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Image of an Assassination - A New Look at the Zapruder Film

Image of an Assassination - A New Look at the Zapruder Film

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $22.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Shows The World The Terrible Truth
Review: Seems to me the most obvious thing in the world our late Presdent was blasted from the right front. Not one person of the 10 or 15 over the years I've talked to that has seen the film thought the fatal shot came from the rear. How the Media can act like it's written in Stone Oswald Killed JFK is beyond me. Oswald may have fired at the President and killed Tippit, but there is substantial evidence against the Single Bullet Theory...and what is much more likely..some form of neurological reaction accounts for the head shot, and thus was fired from the behind him, or JFK's torso and head is driven violently to the left rear in an immediate response to a frontal shot?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The horror and chills of blood & brain splatter everywhere
Review: The digital enhancement (as well as the technology so thoroughly explained) of Novemeber 22, 1963 doesn't just recreate but forces to you relive this day. Blood and brain splattering everywhere, more than you want to see but part of this story. You have to respest Jackie Kennedy when you think of the horror of this day. Think of yourself sitting next to someone who's head has just been blown off. Few of us have experienced anything as horrific as this. Then she leads the nation with dignity and composure during the funeral. This documentary contains some amazing stuff. Nothing could have been staged or performed to create this type of drama. You'll find yourself watching the bloody scenes over and over, and not just out of morbid curiosity. It almost plays like an art film, gizzly and surreal. It seems to tells us something about man and mankind, and history and Greek tragedy. A real glimpse into the human tragedy of fame and fortune and being part of it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Must Have for Researchers
Review: The DVD version of this product is something that should be in the library of every JFK assassination researcher.

The Zapruder film itself is presented in four different versions including a "widescreen" presentation never before seen.

The documentary section of the disc is excellent and using historical video and interviews tells the story of the Zapruder film from the chance filming up to the process used to make the digital transfer. Also included are the video sources the documentary draws from including the complete "Good Night America" segment in which the film was shown on national TV for the first time. It is interesting to see how dated the theories of Robert Groden and the other guests are when viewed today. Other segments include Richard Stolley of Life discussing the negotiations for rights to the film and a WFAA-TV interview with Zapruder taped shortly after the assassination.

If you are at all interested in the JFK assassination this DVD shold be in your collection. Be sure to get the DVD instead of the VHS version though-for a couple of bucks more it is really worth it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Must Have for Researchers
Review: The DVD version of this product is something that should be in the library of every JFK assassination researcher.

The Zapruder film itself is presented in four different versions including a "widescreen" presentation never before seen.

The documentary section of the disc is excellent and using historical video and interviews tells the story of the Zapruder film from the chance filming up to the process used to make the digital transfer. Also included are the video sources the documentary draws from including the complete "Good Night America" segment in which the film was shown on national TV for the first time. It is interesting to see how dated the theories of Robert Groden and the other guests are when viewed today. Other segments include Richard Stolley of Life discussing the negotiations for rights to the film and a WFAA-TV interview with Zapruder taped shortly after the assassination.

If you are at all interested in the JFK assassination this DVD shold be in your collection. Be sure to get the DVD instead of the VHS version though-for a couple of bucks more it is really worth it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It's not "state of the art"..unless this is 1989
Review: The only thing they did right was use Adobe After Effects' motion control to align the frames. Movies (not video) do not have exact registration of sprockets and that creates jitters. On small caliber film like 8mm that error can be significant. Motion control can produce a more steady image than it could ever be filmed and/or projected. As for the rest of the technique, it's state of the art in 1989, but not the 1990's, especially not in 1997. These people are so busy patting themselves on the back that they didn't bother to see if there was a more modern way to make a digital master.

The view of the sprocket holes also shows that the producers do not even know basic presentation rules (the sprocket holes should have been blacked-out because the viewer's eyes are attracted to high contrast areas, meaning the white sprocket holes are very distracting and irritating. Black sprocket holes would make a more natural viewing condition and not add any artifacts to the image).

In addition, which has nothing to do with the process, it would have been good to add the audio taken from one of the motor cycle cops so we could hear how many shots were fired and when - something that was done on an "In Search Of" episode (I think in the 80's) with a poor copy of the film. Perhaps not accurate, perhaps introduces the possibility of error, but it would have been interesting.

