Executive Action (1973)

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

Director:

David Miller

Writers:

Dalton Trumbo (screenplay), Donald Freed (story)

Stars:

Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Burt Lancaster	...	James Farrington
Robert Ryan	...	Robert Foster
Will Geer	...	Harold Ferguson
Gilbert Green	...	Paulitz
John Anderson	...	Halliday
Paul Carr	...	Gunman (Chris) - Team A
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	...	Charlie McCadden

Storyline

A dramatization about how the high level covert conspirators in the JFK assassination might have planned and plotted the assassination based on the data and facts of the case. It posits that a covert group of rogue intelligence agents, ultra-conservative politicians, unscrupulously greedy business interests, and free-lance assassins become increasingly alarmed at President Kennedy's policies, including his views on race relations, winding down the Vietnam War, and ending the oil depletion allowance. They decide to terminate him through an "executive action" utilizing three teams of well-trained snipers during JFK's visit to Dallas and place the blame on supposed CIA operative Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin.

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Plot Keywords:

year 1963 | american flag | glasses | suit and tie | gun | 

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Taglines:

Assassination of a Head of State

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | History | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

First fictional film of the Kennedy assassination and it's subsequent controversies and conspiracies.

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Goofs

President Kennedy's "Report to the American People on Civil Rights" was broadcast nationally on television and radio on the evening of June 11, 1963, and not on June 19th as the caption states in this film.

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Quotes

[first lines]
TV Commentator: Before his death, former President Lyndon. B. Johnson gave a three hour filmed interview to a well-known television commentator. On May 2, 1970, when this interview was shown on a national television network, it included the message that certain material had been deleted at President Johnson's insistence. It has been revealed that in the censored section, Johnson had expressed misgivings about the finding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone, and that, in fact, he suspected that ...

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Connections

Featured in Rich Hall's You Can Go to Hell, I'm Going to Texas (2013)

User Reviews

Actors movie and a conspiracy theorist dream.

Executive Action is directed by David Miller and written by Dalton Trumbo, Donald Freed and Mark Lane. It stars Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, Gilbert Green and John Anderson. Music is by Randy Edelman and cinematography by Robert Steadman.

In essence it's a film that is offering up a different theory to the Warren Commission's report that ruled Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating John F. Kennedy. Plot has Lancaster and Ryan as shady conspirators who plot the downfall of JFK on that fateful day November 22nd 1963. There's lots of talking, with the actors chewing into the dialogue whilst brooding considerably, their motives explained clearly, the framing of Oswald brought to life, and it rounds up to a triple gunmen scenario. We then get a startling revelation about what befell a number of eyewitnesses from that infamous day.

It's engrossing without being truly riveting, but the cast make it worth time spent. While if you like to buy into the conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination? Then it carries some extra entertainment value. 7/10

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 November 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Executive Action

Filming Locations:

3330 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wakeford / Orloff

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1