned (no pun intended); he mentions every little detail that would ultimately help prove his case that Lee Harvey Oswald was in fact just a patsy and did not act alone.
JFK is a powerful movie that deals with a subject that stirs up controversy wherever it goes. But, after having watched the film, there can be only one conclusion made, and one question asked: Yes, there was a conspiracy to kill President John F. Kennedy, and Lee Harvey Oswald DID NOT act alone. So then, who DID order Kennedy's death, and who pulled the trigger it?
There are too many questions left unanswered. Why did Jack Ruby REALLY kill Oswald? Why was the autopsy botched? How did they identify Oswald so quickly? How did they find Oswald in the theatre so fast? Who was so afraid of Kennedy that they felt they had to kill him?
"THE EVIDENCE reviewed above identifies Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin of President Kennedy and indicates that he acted alone in that event. There is no evidence that he had accomplices or that he was involved in any conspiracy directed to the assassination of the President. There remains the question of what impelled Oswald to conceive and to carry out the assassination of the President of the United States." - The Warren Commission Report
Call it bunk if you want to. Call it a vicious pack of lies. Then wake yourself up and look at the facts. They're staring you right in the face. After seeing this film, how can you not agree that there were two shooters?
"Never in our lifetimes [will] we know the entire truth of what happened in Dallas." - Chief Justice Earle Warren
Hopefully, we shall know the truth in 2029 when the government House Select Committee’s files on assassinations become available. Hopefully. But then again, we just watched what really happened.
Updated: 30-12-05
Plot: 
The story was masterfully told. The entire assassination conspiracy is recreated in perfect detail, and Oliver Stone proves, with this masterpiece that there is no other evidence than the fact that there were two or more shooters and a conspiracy really did exist.
Visual Effects:
The Cinematography is second to none, and as for the film clips of Kennedy and Oswald... well, there is no parallel. The slow motion of the bullet in the Zapruder film was the clincher.
Stone and his crew masterfully edited in all sorts of different clips, real and fake, like the Zapruder film, to enhance the historical aspects of the film. This editing is as good as the editing done for Forrest Gump.
Sound:
There are no songs in the film, but John Williams score of mainly drums and an increasing beat when the action became faster paced was well crafted and added a great dramatic tension to key scenes of the film.
Character Development:
Atmosphere:
How can you not be hooked on this film? If you never believed in a conspiracy before, you will now. This film will make you think.
Realism:
Although everything is real, some details are "Hollywoodized." But not many.
On second viewing, this rating was changed because the film took few, if any liberties with the truths, and created a clear and concise testament of what happened at the trial in 1969. This film proves, without a doubt, that Oswald was not alone.
Warren’s Rating:
Movies it was nominated with for Best Picture:
Beauty and the Beast, (1991); Bugsy, (1991); The Prince of Tides, (1991); *The Silence of the Lambs, (1991)
11/10 Is the movie worth your time to watch?
10-10-03
Re-rated: 31-12-05
