JFK (1991)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

JFK (1991) – O. Stone

It’s hard to mentally return to the early ‘90s (thirty years ago) to recall whether Oliver Stone’s conspiracy theory info-dump (based on Jim Garrison’s book) was perceived as revelatory, crackpot, or someplace in between.  Wasn’t there a recent release of previously classified documents that backs up some of the theorising here?  Certainly, Stone lets it rip by implicating the CIA, the FBI, LBJ, and the mob in the assassination of Kennedy – but I still buy the argument that human nature being what it is, it would be hard to keep a secret of that magnitude under wraps. Nevertheless, the film did have an immediate impact in orchestrating the earlier release of some papers and the Warren Commission’s single shooter conclusion does seem unlikely too.  But the film itself (at 3 ½ hours long) feels windy, packed with speeches whose only intent seems to be to get certain “facts” into the public record for debate, and a surplus of characters that are difficult to remember. Kevin Costner as New Orleans District Attorney Garrison is flat and boring (as Costner always is) and Stone seems uninterested in scenes of Garrison’s home life (with wife Sissy Spacek and children).  In contrast, when reviewing the Zapruder film or presenting any of the events from 1963, Stone brings all of his powers to bear, using a mix of colour and black-and-white, providing real footage as well as re-enactments, blurring reality and fiction (in a way that might confuse future historians – trying to mentally return 60 years ago), and throwing in name actors in cameo roles to heighten the “fun” (Ed Asner, Jack Lemmon, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, John Candy).  Tommy Lee Jones takes a bigger role as Clay Shaw who Garrison charged with conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, the case purportedly at the centre of the film but which often feels neglected (perhaps a “true” feature of Garrison’s investigations).  In the end, this could have been a tighter better film (and reading books might provide clearer hypotheses about JFK’s murder) – and I certainly didn’t need to see it again – but it’s good that Stone got it off his chest.