JFK (1991)

Introduction

One of my all-time favourite movies is Oliver Stone's JFK and no matter its run-time, I will always watch it again and again. There is a lot to explore in the movie from the classic use of black-and-white, the prologue which presents us with an aspect of nonfiction realistic cinema and even that speech given by Donald Sutherland's character known only as X. It is one of those movies by Oliver Stone which explores the political realities of things we are not allowed to know otherwise; telling the true story of Jim Garrison who criticised the Warren Report and investigated the death of President Kennedy, it is a really interesting film with tons to analyse.

Plot

The movie starts with a strange prologue that interweaves the assassination of President Kennedy and then, moves on to the reactions and cover-ups of those after his death. We get to see the funeral and that iconic salute by the young son of JFK and then, we move swiftly on to some odd, out of place and strange things about the way things went in the aftermath. One thing is very sure about all this: Oliver Stone is the king of making a great montage and weaving it into the rest of the film.

As the story begins, we get to also witness our main character, Jim Garrison as portrayed by Kevin Costner, react to the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who murdered the President. Critical of the Warren Report which comes out some time afterwards, Jim Garrison goes on his own investigation, attempting to find out what really happened on that odd day in Dallas in November. We then shift to watching him and the steps that he takes, how obsessed he becomes and his wife's disdain until he wakes her up one night to tell her that Robert Kennedy has just been assassinated live on television. He must, she believes, continue. And he does.

Complete with a cast of fantastic actors including: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, John Candy, Jack Lemmon and Donald Sutherland, there are so many awesome performances that make this clearly one of the best films of the 1990s.

Appraisals and Awards

The achievement of the film is not that it answers the mystery of the Kennedy assassination, because it does not, or even that it vindicates Garrison, who is seen here as a man often whistling in the dark. Its achievement is that it tries to marshal the anger which ever since 1963 has been gnawing away on some dark shelf of the national psyche.

Roger Ebert, 1991

There is no question about why this film won the Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Editing because honestly, those montage scenes could clean up on their own. They were excellently done. Even at the BAFTAs, it got the award for Best Editing. At the Golden Globes, Oliver Stone won the Best Director award as he was clearly the best guy at the job there. Blending the nonfiction montage into the nonfiction film was a brilliant idea that I can imagine was definitely his brain-child. In his speech when he won the Best Director award, Oliver Stone stated:

A terrible lie was told to us 28 years ago. I hope that this film can be the first step in righting that wrong...

Legacy

Many people know that this film incorporates fictions into its nonfiction viewpoint as every single film that claims to be nonfiction does. On lists and lists it has been listed as one of the greatest films of the 1990s, one of the most controversial films ever made and then again, one of the most historically misleading films of all time (those are according to TIME magazine).

Receiving backlash from everyone from filmmakers to politicians, it did not claim to be 100% factual in the first place but attempts to emulate the chaos that came in the years between the deaths of the two Kennedy sons and then, the requirements for truth that came afterwards. It took a story from the era and made it watchable for film, which is why it has been praised by the likes of Roger Ebert - but has also caused some people in the world of politics to be particularly offended and even resign in protest. If that's not a legacy then I don't know what is.

My Personal Opinion

I first saw this film a very long time ago and honestly, I was just as enthralled back then as I am now. Every single time I watch it, I learn something new about the narrative or the way the film was made or the music, the editing, the lighting, the black and white colouring etc. Each watch makes me realise that we can never watch a movie once and expect to understand it. But, like a book, we must revisit it in order to uncover its secrets and each time we do, there is a learning curve which holds more gold within.

My personal favourite scene is one of my favourite scenes from any movie ever. This is the scene in which Jim Garrison meets X (Donald Sutherland) and X explains the black-ops things to Garrison, telling him he is close but there can be no more communication between them. It is a fantastic montage and the speech is delivered perfectly by Donald Sutherland who proves that he still has the same legendary acting talent from his far younger years. It is a brilliant scene and so very memorable.

Conclusion

If you have not watched this film then I would definitely recommend it. Not only is it entertaining, not only does it teach us about some aspects of filmmaking that are very much underused but it also shows us that not everything has to be 100% historically accurate in order to make a stir in the genre of historical drama.