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By WADE GOSSETT
The grassy knoll. The Texas
School Book Depository. Lee Harvey Oswald. The
presidential motorcade coasting leisurely through
Dealey Plaza. 5.6 seconds later a youthful
president is mortally wounded, and America is
caught in a perpetual maelstrom of collective
grief.
For many, hope for a brighter, nobler America
perishes with the end of Camelot; Kennedy's death
becomes the seminal event defining the generation
later scarred by Vietnam. Predictably, the need to
find meaning in what could very well have been an
act of unintelligible randomness launches
countless conspiracy theories.
For Oliver Stone, self-designated chronicler of
the '60s, the trauma of Kennedy's assassination
and Vietnam have been part of the same atrocity. A
critical sensation when it was released in 1991,
"JFK's" thesis is simple: Kennedy had decided to
withdraw the U.S. troops from South Vietnam, and
the military/industrial complex assassinated him,
because war is good for business. Stone made his
case in exhaustive detail. Originally at three
hours and eight minutes, "JFK" was a gripping but
draining cinematic experience. It proved Stone to
be a brilliant propagandist, a mesmerizing story
teller. However, his brand of cinematic art, is
also political doctrine. And, while Stone makes no
pretense of objectivity here, his methods are
often underhanded.
"JFK's" hero is Jim Garrison, a Louisiana
prosecutor who disastrously lost a case against
alleged conspirators. He could have been a
paranoid publicity hound, yet, played by Mr.
All-American, Kevin Costner, he becomes a
workaholic untouchable. Big name actors (Jack
Lemmon, Donald Sutherland, Walter Matthau) lend
feigned credibility. The use of actual archival
material is so effectively fused with fictional
photos of what might have happened, that it
becomes subliminal indoctrination.
Ultimately, Stone made one heck of a convincing
case for his particular conspiracy hypothesis and
a knockout of a movie. But, while "JFK" is brave,
brilliant art, its history is flawed.
"JFK" was released on DVD twice before as a
director's cut that added almost twenty minutes to
the story -- to little additional narrative
effect, I'm afraid. The first DVD release in 1997
was one of Warner's very first, and least
satisfactory -- it was before RSDL dual-layering,
and so the film was split and laid out on both
sides of the DVD requiring viewers to flip the
disc halfway through the feature; plus video and
audio quality were, well, primitive and there were
no extras. In 2001 a Special Edition improved on
many of the previous version's technical
deficiencies, and an hour and a half of special
features was included.
Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the
president's murder this year (2003) Warner has
released a new Special Edition DVD on two discs.
There are some technical improvements -- like a
new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, although I could detect
no difference in image quality between the 2001
edition and this one. The major difference between
the two versions is the addition of a new
documentary: "Beyond JFK: A Question of
Conspiracy" was filmed during "JFK's" theatrical
release. It is 90 minutes of more conspiracy
propaganda. It seems that we hear from everybody
who's had anything to do with the film, or anybody
who seems to know anything about JFK's
assassination, including authors, journalists,
historians, Kennedy aides, you name it. While
purporting not to take sides, the documentary is
obviously offered in support of Stone's ideas.
Stone repeats his commentary from the previous
version. He doesn't concern himself so much with
the film itself, as with the "truths" that have
been revealed (he can be infuriating to those of
us who do not buy his peculiar theory). The first
disc also contains filmographies and awards
details. All the other extras are on the second
disc: There are 12 deleted scenes, some of which
are merely extended versions of existing scenes
and others are new footage -- the most memorable
one shows the government poisoning Oswald's
killer, Jack Ruby. In "Meet Mr. X: The Personality
and Thoughts of Fletcher Prouty" we get an
11-minute interview of the man who inspired
Sutherland's character. "Assassination Update: The
New Documents" focuses on the effect the film had
on the public and media when it was released in
1991, and how it put pressure on government
agencies to release previously unavailable
records. Trailers are also included.
Honestly, if you're still interested in all this
stuff read Gerald Posner's brilliant dismissal of
all this conspiracy silliness, "Case
Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of
JFK." Then watch "JFK" and enjoy it for what
it is: a terrific film but lousy history. |
