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Summary: JFK
Review: Some may consider this a movie that either you believe in it or you don't, either you like it or you don't but I disagree. I still don't know whether or not to trust this movie as a source (much of the footage was faked- this is a fact) but I know that as a MOVIE (documentary or fiction) this rocked.Oliver Stone worked more of his magical directing in this film with Kevin Costner. I especially liked the paranormal quality of the cinematography, the way it switched from full color to black and white flashbacks to grainy "home video" style was superior in style to many other mvoies I've seen. Unless your thoughts are set in stone before you watch, this movie will make you believe by the end. Considered by many (and me) one of the finest movies to date. Based on Jim Garrison's award-winning book, this movie combines great acting with superb videography to make what I consider a true masterpiece of a film.
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Summary: big brother and veracity is an oxymoron
Review: Oliver Stone's magnum opus based on speculation and searing fact is a plea for sanity,truth and the call for accountability to the masters of the universe who treat the honest and the dissident with so much contempt.
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Summary: So, you don't buy Stone's conspiracy theory?
Review: Whether or not the film answers the questions surrounding the death of President Kennedy, it does boast bravura performances from Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, and, in a small yet memorable cameo, Larry Hagman. John Williams also contributes a very subtle yet powerful score, simultaneously ominous and poignant.
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Summary: Riveting Film Making That Enthralls
Review: A lot of viewers do not like Oliver Stone's films because they have had the misfortune of seeing and hearing Oliver Stone on television in real life. It is wise to keep the two totally separate. Oliver Stone the filmmaker is a great artist with a masterful hand at cutting edge story telling and "JFK" shows that talent at its peak. Oliver Stone the real life person can be grating, obnoxious and offensive to just about everyone and would do himself a big favor by not making personal appearances. This is his personal, artistic version of JFK's assassination. He makes a compelling case for the proposition that JFK was murdered as part of a conspiracy by powerful forces in our own government rather than Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone. JFK was obviously a hero of Stone's and Stone even believes that JFK would have prevented the escalation of the Vietnam War. In fact, he believes that the Vietnam War was made possible only by getting rid of JFK. I buy more into Stone's conspiracy theory than I do this lofty, ultra hero view of JFK. However, this is his vision and he certainly can put on quite a case, which he does through Kevin Costner, acting as District Attorney Jim Garrison of New Orleans prosecuting Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) for conspiring to murder JFK. Costner shows his full leading man appeal plus the intensity, earnestness and idealism that had become the trademark for a Costner leading role. Stone is known for getting fabulous male performances and that is true of every male performance in "JFK." For example, Gary Oldman is fabulous as Oswald as is Jones as Shaw and Joe Pesci as David Ferry. Sissy Spacek is reduced to a wife as wallpaper role, which is also typical of Stone, but you don't go to an Oliver Stone film to see great roles for women. This is a long movie that seemingly is over too fast since Stone really knows how to keep things moving. If you see this film back to back with "Thirteen Days," also with Costner and about JFK, you will see an incredible difference in both film making ability and acting deliveries. I've seen this film 3 times and been glued to the screen each time.
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Summary: Masterpiece - Film and DVD
Review: The feature is engrossing from start to finish, no mean feat for a feature over 3 hours long. Kevin Costner (never better) is ably supported by a stellar cast, including Kevin Bacon, Ed Ansner, Jack Lemmon to name a few. The film interposes stock footage - including the famous Zapruder film - with the directors own vision to piece together a viscereal view of what happened leading up to, and during the asassination of JFK. The trial at the end of the film is Costners greatest moment where he poses hard questions to a disbelieving courtroom, with a passion for the truth, and a tear in his eye: "Remember your dying King" A superb anamorphic transfer, with special features over two discs, this DVD is an essential purchase for those interested in one of the darkest days in world history. Thoroughly recommended.
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Summary: Of all conspiracy theories...this is one of the worst!
Review: As a film, this makes a good story, but I hate to see young people buy into this as fact. It is nothing more than far-reaching speculation and conjecture. With all the conspiracy theories being strongly refuted by a number of books in the 90's, it's beginning to appear more and more that Oswald did act alone... no matter how un-exciting that may sound. Even historians that believe in a conspiracy will tell you this is one of the weakest to be considered. Good filmmaking, great entertainment. Not history!
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Summary: What really happened on November 22, 1963?
