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JFK (1991)
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Overview
User Rating:
Your Rating:
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Release Date:
20 December 1991 (USA)
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Tagline:
The Story That Won't Go Away more
Plot:
A New Orleans DA discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
President
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Kennedy
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Jim Garrison
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Conspiracy
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Vietnam
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Awards:
Won 2 Oscars.
Another 10 wins
&
20 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(73 articles)
Superbowl 2010: All The Movie Trailers In One Spot
(From Cinematical. 8 February 2010, 7:32 AM, PST)
Trailer for Oliver Stone's 'Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps'
(From Monsters and Critics. 28 January 2010, 4:44 PM, PST)
(From Cinematical. 8 February 2010, 7:32 AM, PST)
Trailer for Oliver Stone's 'Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps'
(From Monsters and Critics. 28 January 2010, 4:44 PM, PST)
User Reviews:
Stone lone braveman
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Sally Kirkland | ... | Rose Cheramie | |
| Anthony Ramirez | ... | Epileptic | |
| Ray LePere | ... | Zapruder | |
| Steve Reed | ... | John F. Kennedy - Double | |
| Jodie Farber | ... | Jackie Kennedy - Double (as Jodi Farber) | |
| Columbia Dubose | ... | Nellie Connally - Double | |
| Randy Means | ... | Gov. Connally - Double | |
| Kevin Costner | ... | Jim Garrison | |
| Jay O. Sanders | ... | Lou Ivon | |
| E.J. Morris | ... | Plaza Witness #1 | |
| Cheryl Penland | ... | Plaza Witness #2 | |
| Jim Gough | ... | Plaza Witness #3 | |
| Perry R. Russo | ... | Angry Bar Patron | |
| Mike Longman | ... | TV Newsman #1 | |
| Edward Asner | ... | Guy Bannister |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
MPAA:
Rated R for language. (also 1992 edited version)
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
189 min | USA:206 min (director's cut)
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Finland:K-12 |
Canada:13+ (Quebec) |
Canada:A (Nova Scotia) |
Canada:AA (Ontario) |
Canada:PG (Manitoba) (TV rating) |
Iceland:12 |
Brazil:14 |
Singapore:NC-16 (re-rating) |
Singapore:PG (original rating) (cut) |
Canada:14+ |
Argentina:13 |
Australia:M |
Chile:14 |
Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) |
Germany:12 (bw) |
Netherlands:12 |
Norway:11 |
South Korea:15 |
Spain:13 |
Sweden:11 |
UK:15 |
USA:R (No. 31561)
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
During the conversation between Jim Garrison and X, there is a close-up of a desktop nameplate which is partially obscured. It reads "M/Gen. E.G... nsd... e", and is a reference to Edward G. Lansdale of the United States Air Force. Lansdale is the subject of the book "JFK and Vietnam" by John M. Newman, one of the film's technical advisors.
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Goofs:
Anachronisms: Scenes showing the railroad yard behind the wood fence show railroad cars painted and lettered for railroads that did not exist in 1963.
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Quotes:
X:
The organizing principle of any society, Mr. Garrison, is for war. The authority of the state over its people resides in its war powers. Kennedy wanted to end the Cold War in his second term. He wanted to call off the moon race and cooperate with the Soviets. He signed a treaty to ban nuclear testing. He refused to invade Cuba in 1962. He set out to withdraw from Vietnam. But all that ended on the 22nd of November, 1963.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in An American Carol (2008)
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Soundtrack:
Ode to Buckwheat
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FAQ
Who Is General 'Y'?Did LBJ Really Say 'Just let me get elected, and then you can have your war'?
How Was David Ferrie Involved?
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more (366 total)
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"JFK" was and remains so controversial that any positive reviews (not to say they were characteristic) it received were dwarfed by the trashing to which it was subjected in the official press, which started well before it was released. This was disturbing, for what is the big need -- it is just a movie. But to so many "JFK" was not, it was somehow threatening.
Ultimately, it does not matter whether JFK's conclusion is correct, and I am even willing to give a little more license than I normally would to more-substantive, as well as less-important, inaccuracies, although I have my limits here too. But this movie's significance is just that it was made. For although other films had chronicled the events surrounding the assassination, none had in any substantial way sought to discredit the Warren Commission, as was so absolutely merited.
Regardless of your opinion on what really happened, it is my view that everyone should be critical of the media, which were so obsequious to the Warren Commission. The New York Times from the start referred to Oswald as the "assassin," not the "suspect." Life Magazine altered photos strongly suggesting a shot had been fired from the grassy knoll. Many years later, when being interviewed by Dan Rather about his film, Oliver Stone said to his face, referring to the event: "Where were you, Dan?"
Indeed, in a documentary he made, Rather said, "in the absence of any CREDIBLE evidence, we can only..." This fallacy is a betrayal of the legal definition of evidence, with Rather's poor characterization of the word "credible." There is enormous, indeed endless, evidence contradicting the Warren Commission's view, and much of it is certainly credible, including all the evidence of the Commission's own efforts to conduct a dishonest and incomplete investigation and intimidate witnesses into changing their testimony to support the version it wanted. In fact, I consider it Gerald Ford's greatest character flaw that he served on it and backed its conduct and conclusion, a far more disturbing matter than his pardon of Nixon. Whether the evidence to which Rather referred is CONCLUSIVE is another story; that is up to us, the jury. The sort of smugness Rather shows has been characteristic of much of the media, and I do not know all the reasons they behaved as they did. Thus, we needed a more courageous, enterprising person like Oliver Stone to step in and fill the gap -- the overwhelming majority of people believe the Commission got it wrong.
Stone's enlistment of mere hypotheticals, theorized by Garrison (setting aside the final scene--there were moments before) or whoever, has been subjected to unfair, ill-conceived criticism. Most people who knew anything at all about the assassination believed there were problems with the Commission's version before they saw this film, and came out of it with an elaboration and hypothesis, not a mindbender. Even if we concede that some younger viewers knew little about the assassination, the notion of the critics of "JFK" that the film would automatically program their minds is an insult to their intelligence, of the ability of people in general to think and come to their own conclusions. Indeed, no one to whom I have EVER spoken has betrayed a view of events that reflects even most, if not all, of Stone's conclusions. If any programming is called for, it is to program people against the Commission's version, not, as its defenders would wish, against Stone. For no one can be programmed to accept Stone's alternate view.
OK, some inaccuracies of Stone can be criticized, such as his portrayal of Garrison (All-American Kevin Costner, natch) as a wholesome hero, and the time-between-shots issue (it is now generally conceded that there was enough time, based on all the evidence, for Oswald to have done it, for those who believe he did). Perhaps the speech by David Ferrie never occurred, but it still reflects the widely held view that the CIA and Mafia worked together in this matter. Certainly, many people in the government despised Kennedy, and there were substantially more elements of this hostility than portrayed in the film. Anyway, we can go on and on. The Warren Commission tried to cover up overwhelming evidence that Ruby knew Oswald, that a shot was fired from the grassy knoll, that a dark-skinned man fired shots from the Dallas School Book Depository, and that Officer Tippit was killed by someone other than Oswald (actually, two people). Well, at least some members resisted the single bullet theory (I guess that passes Rather's definition of "credible"), although they ultimately signed the report.
I do not agree with Oliver Stone's specific ultimate conclusion about the central moving force of the assassination. But he has the right to suggest the U.S. government was involved, and many, including myself, think it was involved somehow, but that what is debatable is merely to what extent and how far up. Hats off to Stone for his courage and thoughtfulness in making his necessary statement.
9 out of 10