JFK (My Favorite Movies)

One should never, ever go to an Oliver Stone film looking for historical veracity. His willingness, nay, insistence on bending the truth has been well-documented. My favorite film of his, JFK, is no different, and I think the reasons I love it so much are not the reasons Stone wanted me to like it. One should not approach JFK as a documentary or a fact-based drama, which would be Stone’s preference, but instead if one approaches JFK as a fictional conspiracy thriller they will find one of the most fascinating and arresting films of its era.

JFK tells the story of Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner), the New Orleans District Attorney who began to suspect that President John F. Kennedy wasn’t killed by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman). He begins an investigation which ultimately leads to the trial of Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones), a businessman who Garrison believes helped plan and carry out the assassination. The film questions the number of shooters, who was shooting, and exactly who might have been the mastermind behind it all.

The version I own on DVD is over 200 minutes long. That’s almost three and a half hours. Against every ounce of logic in the universe, it is one of the fastest-moving films I’ve ever seen. I’ve sat through episodes of television that have felt longer. JFK is edited at a pace so quick that all other films can barely keep up, each scene of conversation feels like a puzzle slowly being put together. In fact, the whole movie is just a long conversation, with the only action (if you want to call it that) coming courtesy of the Zapruder film.

On the whole, Oliver Stone is very often full of crap, and for the most part JFK continues that trend. He invents certain moments and characters (the key conversation in JFK, between Garrison and Donald Sutherland’s “X,” is completely fabricated, as is Kevin Bacon’s character) but to a point one cannot let that take away from the experience of watching an Oliver Stone movie. Say what you will about the man, but he has his vision and he will go to the ends of the earth to get it. No matter how infuriating the means can be, Stone believes the ultimate product will justify them.

The results of Stone’s method are wildly uneven, sometimes resulting in films approaching the intolerable (The Doors, anyone?).  For one reason or another, of all his films based on a true story (only not at all), JFK packs the greatest punch. It tells the story of a man who stood up against a government that thought it could get away with anything, and while he eventually loses the fight the film makes a larger point (as indicated by the opening quote by Ella Wheeler Eilcox) about the importance of standing up to The System™.

The film may reach a little far at moments, but despite all the “Lyndon Johnson pulled the trigger!” nonsense JFK is still one of my favorite films of the 90’s. It’s great in the long-and-imperfect-but-still-fascinating way, helped greatly by some of the best film editing I’ve ever seen. It’s a long sit, to be sure, but while you’re watching you won’t care in the least. The old Ebert adage that “no good movie is too long” once again rings true.

The day Kennedy was killed remains one of the darkest days in the history of the United States, one that confused an entire nation and left its citizens feeling vulnerable and defenseless. Oliver Stone obviously feels that Kennedy was one of our great Presidents, and as such his imagination has convinced him that the government conspired to have him killed. Stone likely sees JFK as his indictment of the government, but that’s not giving his film enough credit. It would work as a fine companion to David Fincher’s Zodiac, as both tell stories about obsessed and paranoid men who are determined to follow their cases to the end despite everyone telling them to stop. One is about a serial killer, the other about a massive government conspiracy which resulted in the assassination of a United States President.

There are many who will not be able to tolerate JFK’s bending of the truth, and that I can understand. If one approaches it merely as a movie, I don’t think they can help but be impressed. All of Stone’s films are works of a man slightly deranged, and that has resulted in many misfires. JFK is an example of Stone at his best, creating a film which is always compelling despite its length and frequent absurdity. What matters is that within itself it is wholly convincing, and those who speak ill of Stone would do well to give JFK a chance.