Executive Action (1973)

Director:

David Miller

Writers:

Dalton Trumbo (screenplay)
Donald Freed (story) ...

Release Date:

7 November 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | History | Thriller

Tagline:

Their Goal...Assassination. November 22, 1963...Accomplished!

Plot:

Rogue intelligence agents, right-wing politicians, greedy capitalists, and free-lance assassins plot and carry out the JFK assassination in this speculative agitprop.

Plot Keywords:

Assassin | CIA | Lee Harvey Oswald | Assassination | Sniper

Cast

Burt Lancaster	...	James Farrington
Robert Ryan	...	Foster
Will Geer	...	Harold Ferguson
Gilbert Green	...	Paulitz
John Anderson	...	Halliday
Paul Carr	...	Chris
Colby Chester	...	Tim
Ed Lauter	...	Operations Chief - Team A
Walter Brooke	...	Smythe
John Brascia	...	Rifleman - Team B
Richard Bull	...	Gunman - Team A
Sidney Clute	...	Depository Clerk
Deanna Darrin	...	Stripper
Lee Delano	...	Gunman - Team A
Lloyd Gough	...	McCadden

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

380 South San Rafael Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA

Company:

Executive Action Enterprises

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Post 1963 cars can be seen in the back ground through out the film.

Quotes:

Foster: Ah well, it's only over. And there'll be nothing can we call our own but death. That small model of the barren earth which serves as paste and cover to our bones. For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (1992)

The goal accomplished

David Miller was not what you call an auteur director, but a very qualified and professional filmmaker, and that is good enough in my book ,due to the fact that I write from Ingmar Bergman land. Miller was the man behind for example: Lonely Are the Brave, Sudden Fear, Billy The Kid(1941) and many other films. In Executive Action Miller made a professional job about a probably professional "job", the killing of a president. There are so many theories about what really happened that fateful Novemberday down in Dallas in The Lone Star State. Take your pick ! Dalton Trumbo wrote a good script based on some of them, of course with the bottom line: Oswald was not alone. It is no secret that a president has many and often powerful enemies, that goes with the job. You can speculate about Cubans, oil magnates, the Mob and so on, but the crucial point in the film and maybe in real life is that the official story, outlining Lee H. Oswald as the only one who took executive action that day is not easy to believe. If so, he fired three shots in six seconds,and made the last one good. But documentary pictures show that the presidents head is thrown back when the last shot hits, which tells us that the third shot probably came in front. Executive action is a tight and well made thriller based on this hypotheses, about a conspiracy.You might even say that the more famous JFK(D: Oliver Stone) is based on Miller's film. JFK is longer and more visually vibrant and on the whole a more flamboyant production, but Miller's film deserve a better reputation. Maltins for example calls it a "bomb", and that is poor judgement from someone who should know better.

The cast is also superb, Burt Lancaster especially is good as the mastermind planning it all. And it is of course always a pleasure to watch Robert Ryan, an old pro and a no nonsense actor, always with integrity and a "know how" in his roles.If you want to see a real good thriller, regardless of your own thoughts about a president's death, you are on with Executive Action.