JFK

Oliver Stone's Message About Democracy

It has been one month since I announced that this Substack about movies was going to dive down the rabbit hole of the JFK assassination. I would be remiss if this journey did not include Oliver Stone’s 1991 film, JFK. I think I was just out of college the first time I watched JFK. If memory serves me right, I stumbled upon a special edition DVD at Best Buy and was immediately captivated by the cover art. Of course I knew about Kennedy, his inspirational speeches, and that he was murdered, but the film was my first exposure to the conspiracies and controversies surrounding the event. Watching it for only the second time ever re-affirmed my initial feelings almost 10-15 years ago.

The Rewatchables

The night before watching the film, I listed to The Rewatchables podcast about JFK. The podcast is usually hosted by Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Hennessy as they discuss their favorite movies. Director/Writer/Producer, Brian Koppelman joined to add his interesting perspective about the movie. I love Koppelman’s perspective. The three other guys are just like us. We watch movies and talk about them. He makes the movies. There’s a moment in the pod when Simmons laments that the film is largely a work of fiction. Koppelman’s response: “A movie has to aspire to more than fact.” It is a movie, not a documentary. The movie tries to answer the question: “What does it mean to live in a country where we don’t know who overthrew the government?” If the movie uses fictional elements to lead us to an answer to that question, then it has done its job.

I strongly encourage you to give this episode, or any other one, a listen. A movie you love with a Rewatchables listen is like a fine wine with delectable cheese or a hot cup of coffee with a good friend. They’re an unbeatable pairing. Movies and podcasts are supposed to be fun. There is a lot of fun to be had during a Rewatchables listen. I’ll be referencing things they said on the podcast a few times in this entry.

Oliver Stone

Koppelman says something pretty profound on the podcast. JFK is Oliver Stone’s third Vietnam War movie. Stone is a Vietnam Veteran and used filmmaking as a way to reconcile his experiences in war. Oliver Stone was so destroyed by his experiences in Vietnam that he made Platoon. He was so hurt by his experiences coming home that he made Born on the Fourth of July. JFK was his way of rationalizing why it all happened. Full disclosure, I have not seen Platoon or Born on the Fourth of July and I am not of the Vietnam War generation. However, I do trust Koppelman’s analysis and I’ve learned a lot about the Vietnam War to see where he’s coming from. I watched Ken Burns’ Vietnam War documentary this past year. It is the most comprehensive piece of media about the war and I cannot recommend it enough. We see the brutality of war through the stories of Vietnam Veterans, both American and Vietnamese. We learn the toll that it took on families in the United States and civilians in Vietnam. It is easy to make a connection between what is taught in the documentary and what Stone has tried to say about his experiences.

Oliver Stone is a very accomplished filmmaker and I’m pretty embarrassed to say that I’ve only seen one of his films. I will definitely be watching a few others in the near future. They mention in the podcast that Stone and Spike Lee were in the same NYU film class that was taught by….MARTIN FREAKING SCORSESE. Imagine sitting in that lecture hall. You’re in the presence of three legendary filmmakers with a boatload of awards attached to their work. Pretty freaking cool.

The Big Enchilada Award

The cast of JFK is a literal all-star team. Actors that all have multiple MVP awards for multiple roles. There’s one that stands out to me the most. John Candy has around three minutes of screen time in the movie and he hits a ninth inning pinch hit walk-off homer with his performance. John Candy, the same guy that traveled with Steve Martin for Thanksgiving and was also known as Gus Polanski, The Polka King in Home Alone, deserves an award for taking his turn in this thrilling drama.

“Is this off the record, daddy-o? Good. In that case, let me sum it up for ya real quick. *lights a cigarette* If I answer that question you keep askin’. If I give you the name of the Big Enchilada, you know…then it’s bon voyage Deano. I mean like permanent. I mean like a bullet in my head, you dig? You’re a mouse fighting a gorilla. Kennedy's as dead as that crab meat, the government's alive and breathing. You gonna line up with a dead man, Jimbo?”

For a movie whose purpose is to make us afraid of the Big Enchilada lurking in the shadows, John Candy as Dean Andrews understood the task and got it done.

Kevin Costner

A friend and I were chatting once and he mentioned that he and his daughter decided that if aliens ever came to Earth, Carl Sagan was the one who should serve as our ambassador. In a world where we have Carl Sagan, I agree that he would be the perfect representative for planet Earth. He was a scientist, pure at heart, and an advocate for peace. Unfortunately, Carl Sagan has passed away. In a world with no Carl Sagan, I cannot think of one person to represent the entire planet. Maybe we have a delegation of people from around the world? America needs its representative. We need to draft someone, and yes, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this. I think we should nominate Kevin Costner. He represents the rugged individualism of America, but he carries himself with a gentle tone. No one has starred in more baseball movies than Kevin Costner. He danced with wolves. He protected Whitney Houston and arrested Al Capone. He’s Superman’s adopted father. His career has even had a recent renaissance. Costner heard the voices of God and James Earl Jones and built a baseball field to reconnect with his deceased father. He was the perfect star for JFK. Look at him below at the Lincoln Memorial. Kevin Costner, as Jim Garrison, with clear eyes and pure thoughts to figure out what really happened on November 22, 1963. Abraham Lincoln and Kevin Costner, two men who symbolize the best of us.

