JFK is one of the more divisive, controversial films of Oliver Stone - who has established a career on controversy. The movie is one of my favorite Oliver Stone films and certainly his most accomplished - a masterclass in narrative construction.
Warner Brothers now brings home a great Blu-Ray Digibook edition of 'JFK' that fans will definitely want to pick up.
Stone had an outstanding five-year run both commercially and critically starting in 1986 with 'Salvador', 'Platoon', 'Wall Street', 'Born on the 4th of July', 'The Doors' and then 'JFK'.
Stone was the rare filmmaker able to fashion a pic that deconstructed our times and held a mirror up to our society be it the 'greed is good' mantra of 'Wall Street', or the mass confusion/duality of men messages of his Vietnam efforts as well as actually draw audiences in (those days seem sadly over considering the failure of almost every major and minor film to even broach politics and war now).
'JFK' actually became one of Stone's most controversy-stewing films as critics and journalists began tearing into the film, even before release, because of Stone's liberties with history and what exactly was Stone trying to tell us?
Lots of speculation led to Stone being thought of as a left-wing conspiracy theorist and propagandier. This was almost beside the point by the way. There's no question Stone played with history a bit, but I what I'd like to think Stone was doing was not offering a definitive version of what happened (even in his mind) but allowing a different version to play out. To spread the word that the government can be questioned, that it's well within our rights to do so...
Of course, taking away the non-fictional drive and inaccuracies of the story for a minute - let's say the film was based on an elaborate fiction novel - and what we would be left with is a masterpiece of narrative precision, passionate performances by an amazing all-star cast, and stunning assemblage of a number of subplots and story threads and outstanding cinematography.
Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar give us one of the most ambitious screenplays of the past couple decades based on two books, Jim Garrison's 'On the Trail of the Assassins' and Jim Marrs' 'The Plot That Killed Kennedy'.
The film uses Jim Garrison as the centerpiece of the movie which is why a lot of bad blood was directed at the project. Garrison was seen, at least from the media at the time, as crazy, defiant and a loose cannon, the type of guy that can't be trusted to question his government.
The three and a half hour film does it's best to rebuke official government history and presents almost every bit of evidence to suggest that Oswald was indeed a 'patsy'.
Using archival footage including the infamous Zapruder film, Stone throws us headlong into the world at the time with Garrison (Kevin Costner) not buying the Warren Report's story for a minute. Populated with his team of New Orleans law-office muckrakers including Bull Broussard (Michael Rooker) and Susie Cox (Laurie Metcalf), they uncover a shady netherworld of anti-Castro, right-wing homosexuals including blonde-wigged David Ferrie (Joe Pesci), prison-stated Willie O-Keefe (Kevin Bacon) and wealthy businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones).
This all leads to suspicions on a much bigger conspiracy involving the highest order of the US government, with Donald Sutherland as 'X' a high-ranking Pentagon official confirming what the bigger picture may be.
Of course, Garrison can't haul in Lyndon Johnson so he arrests Clay Shaw in an attempt to bring some justice to the biggest murder mystery in US history. All the while, Garrison descends quickly into obsession over the case losing his grip on his children and his wife (Sissy Spacek).
Besides the already-mentioned cast members, we also get memorably small turns from Jack Lemmon, Ed Asner, Walter Mattheau, John Candy, Gary Oldman as Oswald, Vincent D'Onofrio, Wayne Knight, Sally Kirkland and John Larroquette whom is all part of the massive swirling string of information presented in the movie.
Costner's passionate, stirring speech at the court-case climax is a doozy and some of Costner's best work with Pesci, Jones, Bacon and Sutherland all making the most of their comparatively short screen time.
Anybody looking for a historically accurate depiction of the events are certainly looking in the wrong place, but 'JFK' was never meant to be watched as a documentary but as a hypothetical, a what could have been. There's only one thing Stone tries to make sure of in this film and that's to make us realize that this case was, and still is, far from over.
The government's take on what happened is ludicrous no matter what actually happened. The whys and who’s are still out there...in 1963...in 1991…and now in 2008.
With an assortment of archival footage, ratios and film stocks, this 1080p VC-1 high-def transfer is impressive if expectations are kept in order. The film is intentionally soft and a muted palette is used throughout to evoke more of a period feel but there are no transfer issues, particularly impressive considering a length that comfortably doubles most films. Also a nice touch is that the days of films this long on two discs or flippers are thankfully over.
Warner also surprises by offering up a great lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track that offers up razor-sharp clarity of the immense dialogue. Obviously not action heavy, this is a great audio track nonetheless.
The Blu edition of 'JFK' is offered up in a Digibook edition in which the case also acts as a hardcover book with glossy pages providing film info. A cool idea, I just wish Warner Brothers would make these editions the same size, as the height doesn't match up to standard Blu cases...a minor annoyance.
Special Features start off with an audio commentary from Oliver Stone who goes into great detail about his viewpoints, the controversy behind his film, the reasons why he deviated from certain historical accuracies, etc.
A great listen for fans and pundits alike. The 90-minute documentary 'Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy' is a great companion piece that features interviews with actual witnesses and provides a more accurate angle to what was seen in the film.
Amazingly, there's also almost an hour of additional footage with whole subplots being dropped and a thankfully unused alternate ending. Probably best left off, there's still some good stuff here.
A more recent half-hour doc 'Assassination Update: The New Documents' takes a look at recent developments. 'Meet Mr. X' is a short featurette on the real Mr. X aka Fletcher Prouty. A theatrical trailer rounds things out.
The length of the film can be daunting, even off-putting, but if given a chance, the film will fly by with an excess of great performances and smart writing.
Despite some inaccuracies, I still find 'JFK' to be an outstanding, rewarding murder mystery with an important message no matter your political affiliations. For this new Blu edition, WB gives us a nice selection of extras, lossless audio, and appropriate high-def visuals so this is an easy recommend.
JFK [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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