JFK

We are all familiar with the story of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.

Executed during a travel to Dallas by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, positioned in a stakeout at the Texas Schoolbook Depository and later killed in front of the cameras by Jack Ruby.

A communist activist, Oswald seemed to have plenty of reasons to kill Kennedy. Case closed. We all believed in the official conclusion saying that he was the sole person responsible. Or did we? It's hard to find one single person who believes in the conclusion of the Warren Commission, that Oswald acted alone.

Oliver Stone's movie investigates the plot that culminated with the assassination of JFK. Based on two books, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, by Jim Marrs, and On the Trail of the Assassins, by Jim Garrison, the movie follows the same path as the former New Orleans District Attorney, Jim Garrison, the only person to make a deep investigation and take a possible responsible to trial.

The information gathered by Stone, who also signs the script, is overwhelming. Tons of characters, conversations, clues and archive footage fill the screen through the entire 188 minutes of film, and even so, we never lose our focus or get confused.

Kevin Costner plays Jim Garrison, who is followed since the first news of Kennedy's death until years later when he finally takes a suspect, Clay Shaw, an eminent New Orleans business man, to trial. A stellar cast of cameos also appears in the film disguised as historical characters, we have to keep the attention to not miss their presence among the plot.

The powerful editing of this movie had the tough task of linking all the happenings, spanning through several years, and is so successful that it makes from JFK a movie to be seen and studied several times, for its rhythm and ability to move, almost didactically. So is the photography, which amazingly recreates and dramatizes historical moments, alternating black and white with colorful footage, using the unmistakable touch of Oliver Stone.

By the end of the movie, we are so moved by Garrison's last monologue in court that it is hard to prevent the sense of urgency and revolt. But JFK doesn't provide the answers to this mystery or conspiracy, rather it provides the questions: Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?

Probably all would be covered up, if it wasn't for the most famous 8mm film of all time, the Zapruder film, which is the indefectible proof that the shot that finally killed Kennedy came from the front, and not from the back. Four shots and at least a second shooter, which per definition makes a conspiracy, possibly a coup d'etat. Stone cleverly doesn't show us the entire Zapruder film until almost the end.

The documents related to Kennedy's assassination won't be allowed to be seen by the people until 2038, when finally one will be able to walk inside the National Archive and, hopefully, find the truth molting on an old shelf, right next to the concept of justice and the meaning of the words "of the people, by the people and for the people," which also apply to the truth.