This film came out in 1991 and Kevin Costner was probably the world’s biggest movie star at the time. He won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for Dances with Wolves the year before. A Best Actor nomination added to the resume. As Jim Garrison, he convinces us of his pursuit for justice. He is obsessed with the bread crumbs of evidence that point to a larger conspiracy. He wakes up from a nightmare and his wife tells him to go back to sleep. His response: “Goddammit, I’ve been sleeping for three years.” He was asleep and ignorant of what really happened to President Kennedy. He cannot let it go now that he is awake. Costner is the noble fighter taking on an impossible cause.

The Man Who Reaches Out To Us From The Shadows

The iconic shot of Kevin Costner at the Lincoln Memorial precedes his meeting with Mr. X, who is played by Donald Sutherland. Mr. X is JFK’s version of Deep Throat, the whistleblower from Watergate and All the President’s Men. He is the man from the shadows who tries to lead us in our pursuit of truth. Sutherland plays this role perfectly. His voice is mysterious and soothing. He knows something, but can’t share everything. Sutherland presents to Costner his resume from the military and intelligence operations. My wife was half-watching the movie with me as she crocheted. During this scene, she said, “Man, there’s a lot of stuff that goes on that we don’t know about.” Mr. X is our view into the world that we don’t know and maybe don’t want to know about. His conversation with Garrison and with us makes us ponder three questions:

1. Why was Kennedy killed?

2. Who benefitted?

3. Who has the power to cover it up?

In The Rewatchables, Bill Simmons joked that Oliver Stone is like Alex Jones with Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmmaking ability. I laughed out loud pretty hard at that part because it’s true! The movie, and the Mr. X scene specifically, makes you paranoid about the government! I want to be careful because I don’t want to be taken out of context (and I’m 100% not an Alex Jones guy). You have to understand nuance here. Maybe there was a conspiracy, maybe there wasn’t. I personally think the possibility is there, but I also don’t want to promote paranoia. Remember, this is a movie and not a documentary. However, Oliver Stone certainly tries to get us to look through a window that we would normally ignore in our day-to-day.

Back And To The Left

*Warning, the video below is very violent and graphic as it shows the assassination of President Kennedy. Do not watch if it will make you uncomfortable.*

The movie ends with a court trial. Costner shows the Zapruder Film and recounts the events leading to President Kennedy’s murder. We get a combination of the Zapruder Film and Oliver Stone’s recreation of the assassination at Dealey Plaza. We see that the Warren Report’s “Magic Bullet Theory” was physically impossible. There had to be multiple shooters. Lee Harvey Oswald died at the hands of Jack Ruby while the real assassins are still running free. His words, “Back and to the left” are chilling. In the full scene, Costner tells the court that it was a coup d'état, an overthrow of the government by those within it. Kennedy was the martyr so that the Military Industrial Complex could win.

For fun, Seinfeld parodied this scene. Enjoy it here!

“Fiction Rescues History From Its Confusions”

There’s a quote from the podcast that resonated with me. “Fiction rescues history from its confusions.” It’s apparently from a book called Libra by Don Delillo (Brian Koppelman and Chris Ryan talk extensively about this book and another one called American Tabloid in the podcast). Let’s read the quote again:

“Fiction rescues history from its confusions.”

Oliver Stone’s JFK is a work of fiction. It is not a documentary. It is a dramatization of historical events. Admitting this fact, is not saying JFK is any less significant. Fiction plays an extremely important role in our culture and the narratives that can lead us to the truth. The film itself influenced Congress to pass the Assassination Disclosures Act in 1992. Around 12% of the evidence about the assassination is still confidential. The law said that the evidence was to be made public 25 years later in 2017. Unfortunately, the presidential administration at the time didn’t follow through on the law and the current administration delayed the release until 2029. Will the can get kicked down the road again or will we finally get to know the secrets that have lasted for decades?

To me, the trial’s defendant and verdict are not as important as what Oliver Stone and Kevin Costner are trying to tell us. Do we do the work necessary to hold our government accountable? Are we paying attention? Are we upholding the democratic ideals that we claim to value? If our government is to be one of, for, and by The People, then The People need to do our job too. This movie might be a work of fiction, but it has a very important message. Justice and democracy are not automatic. They must be fought for. In fact, Costner looks right at the camera a certain moments. He’s not speaking to a jury. He’s speaking to us. Are we listening?