The greatest example of the power of film

I have grown up basically a child of the 90s. This last decade is the one I remember from my childhood. I didn't grow up in the 60s and thusly can't remember the crazy events that took place and the overall strange feeling that the country seemed to be experiencing. I am a big student of history and have done a lot of research on the Kennedy assassination, I've read the official line of the Warren Commission and also a lot of the conspiracy theories, both wild and believable. But I have never been able to fully understand the atmosphere and stakes behind the whole thing until I watched Oliver Stone's masterpiece, "JFK".

This is the story of Louisiana District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) and his crusade to prove that there was a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. He digs deep, finding out all sorts of inconsistencies and cover-ups and taking on a lot of underworld types and mysteries. He brings in Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) to try as a conspirator in the assassination, and from there begins a vast investigation resulting in his one huge conspiracy theory.

Before I go further I think it's only fair to explain my own thoughts on this matter. For how can you really talk about JFK without giving your own opinion? While I don't subscribe to the vast infinite reaching theory that Stone and Garrison seem to, I can't believe that every one of those mysterious events was a mere coincidence. Certainly one can't take every theory presented in the film as fact. But even when you consider the most basic ones (how could a mediocre marksman like Oswald hit the President in the short time he had and why did he wait until he was beyond him instead of coming right towards him?) I think it is evident that the one person theory is unbelievable. The definition of a conspiracy doesn't say that it has to be huge, just that there has to be other people in on it. When you look at it like that and factor in even a few newfound facts I think that saying it was just Oswald is false.

But back to the film. The main complaint I've heard is that it is not factual. Some believe it is a travesty to present the material like Stone has. I disagree. The incredible thing that Stone does is to find every single wild theory about the assassination and blend them into one grand conspiracy. But a conspiracy is something you either believe or do not. Most of the things addressed in the film are not made up, they are fact.

By this I mean that the car slowed down. Why? Why were all those windows allowed to be open and there wasn't very good security? The magic bullet theory is presented well and for the unbelievable theory that it is. The people that died did indeed die! The falsehoods come in when Stone hypothesizes on what those things mean. Certainly Oswald being a U.S. agent hasn't been proven, but there are facts and little things that one could piece together if that was one's belief. Stone presents a lot of facts in the film, it's the way that he pieces things together that is unprovable.

Yes, I think that Stone presents his own theories as fact many times. But isn't that his artistic right? The movie never claimed to be the definitive theory on what killed Kennedy. If you want a film that simply lays the facts out there without putting them together or forming an opinion then you don't have a movie. You have a documentary. This is not a documentary and it doesn't claim to be, therefore I don't think that criticizing it for being false is very relevant.

As a director Stone employs his best work here. He recreates events we've seen and utilizes actual news footage. He shows different angles and possibilities to events and stories. He creates suspense by blurring voices and images together into a terrifying collage. He uses black and white flashbacks and inserts different characters into them such as Oswald seen in the background at a Cuban training camp. And even when the events are "untrue" Stone creates suspense and a feeling of horrifying new revelations being made that can really unnerve you.

The acting is interesting. Costner is pretty bland throughout the whole film, until the ending speech. There he gets into it, choking on his emotion and giving a good final speech. What I like about the film is the way it takes some famous actors and puts them into some very diverse roles. Tommy Lee Jones as Shaw is a great performance, he never betrays his secrecy and when we see him in his gay circles it is creepy and he seems threatening. Joe Pesci is surprisingly good as David Ferry, his nervousness and rantings are perfect and really frightening. Kevin Bacon plays completely against type as the male prostitute Willy O'Keefe. I was most impressed with Gary Oldman and his incredible Lee Harvey Oswald. Aside from completely becoming him physically, Oldman portrays Oswald as a weak man who couldn't have possibly done the assassination. This seems to be most people's biggest complaint with the film but Oldman's portrayal matches what I imagine from pictures of the real Oswald and really gives an interesting take on what he may have been like. Donald Sutherland drops by to do his creepy bit and nearly steals the movie with his scene that acts as the biggest revelation of the film.

I am not scared by horror films or slasher films. But this film unnerved me. I watched it at night and when I went to sleep I was unable to. My mind kept pondering the theories that had been laid out in the film. Of course some of them seemed too big to believe, but even the smaller facts made me uneasy. I can't accept that everyone who seemed to know something died as merely a coincidence. I can't accept that there were all those open windows and people so close. When the President came to my school my dad, who is the basketball coach, wasn't allowed in the locker room for a week because the President was speaking in the gym. Even in 1963 I can't understand why security was so lax.

"JFK" took me to the 60s in every way. The political unrest, the mixed emotions on Vietnam and the assassination, and the fear of communism. Like I said before, I can no longer believe that this was the work of one lone crazy. I don't accept all that the film has to offer, and I don't think that is the film's intent. It throws out a lot of facts and leaves you to determine what they all mean. If that doesn't account for an extremely powerful film film then I don't know what does. The biggest theme in "JFK" is the pursuit of truth, a worthy goal. Thanks to this film there has been a pursuit by many people and the government. One day hopefully all the facts will be out in the open and out of the vault. Maybe this film will be proven completely false or that much of it was very right. Either way, it is an amazing film with a message and goal more important than many want to acknowledge.