The Secret KGB JFK Assassination Files

This documentary details the results of the JFK assassination when investigated by the KGB. Their conclusion was that no shots were ever fired from the grassy knoll. However, they regarded Oswald as too incompetent to kill Kennedy. The USSR started their own investigation shortly after Kennedy was killed. This is the result of their investigation. They said the rifle used to kill Kennedy was indeed the correct one. Unfortunately, a lot it left out. For example, they do not go anywhere near the magic bullet theory or the fact that FBI experts could not get the gun fired as accurately and quickly as the true assassin did. It is interesting but leaves you with more questions than it answers. Also, for true Kennedy buffs it does explain enough and draws conclusions based on insufficient data.

This program contains sadly little substantive information concerning the KGB's involvement in the JFK assassination investigation. Instead the filmmakers launch into their own lengthy, digressive, convoluted spiel that ends in supporting only a couple perfunctory points of the assassination mystery, backed by a few dollops of KGB testimony. Thus the misleading title of this documentary smacks of the sensationalist American media approach that is best left to the tabloids, lest it take advantage of your gullibility as a curious observer. This is 15 minutes of information stretched into 89 minutes of blubber.

According to imdb.com's filmography director David McKenzie has little other experience as a documentarian, and it shows in his "The Secret KGB JFK Assassination Files". The film's content and structure seem designed more to perpetuate perplexity rather than to contribute to the rational understanding of its subject, as a legitimate documentary should do. Host Roger Moore's alluring presence and tone quickly break down into redundancy as the film's spiraling logic returns us recursively to a shallow "gosh, whodunit?" premise of this 40 year old controversy. Further exacerbating the program's fallacies is the fact that it is created/edited to be shown on American TV, which means structuring it for commercial breaks. The effect is that every 15 to 20 minutes we waste time preparing for and recovering from a short-attention-span pause that doesn't exist for the DVD viewer (a la "don't go away, we'll be right back!"). Finally, the icing on this cake of tedium is spread in the form of its incessant soundtrack, which pervades every second with distracting, self-indulgently haunting music.

Throughout the program we are sparsely exposed to enticing KGB testimony that might redeem the title, but disappointingly the choppy interviews offer only a couple ideas that might make KGB involvement interesting. Much of the rest of the time is spent chasing tangential ideas, such as what motives the Mafia or Communist leaders might have had to kill JFK, that are completely outside the scope of this film.

51 minutes into the program we are finally given what might appear to be some actual, solidified KGB documentation of their JFK investigation. But despairingly this comes in the form of a single folder of blurry documents purchased by the producers on the black market from unidentified, unsubstantiated resources, shown via an over-dramatized hidden camera scene. A few minutes later there occurs what could be a revealing scientific study of the crime scene using laser technology to recreate the Dallas, TX events of November 22, 1963. Unfortunately, not only does this nauseatingly detailed 20-plus minute segment ignore the KGB angle, but the filmmakers fall way short of convincingly portraying the conclusions of said exhaustive study.

In the last chapter of the film the producers finally present a concise, organized set of points outlining their theories. However, less than half the items are related to the KGB's enlightenment, and none of them justify the depth of this production whatsoever. By the end of the show the filmmakers smugly advance their two main theories that A) all the gunshots came from behind JFK's car (no shots were fired from the grassy knoll or anywhere else in front); and B) more than one gunman was involved. The KGB ballistic `evidence' and interviews are presented to corroborate these theories. However, though plausible, none of all this is made convincing to the audience before the closing credits roll. Furthermore, much contradictory evidence is meanwhile presented without resolution before the documentary's tidy conclusion.

If you are completely unfamiliar with the world tragedy of JFK's assassination and the hoopla surrounding it, then this program might be a mildly informative, if difficult to follow, introduction. However, if you are even casually familiar with the assassination chronicle (even if only via Oliver Stone's 1991 fictionalized JFK movie) then this documentary will advance your understanding of the debate about as much as, well, a shot in the head.

What a disappointment this DVD was. It was like dancing with a girl who has two left feet, ya never know which direction she wants to go. One minute we have retired KGB officers talking of a conspiracy the next we have laser tag in the park 'proving' that there was only 3 shots all from the TSBD. You get a 6 second clip from Mikhail Gorbachov that seems interesting but that is all you get. They drag out Robert Gordon like he is a messiah on the case and to counteract his approach they bring out CIA backed Gerald Posner. One makes a claim that all of the people who knew LHO say he admired JFK and was intelligent while the other (Posner) claims LHO was a killer from day one and goes as far as to blame the fact he comes from a single parent family for part of his problem. However no attempts were made to prove either side. There was brief mention of a possible Vietnamese and Corsican connection but no attempt was made to explore it and there was little talk about the relationship between Castro and Russia at the time and how this may have come into play. No KGB or American explanation of how LHO got to Russia so secretly and back to America with a Rusian born wife. No talk of Oswalds US radar opertaion and under ground connections while in Japan and not one mention of why he wasn't arrest or debreifed when he returned back to America after defecting and threatening to expose military secrets. There was one demonstration of how a shot from the back could have caused the injuries but no counter demonstrations what a shot from the front would have done or the possibility of a missed shot. If they really wanted to balance out this show to keep all sides happy (and that is just what they tried to do) why not make mention of the Systems Failure Analysis study for the TV show 'The trial of Lee Harvey Oswald." Although Mr. Posner makes claims to this study and stands by the fact that they showed shots coming only from the 6th floor the F.A people actually sued Posner for these claims and they say their studies show a much higher probability for a grassy knoll head-shot. The HSCA, a committee rarely remembered, claimed acoustically that there was there was a 4th shot from the front. Many have tried to ridicule that point but as recently as 2002 there was a study that showed a 98% chance of a grassy knoll shot. But instead of covering any of this in detail Rodger Moore and this DVD decided to ride the pine and try and keep both conspiracy lovers and government supporters happy. The fact they used the KGB in th title came across, in the end, as a catch to make one want to buy this DVD. it really was a mixed up set of facts, semi-facts and Posner dreams. It ever really showed how the KGB came to the conclusion of a conspiracy and in fact it went out of it's way to show how the KGB proved it wasn't.