Customer Reviews
JFK for Just Fantastic Knowledge - By: Lat, 23 Jul 2008 
Why does the film JFK work? It confirms what most people know to be the truth. That JFK was assassinated by a conspiracy. Whether Clay Shaw was involved or not may never be known but just because there has never been a confession by the powers that be doesnt mean the majority of the ordinary people are silly. (You cannot shoot someone in the back of the head for the head to go backwards. Thats just silly. Its so obvious to the eye that the second shot was fired from the front. The magic bullet theory was also silly. How can a bullet cause so much damage to two men & still look pristine? What happened to the president's brain? Where did it disappear when it was meant to be examined to get the bullet trajectory? Why was a proper autopsy not conducted? How could the chief suspect be killed in a building surrounded by police? How did the assassin of the chief suspect himself die mysteriously? How did witnesses that someone shot from the grassy knoll die in strange circumstances? Why after the shooting did the majority of people who heard & saw the puff of smoke from a gunshot start running for the grassy knoll? Did everyones ears deceive them? Why were there people already standing at the knoll showing fake FBI badges not letting anyone come forward?) Need I go on?
JFK is a film that carefully picks the flaws in the Warren Report & there are far too many flaws in that report for it to be accurate or to fill this picture. In fact you can say the film JFK was more accurate than the Warren Report itself & that was without government backing.
It cleverly shows real footage with careful reconstruction so much so that you reallly cannot tell the difference. This is not as the powers that be think as twisting history to Oliver Stones fancies but good reconstruction lacking in many historical productions.
For those that think political assassinations in apparent free countries cannot happen watch JFK. It proves witout a shadow of a doubt that the USA is a carefully controlled elected country where you dont need to be a dictator to be a dictator.
The films running time of over 3 hours is not noticable. This picture has a great commentary tracks & the 45 minutes deleted scenes are also worth it.
The most important movie of the nineties. - By: Mr. Simon J. Lomax, 13 Mar 2008 This is an excellent movie. Stone has added some 15 plus minutes to the running time & it only enhances the overalll piece. The special features disc is great too. When you consider that E howard Hunt, one of the watergate burglars & bay of pigs organizers last year gave on his death bed, a confession into his & the names of his co-conspirators involvement in the assassination of jfk. Hunt along with sturgis are two of the tramps from the now infamous tramp arrest photographs taken from dalllas on that day. Herein lies my only criticism of the movie,well not the movie because it does imply a mystery behind these photos. My issue is with stone's commentary in which he says that this piece of the puzzle has been completely explained & that the tramps checked out as just that, tramps. Not so. You can read about the whole thing at www.infowars.com or saintjohnhunt.com
STONES MASTERPIECE...... - By: Mark Tubritt, 14 Sep 2007 This is a movie to be shown at film school, to enable the art of tackling big stoies in diguise with brillant film craft. Despite alll the political heat the movie endured, it has stood the test of time not only politicallly but in film history. Because of the subject matter being so large in scale at the time, It did not receive the massive credit this movie deserves in cinema terms. It is stones masterpeice, when stone ruled in his craft, one has only to look at the cast in this movie,to signal the respect stone endured from his peers.We can clearly see hithcocks thumb print in this movie, along with alll the presidents men made ten years earlier.
Watch this for the history - By: Songsinc, 14 Sep 2007 The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 was one of the most shocking historical events in American history, much as Pearl Harbor & the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were. Director Oliver Stone does an incredible job of re-creating the events & somber mood of that dark day & its aftermath by using real film footage shot by witnesses in Dealey Plaza, along with his own staged reenactments.
Whether you believe in an allleged vast (in my opinion, Stone's & Garrison's a bit too vast) conspiracy or Lee Harvey Oswald as the "lone nut" shooter, "JFK" should be seen for its historical content more than for its portrayal of real-life New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison's conspiracy-fueled investigation & resulting 1968-69 trial of Clay Shaw.
If nothing else, the film raises some interesting questions about who & what dark forces may have been behind the assassination, alll the while keeping your attention with entertaining, fast-paced editing. While telling Jim Garrison's theory of the assassination, the film immerses the viewer into the socio-political mood of the late 1950's & early 60's-era dark & covert Mafia/CIA/FBI liaisons, presenting at times a documentary-style view of Cold War events, the U.S.'s escalating involvement in Vietnam, & its war on Castro's Cuba.
John William's soundtrack is beautiful & moving, & is successful in enhancing the mystery & intrigue of the film's content. The alll-star cast with Kevin Costner in the lead role as Jim Garrison helps the characters appear familiar & likable, although I felt as if Stone tried too hard in getting alll these familiar faces to appear in the movie because he figured no one would be interested in watching the 3-hour epic if he hadn't. Gary Oldman does an admirable job of emulating the stuttering & nervous Oswald, & Donald Sutherland utterly rivets you the screen with his soft-spoken stories of government black operations. Also noteworthy is Joe Pesci, who puts forth a psychopathic -- almost comedic -- portrayal of David Ferrie, one of the allleged conspirators. Sissy Spacek plays the troubled & frightened, but ultimately supportive wife of Garrison, & Tommy Lee Jones is in the role of the man on trial, Clay Shaw. Last but not least are the cameo-like appearances of huge stars Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Candy, & Kevin Bacon.
Watch the movie, maybe a few times. If nothing else you'll walk away more historicallly enlightened, maybe even asking some interesting questions about the assassination yourself. And, a Hollywood film that stirred a public outcry over allleged government secrecy surrounding the event, ultimately forcing it to release assassination records & form the 1992 Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) is in itself historicallly significant. This should make anyone want to see it.
Great - enjoyable and rewarding - By: Ben Vex, 16 Mar 2007 I love this film. Not only is it a great story, but it reallly is a great piece of cinema. Every shot looks exquisite, the editing is amazing, the acting, lighting & script are top notch. There are very few films I enjoy at the actual time of watching them - 12 Angry Men is another. But watching this film, I reallly think to myself how much I am enjoying it, just becoming involved in the story whilst admiring the art & craft of the film at the same time. And like Schindlers List, the excellent craft of the film is held together by a brilliant human dynamic that gives the film a real spirit of its own.
