If there is one thing that makes Hollywood one of the most powerful institutions of global culture, it is its ability to shape views on world’s history. Complex and multi-layered events are, usually at the ultimate displeasure of professional historians, altered into simple, easily digestible stories that further develop into popular mythologies. This process is even more effective when people behind them not only talented but also very passionate about what they are doing. One of those is Oliver Stone, whose 1991 period drama JFK is among the most influential historical films of all times.
The plot is based on two books - On the Trail of Assassins by Jim Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs – dedicated to the most traumatic event in 20th Century history of USA. Film begins with a prologue featuring documentary footage of famous January 1961 farewell address by President Eisenhower and his warning about dangers of military-industrial complex, as well as chronicle of Eisenhwoer’s successor John Fitzgerald Kennedy, young and charismatic leader whose energetic administration is trying navigate from Cold War to world peace and engage in bold civil rights reforms at home, becoming symbol of hope and better future for America and the world. All those dreams and hopes come to crashing halt on November 22nd 1963 when Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. One of the people saddened and shocked by the event is New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner), further infuriated when alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (played by Gary Oldman) few days later gets assassinated by small-time gangster Jack Ruby (played by Brian Doyle-Murray). With Oswald dead and unable to tell his side of story at court, new administration sets up Warren Commission whose conclusions blame the tragedy on a single deranged individual. Like many Americans, Garrison thinks differently and three years later begins his own investigation and discovers how Oswald during his stay in New Orleans was connected by radical anti-Castro Cuban immigrants, domestic right-wing extremists and former FBI agents, many of whom espoused deep hatred of Kennedy over his left-wing and pacifist policies. Garrison puts main focus of his efforts on Clay Shaw (played by Tommy Lee Jones), local businessman who was apparently part of the assassination plot. Despite hostility of the media and even scepticism within his own staff, Garrison continues his efforts, especially after the meeting with mysterious military intelligence official named “X” (played by Donald Sutherland) suggest that Shaw only served in much larger conspiracy involving top Pentagon and CIA officials, unhappy with Kennedy’s policies towards de-escalation of Vietnam War. Garrison has Shaw arrested and brought to trial where the American public would, for the first time, get access to documents and testimonies that oppose official version of Warren Commission.
JFK was, like his most successful film Platoon, very personal film for Oliver Stone and inspired by his experiences in Vietnam War. For him the nightmarish experiences in Southeast Asian jungles and social turmoil back home represented sharp contrast with utopian, optimistic vision of Kennedy’s “Camelot” and Stone, like many members of his generation, believe that everything which is wrong with America in subsequent years had its origin in Kennedy assassination. The catastrophic event of such nature could not have been accepted as a simple product of tragic circumstances nor a person of Kennedy’s stature could have been a victim of lone pathetic individual. Some much more powerful and darker forces had to be behind it. Stone wasn’t the first film maker to embrace conspiracy theories nor the first to build a film on them, but he was one of the most talented and influential. He took Garrison’s prosecution of Clay Shaw in New Orleans – the only actual criminal trial with the aim of making someone responsible for assassination – as narrative frame upon which he would, through clever use of flashbacks and different perspectives, espouse his own views of what actually happened. In it he had enthusiastic support of Jim Garrison (who appears in the film in short and ironic cameo as Chief Justice Earl Warren, the president of much-maligned Commision whose report his investigation tried to refute). Stone’s work is very much influenced by Z, famous 1969 political thriller by French director Costa Gavras which had dealt with real life event similar to the one depicted in JFK - 1963 political assassination in Greece. Stone’s direction adds his own style to the formula, with quick editing and use of black-and-white cinematography to portray fateful events in Dallas as opposed to lush and warm colour cinematography that portrays Garrison’s investigation in New Orleans. Stone’s cinematographer Robert Richardson deservedly won Oscar for his efforts, just like Joe Hutsching and Pietro Scalia won Oscar for editing. Another major contributor to the film is veteran composer John Williams whose score for JFK is both elegiac and epic.
Stone also benefited a lot from inspired casting decisions. Some critics weren’t enthusiastic about his main star Kevin Costner, whose performance was deemed bland and character one-dimensional, almost the same depiction of honesty, perseverance, civic duty and other noble virtues that Costner had displayed by playing Eliot Ness in The Untouchables five years earlier. Yet, it is the Garrison’s “normalcy” that serves this film perfectly, by allowing audience to identify with him and his quixotic quest for truth and justice. This also allows sharp contrast between Garrison and his adversaries – alleged conspirators which are depicted as greedy, violent, perverted and deeply dysfunctional. Stone perhaps goes a little bit far in the opposite direction – although some of those characters are played by great character actors. Joe Pesci is good as Clay Shaw’s pathetic wig-wearing confederate David Ferrie, just like Tommy Lee Jones as effeminate Clay Shaw with menacingly white hair. Stone, however, paints both characters, as well as composite character of career criminal Willie O’Keefe (played by Kevin Bacon) as flaming homosexuals, making suggestion that there is certain connection between their participation in conspiracy, right wing-views and sexual orientation - a notion that would be considered unacceptable by many viewers in our “woke” times. Other members of the cast fare much better, like Donald Sutherland who has memorable scene as an Deep Throat-like informer, or Jay O. Saunders and Michael Rooker as members of Garrison’s team that passionately argue different strategies and course of investigation. Sissy Spacek is good in the role of Garrison’s wife, but most of her scenes, dealing with an effects of Garrison’s investigation on his family, are unnecessary distraction and only make the film longer than it should be.
JFK was Stone’s most controversial film. Even before the premiere, it was a subject of condemnation by many establishment figures and media accusing it of exploiting national tragedy and giving credence to various crackpot conspiracy theories. The controversy, like in many such cases, actually helped the film, making it popular with audiences and praised by critics, in many ways solidifying Kennedy Myth. JFK also proved to be one of the most politically influential films in history of Hollywood, at least by judging its impact on actual US legislation, forcing federal authorities to gradually disclose all or most top secret documents related to assassination by 2017. The last major batch of such disclosures, ironically, happened in 2017 during the presidency of Donald J. Trump, figure many Kennedy-worshipping Boomers would have liked to suffer the same fate as JFK.
On the other hand, JFK, a very passionate and effective attempt to retell history, became subject of scrutiny by serious historians, some of which worked hard to refute Stone’s conspiratorial claims. Those counter-arguments and re-validation, at least partial, of Warren Commission, actually began to make sense partly because of Stone’s film and the process further when new generations, unaffected by Kennedy mythos, began to take less hagiographic picture of JFK due to more measured approach that emphasised his reckless Cold War policies and actually bringing USA to Vietnam quagmire. The more experienced cinephiles and viewers who like to explore different points of view are likely to notice clever emotional manipulation and sometimes very cavalier treatment of historical facts in JFK. And Stone’s vision with each subsequent viewing begins to look more like Hollywood fiction and less what could have actually happened in Dallas. In the end, JFK is powerful piece of cinema that should be appreciated as one of rare films that make audience question established truths, even when one of those established truths is propagated by film itself.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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