New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
- Won 2 Oscars
- 19 wins & 41 nominations total
- Jackie Kennedy - Double
- (as Jodi Farber)
- Plaza Witness #1
- (as E. J. Morris)
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsDavid Ferrie's "confession" in Fountainbleu Hotel never happened. Ferrie went to his death denying any knowledge of Oswald or the plot to kill JFK.
- Quotes
Jim Garrison: The Warren Commission thought they had an open-and-shut case. Three bullets, one assassin. But two unpredictable things happened that day that made it virtually impossible. One, the eight-millimeter home movie taken by Abraham Zapruder while standing by the grassy knoll. Two, the third wounded man, James Tague, who was knicked by a fragment, standing near the triple underpass. The time frame, five point six seconds, determined by the Zapruder film, left no possibility of a fourth shot. So the shot or fragment that left a superficial wound on Tague's cheek had to come from the three shots fired from the sixth floor depository. That leaves just two bullets. And we know one of them was the fatal head shot that killed Kennedy. So now a single bullet remains. A single bullet now has to account for the remaining seven wounds in Kennedy and Connelly. But rather than admit to a conspiracy or investigate further, the Warren Commission chose to endorse the theory put forth by an ambitious junior counselor, Arlen Spector, one of the grossest lies ever forced on the American people. We've come to know it as the "Magic Bullet Theory." This single-bullet explanation is the foundation of the Warren Commission's claim of a lone assassin. Once you conclude the magic bullet could not create all seven of those wounds, you'd have to conclude that there was a fourth shot and a second rifle. And if there was a second rifleman, then by definition, there had to be a conspiracy.
- Crazy creditsClosing statement: What Is Past Is Prologue
- Alternate versionsA director's cut prepared by Oliver Stone for the video release features 17 minutes of footage not included in the theatrical version. Among the new material:
- Guy Bannister and his secretary talk briefly about Oswald and laugh.
- New flashbacks of Oswald's life in Dallas with his wife after his return from Russia and his contacts with George De Mohrenshildt, Janet and Bill Williams (the man who gets Oswald a job at the book depository).
- When Garrison and his assistant are at the book depository, they discuss the fact that the motorcade route was changed by then Dallas mayor Earle Cabell, brother of general Charles Cabell fired by Kennedy in 1961.
- A fake Oswald (Frank Whaley) is seen in a flashback test-driving a new car and talking about Russia to the salesman.
- In another flashback, Oswald is introduced to the New Orleans Cuban community and meets Sylvia Odio, leader of an underground anti-Castro movement.
- A new flashback of Oswald and Clay Shaw seen together at a voter's registration drive in September '63.
- Jim Garrison appears on "The Jerry Johnson Show" on TV to be interviewed. He tries to show photographs and defend his theories but he's cut short by host Jerry Johnson (John Larroquette).
- Bill Broussard meets Jim Garrison at the airport where he's leaving for Phoenix, AZ and tells him the mob will attempt to assassinate him. After a few minutes he has to flee from a public restroom when he hears strange voices in the next stall and is approached by an unknown man (a cameo by production designer Victor Kempster) who pretends to be a friend of him.
- Garrison and his staff discover that Broussard has disappeared from his apartment, and argue about the real reason why Clay Shaw has been brought to trial. While they're talking, Garrison sees Robert Kennedy on TV and says "They'll kill him before they'll let him be president".
- During the trial, more witnesses against Shaw are shown than in the theatrical version, including a obviously insane man (Ron Rifkin) who claims that Shaw discussed killing Kennedy with him.
- ConnectionsEdited into Malcolm X (1992)
- SoundtracksDrummers' Salute
Arranged by D. G. McCroskie
Performed by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Courtesy of Fiesta Records Co. Inc.
Still, patriotism is seriously involved and it's very significant that Oliver Stone, one of America's most prolific political film-makers, much more a Vietnam vet, handled the subject of Kennedy's assassination. As a man who practiced America's ideals on a muddy battlefield, Stone is entitled to question these values he fought for and the integrity of the leaders that sent him out there: indeed, why would America send soldiers to fight foreigners in Vietnam? Why so far when Cuba is so close?