Review: Even now, ten years after it was first unleashed, Oliver Stone's 1991 epic JFK continues to provoke controversy and debate, like many great films have been known to do. Perhaps he can be faulted to a point by raising so many conspiracy theories and for making a hero out of New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison, who was the only one to prosecute a JFK-related case. What Stone can't be faulted for, however, is taking on this whole thing in the first place, and with good reason. The assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963 remains one of the darkest events in our nation's history. This is made even more so because the official version of the murder propogated by the Warren Commission and apologists like Gerald Psoner stopped being believable to a lot of Americans a long time ago, well before Stone's film was ever conceived. Stone offers what he calls a "counter-myth" to the Warren report, one that involves a cabal of individuals from the Mafia, the CIA, organized crime, and the military/industrial complex coordinating to do in a man who might very well have ended the Cold War during his term in office and might very well have stopped the disaster that befell our nation in Vietnam. His theories on the "Who" are open to question, but the "Why" is far more believable and far more troubling. As played by Kevin Costner (perhaps his greatest performance), Garrison dwells into a New Orleans connection to the Dallas tragedy and indicts local businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) on conspiracy charges. Lack of tangible evidence caused a jury to acquit Shaw of the charges, but this didn't mean that Garrison was wrong for bringing the case to trial. And if U.S. history since November 22, 1963 has shown us anything, it is that he certainly wasn't wrong for suggesting that JFK's murder was not only a turning point, but an elaborate coup d'etat. Stone crams in a great deal of material that has to be absorbed during its 205-minute running time, but he is aided by a cast that is to die for: Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Ed Asner, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Bacon, Walter Matthau, Laurie Metcalfe, Donald Sutherland, Michael Rooker, Gary Oldman (as "alleged" assassin Lee Harvey Oswald), and many others. With the Oscar-winning help of editors Joe Hutsching and Pietro Scala and cinematographer Ralph Richardson, Stone also masters the "montage" complex, editing together in great rapidity footage shot in 16-millimeter, 35-millimeter, color, and black and white. Nobody had used the montage method with this kind of power since Sam Peckinpah did it in his 1969 classic THE WILD BUNCH. John Williams contributes another one of his masterful music scores. Even if it seems to be too ambitious and zealous for its own good at times, JFK is essential viewing for people who want to come to grips with everything that has happened to America since that dark day in Dallas. It is gripping from end to end, a true American epic.
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Summary: ...
Review: The movie JFK has an un-relenting belief that the answer goes all the way up to the top, that takes gumpshion. You root for Costner from beginning to end, not because he know's who killed Kennedy, but because of the deep conviction and Gut-Feeling that he think's he know's who killed President Kennedy. That is what the history has become. Not in the books, but in our theories. Mostly fueled by the thing's we cannot see, our fear's about Kennedy's death drove into the creation process of JFK the film. It is First important that you know the fact's about what was assumed to have happened before you allow a hundred different idea's change that view. JFK is great at delivering awesome performances (such as a very long and heated court scene with Costner) and showing a paranoid nation that now remembers exactly what they where doing when John F. Kennedy was killed.
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Summary: Great, Believable Movie
Review: This is a great movie. The reason it became a controversy is because those scumbags behind the whole thing didn't want you to know about it. It is the truth and a common knowledge film that tells a great story. If you like any movies that are similar to this don't even wait to see before buying. It isn't worth spending 4 bucks to rent and then buy it.
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Summary: A Stunning Examination
Review: "JFK" is one of those movies that I love, but somehow it irritates me. When I say irritate, I mean that it doesn't give me a clear-cut answer to the big question that encompasses this three hour film,"Who killed Kennedy?". What you're given are ideas and theories to who did the deed, but never a clear-cut answer. Even the ending doesn't appear to be that hopeful. But in the analysis, that's what makes the movie appealing. It gives you the ideas to work with, then leaves them for you to put together. Movies like this are generally never taken very well by mainstream audiences, but (as in the case with this film) "JFK" managed to renew interest in the assassination and bring some interesting facts to light. The commentary by director Oliver Stone on this Special Edition DVD is not just about the film, but about the conspiracy theories, his disgust at current events, and general facts about this period of time that has seem to affect a good deal of his movies. Also included are some interesting outtakes/deleted scenes and some features on events involving key players and the assassination itself. The movie itself is full of great performers such as Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, Joe Pesci, Gary Oldman, Donald Sutherland, Jack Lemmon, and many others. It's a film that strikes a nerve and is truly one of the best movies the 1990's has ever produced. Period.
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