JFK | Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones | In terms of pure filmmaking, this film is a masterpiece....

JFK | Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones | "It's Up To You"

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JFK

	JFK Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones Warner Home Video, 2001 average customer review:based on 323 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A film that chronicles New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It explores all the credible assassination theories that have raised the nation's persistent questions, doubts and suspicions.

In terms of pure filmmaking, this film is a masterpiece....

If you jettison the politics of this movie (and Stone's reputation as a muckracker), and simply look at JFK as a film, it's arguably Oliver Stone's best film and it is absolutely rivetting. It's a masterpiece of cinemtography, editing, writing, and performances. I've only seen the initial 189 minute theatrical version, and that film is my favorite Oliver Stone film. Stone's scope of this project is incredible. He not only makes an epic about the JFK assassination, but he makes it so fascinating and enthralling that you marvel as his talents as a filmmaker. The cinematography here is astounding. Robert Richardson shoots in 35mm, 8mm, and 16mm, color, black and white, tinted color, tinted black and white, and it all blends seamlessly. The editing on this monster is also a marvel (it deservedly won an Oscar for editing). The film has a ton of cuts (something in films I don't like), but Stone and his editors do wonders with it. The performances deserve special mention as well. Costner is very effective as Jim Garrison, the New Orleans prosecutor who believed in the conspiracy of JFK's assassination. Costner does a New Orleans accent very well, much better than his rather pathetic "English" one for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. There are numerous cameos in the film, but they don't feel like cameos. Stone manages to make each actor/character unique and interesting. It never feels like star spotting. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Kevin Bacon, Donald Sutherland, Joe Pesci, and Ed Asner (as a right wing demogagoue, which is funny considering Asner is a very left wing liberal) are standouts in a magnificent cast.

When you watch this film, think of it as "Stone's interpretation of the JFK assassination". There are numerous discrepancies here (such as Garrison meeting with Mr. X, played by Sutherland. That never happened), but if you look at this film strictly as a film, it's remarkable and worthy of the accolades it has received over the years. It's one of Oliver Stone's most memorable films, and a reminder of what a great director he can be when he's on.

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"It's Up To You"

I haven't viewed this movie since it came out, but after tonight's viewing, it still holds up as an engrossing and entertaining experience. Some of it maybe fiction and some not, but as for Oswald being the lone assassin, I just don't believe it. When you hear Mr.X describe his theory, it comes eerily close to what out current President has done with Iraq.
I gave this edition only 4 stars because they really didn't need to fluff this one up by 17 minutes, a reason why it was left on the cutting room floor for theatrical release is quite apparent.
But do watch and decide for yourself...it is up to you and every American to decide and debate amongst yourselves.

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Sixth Floor Window

I've rated Stone's 'JFK' 3 stars not because of quality or accuracy but because this movie had a major impact on me. In my first watching of this film, I detected at least one major, and I think deliberate, factual error. One of the characters is handing a Carcano rifle as another character says words to the effect, "The three shots took 7.8 seconds to fire. Let's time it." He then picks up a stopwatch and clicks, "Go." The other character, works the action [once], he works the action again [twice], he works the action a third time [three]. "9.2 seconds," the one man emotes. "Impossible."

Well, from reading over reports of the shooting I knew that this scenario was an untruth. The timing was from the moment of the sound of the first shot--a couple of seconds after the first levering.

Fascinated by such an obvious error and, considering the fact that I am a pathologist and a shooter, I decided to redo the entire shooting scenario--personally--using the same type Carcano-Mannlicher rifle and the same type ammunition that the FBI claimed Oswald used. I performed accuracy, rate of fire, bullet penetration, bullet deformation, head deflection and other studies. By the time I was finished, I probably did as much ballistic work with the Kennedy shooting as anyone in the world, not excluding the FBI and CIA.

[...]

Ron Braithwaite, MD, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

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