Money is the key. There are no warmongers but businessmen who generate money out of all the steel, the guns, the helicopters, the machines that are blown to pieces in Asia. In fact, Stone didn't make a Vietnam and a President trilogy but a colossal oeuvre about Politics and War. And to a certain extent, Kennedy can be regarded as one of the Vietnam War's victims, as a collateral damage: he was against the conflict and got killed before putting an end to it. It doesn't point an accusing finger on the Army, but it highlights at least one serious motive for Kennedy's assassination.
And that's the essence of the investigation lead by District Attorney Garrison, Kevin Costner at the peak of his bank-ability. Garrison isn't satisfied with the conclusions of the Warren Commission that validated the "isolated killer" theory, incarnated by Lee Harvey Oswald (a remarkable Gary Oldman) who conveniently died before his trial. What was his motive anyway? The Commission closed the case, leaving a bunch of altered testimonies, witnesses silenced before exposing their truth and so many unanswered questions. Garrison smells something fishy and who wouldn't? And the compass to guide his investigation is the elementary question: who benefits from the crime?
And this is where Kennedy's assassination takes a sort of legendary aura, playing as a modern version of Julius Caesar. Kennedy could have made a lot of enemies everywhere: CIA, Russia, Cubans, although I wouldn't regard it as an omission, the film didn't even mention the possibility of an involvement from the Federal Reserve Bank since Kennedy always defended the sovereignty of the dollar. But as the film progresses, it gets clearer that Kennedy was a man to eliminate, and one of "JFK"'s highlights (which is saying a lot) is carried by the revelations delivered by Donald Sutherland as Mr. X, in Washington.
There are two levels in "JFK", the mystery surrounding the murder and the investigation, what happened and what is known. And both interact in a masterstroke of editing, probably one of the most complicated, intricate and brilliant ever committed to screen, certainly a school-case for wannabe editors. Literally, "JFK" is served like a salad of documents, flashbacks, excerpts from the Zapruder film, archive footage, memories, truths and lies, shot in every possible way (sepia, 16mm, amateur, black and white) and as Roger Ebert pointed out, the film would have been harder to follow with an unchanging shooting. The salad is rich but digestible.
And like a 1000-piece puzzle, "JFK" is an assemblage of different portions of reality that tend to get Garrison, if not closer to the 'final image', further from the Warren's conclusions. On that level, the film provides an extraordinary cast of supporting characters, from Jack Lemmon to Joe Pesci, from Kevin Bacon to John Candy, each one leading to one certainty: there was a conspiracy. The analysis of the Zapruder film revealed the timing between the first and last shot, making implausible the 'one-killer' hypothesis, even if he's a sharpshooter. And this very implausibility implies the presence of a second person, which is enough to validate the idea of a conspiracy.
And last but not least, there's the excitability of some interrogated people who know that they put their lives at stakes if they talk. The film is driven by a sense of paranoia that conveys its greatest thrills. What can be more emotionally engaging than a quest for truth anyway, especially when it undermines the deepest beliefs of any good citizen? One of Garrison's employees, played by Michael Rooker, can't accept the possibility of Johnson's involvement, even Garrison's wife (Sissy Spacek) represent this side of America that wants to turn the page. Garrison has detractors and it starts in his own private circle, before he becomes a target for the media.
Garrison embodies the struggle of a man who wants to reconcile with America's ideals, he doesn't fight the government because he's against it, but because the government acts against the people. He feels like owing this to Kennedy, to his vision of America, to his sons, and as his investigation goes on, he witnesses the deaths of Martin Luther King, of Bobby Kennedy, and realizes that the system that killed Kennedy still prevails. Garrison's struggle is magnificently conveyed by the sort of inspirational score that only John Williams could have performed.
"JFK" works on every cinematic level, it's one of the best political films and best conspiracy movies ever made because it doesn't try to tell its own truth but to belie a fallacious version. It starts with an axiom: there was a conspiracy, and as long as it won't be solved, there's an emotional wound in America's heart that would never be healed.
- ElMaruecan82
- Sep 17, 2012
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $40,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $70,405,498
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,223,658
- Dec 22, 1991
- Gross worldwide
- $205,405,498
- Runtime3 hours 9 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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