JFK. Directed by Oliver Stone; written by Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar; produced by A. Kltman Ho and Oliver Stone tor Warner Bros. Starring Kevin Costner, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones. Rated R.
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JFK is so good, it's scary. Its considerable artistry shows just how powerful a medium the movies can be, as it attempts to persuade us to accept its own particular view of history.
Technically dazzling, JFK combines newsreels, still photos, restagings and speculations, making its history lesson into an engrossing whodunit. The movie presents an overwhelming amount of information (trying, after all, to summarize all the Kennedy assassination conspiracy research of the last 25 years!). So you might think it would be confusing and diffcult to follow. And it is long.
But the maze of flashbacks and reconstructions, while demanding that the audience pay attention, never becomes a muddle. And although a scene or two here or there could have been shortened, the overall length of the movie isn't objectionable.
We have the cast as well as the editor to thank for the absorbing nature of JFK. Costner is restrained and compelling as Jim Garrison, the New Orleans D.A. who brought the only assassination-related case to trial. Oldman, seen only in flashbacks as Lee Harvey Oswald, is mesmerizing. Jones, as New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw, is urbanely creepy.
In addition, a whole gaggle of big names, from Jack Lemmon to Kevin Bacon to Ed Asner, are used well in smaller roles. Special mention must be made of Joe Pesci, who may get his second Oscar in a row for his portrayal of an outlandish, yet oddly affecting, hustler.
Most of the negative comments you've probably heard about JFK deal with its content, not its style. And, although the presentation is compelling, some of its ideas will strike most viewers as half-baked, or worse.
The prospect of such talented filmmakers as Stone and crew with a political axe to grind is a frightening one, to be sure. But, as long as you retain a healthy skepticism with regard to their conclusions, you're free to enjoy the artistry of a really excellent movie.
January 15, 1992