Part of Weekend Classics: Beat The Heat
This acclaimed Oliver Stone drama presents the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). When Garrison begins to doubt conventional thinking on the murder, he faces government resistance — and after the killing of suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman), he closes the case. Later, however, Garrison reopens the investigation, finding evidence of an extensive conspiracy behind Kennedy’s death.
“Whether you buy it or not, Oliver Stone's JFK makes compelling info-ganda. Part whodunit, part documentary, part soapbox diatribe, the controversial agit-pic owes as much to the brash style of tabloid television as it does the populist mythology of Capra movies. Focused on a crusading DA's investigation of the assassination, it is a visual and dramatic melding of MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and America’s Most Wanted, a vivid collage of history, hypothesis and baldfaced speculation in which Stone goes searching for our wonder years.” —Rita Kempley, Washington Post (Dec 20, 1991) “If history is a battlefield, JFK has to be seen as a bold attempt to seize the turf for future debate. It is also ‘just’ a movie, and one that for three hours and eight minutes of dense, almost dizzying detail, is capable of holding the audience rapt in its grip.” —David Ansen, Newsweek (Dec 23, 1991) “JFK still retains a primal power; no number of derivative, headache-inducing CSI episodes can blunt the impact of Stone’s aggressive visuals, and the film’s plea for accountability and honesty in government is as vital now as ever.” —Matt Noller, Slant Magazine “This is not a film about the facts of the assassination, but about the feelings…. Fact belongs in print. Films are about emotions. My notion is that JFK is no more, or less, factual than…any other movie based on ‘real life.’ All we can reasonably ask is that it be skillfully made and seem to approach some kind of emotional truth. Given that standard, JFK is a masterpiece.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