The movie is alright, I was interested in following the ownership of the film, my gripe is that just is NOT the best way to make a digital master from film, it's NOT STATE OF THE ART it hasn't been for about a decade.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Correction for Australian reviewer
Review: The reviewer from Australia is incorrect in saying that the producers of this DVD (MPI Home Video) cannot be blamed for the three missing frames, as he claims that this loss of key frames was "reported" long ago. Allow me to clear this up his confusion: what the reviewer is referring to are the infamous six missing frames that LIFE Magazine says were "accidentally" destroyed in the 1960s. That is indeed a matter of historical record and acknowledged by both sides in the conspiracy debate (the dark splice is very visible in the four versions of the film on this DVD). But the MPI digital restoration team ALSO left out three more frames that are still in the original! MPI is aware of this and has informed researcher Robert Groden (seen interviewed in 1975 by Geraldo on the bonus features) that these frames will be included in future releases of this DVD. All three are located in the film after the headshot at frame #313. MPI got sloppy and screwed up--plain and simple! That's a shame considering the huge financial investment and meticulous attention to detail that went into producing this restoration.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great piece of work
Review: This 45 minute video certainly should be in the library of any JFK Assassination researcher. The newly digitally enhanced version of the Zapruder film shows the assassination in all it's colorful horror. The wide screen version is most interesting (the version shown with the information between the sprocket holes), and the close-up of JFK clearly shows the damage inflicted by the assassin(s). The documentary is most interesting (note Zapruder describing the sound of the last shot in the TV interview in Dallas, very interesting his observations. )

The digitally mastered copy of the Zapruder film, while still not as good as video, does provide reserchers with a much clearer copy to research with than ever before, and the addition of the frame numbers in certain sequences are helpful to pinpoint events.

(And as an added bonus, you'll also get to see Heraldo Rivera with much more hair ;-) )

This video is a must have for any JFK resercher, or any American who wants to see for themselves what really happened to our 36th President.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Oswald could have done it
Review: This DVD has some eccellent documentary footage of the history of the Zapruder film.
The film is very clear and it is quite startling to see what happens in the new digital version.
Also interesting was the interview with Mr Zapruder and a complete report of the how and why he made the film and what went on afterwards with it's sale to Life magazine.
The lost frames happened when the Life magazine team had pictures made for it's magazine,and after watching the 26 seconds of film,nothing sinister has been lost.
What IS interesting is the misleading "conspiracy buffs" on the Goodnight America show telling the audience that Jack Ruby "had a cold which became cancer",trying to allege that he was murdered.In reality,Jack Ruby was admitted to hospital in early December 1966 with pneumonia and was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in January 1967.He had been in jail for 2 years and 10 months,having repeatedly denied any conspiracy.The "conspiracy buffs" also mislead the audience by quoting Ruby stating that his life was in danger,but what they ommitted was why.Jack Ruby felt that anti-semetics like the John Birch Society were out to kill him and that is why he made that statement.He repeatedly stated that he was not involved in any conspiracy.
The amount of errors and outright lies told in misleading films like JFK,which was denounced by famed American journalist Walter Cronkite as "a tissue of lies",has made me realize that the conspiracy buffs have themselves become a fraud because they don't tell all the facts.
This DVD has some amazingly clear film and I was surprised to see that there are two films of the assassination,the Zapruder film and one taken on the other side of the car(not as clear) which shows Kennedy getting shot and was shown on the Goodnight America show.This show advised at the end that a member of the Warren Commision would be on the next show to comment on the film.What a pity that show wasn't included,but the DVD still has a wealth of information with 4 different films of the assassination,biographies and interviews.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Most Significant Film In History
Review: This DVD is, to say the least, not for everybody. Its graphic depiction of the murder of President Kennedy is not for the feint of heart. Buying this video is also not a significant step in proving or disproving any theory about the events in Dallas on November 22, 1963 that you may have. This video, even in its digitally enhanced frame-by-frame version offered here will add fuel to whichever fire you may chose to pour it on.

All this DVD offers is the most significant few seconds of film in the history of film. While the extra features are nice, the main reason for adding this to your library is that reason. While we can all play "Jim Garrison" in the comfort of our homes and repeat "Back, and to the left... Back, and to the left..." ad nauseum, the four versions of the short film offered on this disc are as much a part of American history as the flag raising on Mount Suribachi or the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. I guarantee that proudly displaying this in your library will get you many a funny look from visitors, but I also guarantee that many of them will want to see it for themselves.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE assasination film renovated using current technology...
Review: This film is for the true Kennedy assasination history buff. Told initially from Abraham Zapruder's perspective, the viewer gets a whole new angle on the assasination that's well told and quite informative in that much of this information (Zapruder's actions following his historic filming of the assasination) has rarely been seen/told before. We see the "trail of the tape" as it's gone from Zapruder's camera to it's current location in the National Archives, along with many interviews with key players along the way (...even one televised interview with Zapruder himself only hours after the assasination is shown). Then we follow along as the original film is painstaikingly re-photographed frame-by-frame by experts to allow it to be renovated using today's current computer technology...the result is an unbelievably clear and at the same time gruesome re-playing of that fateful day (this really makes one re-think the conspiracy theories when you see the "head-shot" as it seems almost impossible for that bullet to come from behind...). Four different presentations, some in slow motion, of the renovated film are shown along with a detailed discussion of how this was done supplement the historical "feel" of this tape to give the viewer a truly magnificent visit back to November 22, 1963 in a whole new context.


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