John F. Kennedy, the Film - Essay Example

Discipline John F. Kennedy, the Film On the 22nd of November, the U.S. president, John F. Kennedy was assassinated, an event that shook the United States of America and the world over. This single occurrence triggered a series of events, mainly to do with investigation into the famous mystery of ‘Who killed John F. Kennedy. Overtime, there have been numerous theories and wild speculation as to what and who was really behind the events of that fateful day. Some of these are brought out in Oliver Stone’s 1991 film, JFK.

In this movie, the producer outlines some of the events following the infamous assassination through his eyes. It is a film that has been met with a great deal of criticism, with critics dismissing Oliver as a conspiracy peddler. This essay examines some of the controversy surrounding the movie and outlines the criticisms advanced against it. In the film, the primary theory advanced by Oliver Stone is that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, did not act alone. Following the murder of John Kennedy, there were brisk investigations into the occurrence.

Earl Warren, the then Supreme Court Justice presided over the hearings. In the end, the commission drew the conclusion that Lee Oswald did, in fact carry out the assassination by himself (Knight, 62). For this reason, it does not come as a surprise that there is controversy surrounding the suggestion by Oliver Stone that Lee Oswald was just a pawn in the plot to assassinate the president. In the movie, Oliver Stone brings out the conspiracy angle, arguing that there were many people that wanted to see the president dead, including the Mafia, the next president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and the CIA (Stone “JFK).

This line of thinking has come under great criticism. For example, the Time magazine, in December of 1991, accuses Oliver Stone of pinning the assassination of John F. Kennedy on all the law enforcement agencies, big businesses, the White House, and just about everyone but Lee Harvey Oswald (Alter, 70). One would come to the conclusion that while Oliver Stone’s work is, as (Alter, 70) describes it, “A cleverly Constructed, tightly written and sometimes breathtakingly well-acted movie,” the conspiracy theory might be a little too exaggerated.

Critics on this issue have a valid basis for their opinions. The film has been accused of being an appalling travesty of history. This emanates from the fact that Oliver Stone tampers greatly with some of the established facts in place, probably in an attempt to establish that there was more to the events than met the eye. Case in point: In the movie, one of three key witnesses, David Ferrie, confesses his involvement in the assassination of JFK, bringing up the involvement of the CIA and the Cuban exile.

This turns out to be a figment of Oliver’s imagination since David Ferrie always maintained that he was innocent in the murder of the president. Another fact that was tampered with is the use of hypnosis in questioning of one of the witnesses in real life, which led to them ‘remembering’ very unreliable details (Knight, 30). This is a fact that Stone conveniently leaves out in his work to avoid making it look like incoherent facts were obtained from vulnerable sources. Such omissions and commissions render Stone’s work vulnerable to criticism.

It has been pointed out that if Oswald was interested in the truth, the movie would have stuck to the facts (Newsweek, 70). Critics accuse the entire movie of demonstrating tendencies towards avoidance of the facts by dwelling entirely on misconceptions, alongside pushing outright lies. One of the strengths that comes out clearly from the film is the producer’s quest for truth, in which he stumbles on information of a large multitude of groups and cooperations that had vested interests in his death (Stone “JFK)).

The movie lays bare the possible facts and is able to stimulate viewers to think about the events of the day in relation to knowledge on hostility towards the radical president. The weaknesses, as outlined above, are in the omission and commission of facts on the part of the producer. These leave the movie highly vulnerable to attacks and criticism. The film JFK is a combination of hard truths and conspiracies, all left to the viewers to reflect upon and come to a suitable conclusion. It has been the basis of numerous speculations around who really killed the former president.

In addition, the film has been criticized for not displaying the facts as they are. Even so, Oliver Stone’s work is a wonderful movie that deserves a certain level of reflective capabilities on the part of the viewer. Works Cited Alter, Jonathan. “JFK: "A Century of the Movies"”Newsweek, 1998.Web. JFK.Dir. Oliver Stone.Perf.Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, and Jack Lemmon. Warner Bros, 1995. Film. Knight, Peter. The Kennedy Assassination. George Square: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. Print.