Oliver Stone's JFK: a basket case for conspiracy
Oliver Stone's fine fictional account of John F Kennedy's assassination dodges the truth
like a magic bullet.
By Alex von Tunzelmann, theguardian.com, Thursday 28 April 2011 03.24 EDT
On 22 November 1963, American president John F Kennedy was shot and killed
as he drove through Dallas, Texas. The Warren Commission, charged with
investigating the assassination, concluded that he was murdered by Lee Harvey
Oswald, acting alone.
Truth
Confusing fact and fiction
The film opens with a documentary montage, presenting Kennedy (very
questionably) as a radical progressive who upset the establishment and therefore
found himself on the road to assassination. This is mixed in with recreated
fictional footage, and segues into the movie itself without distinction – making a
discreet but definite claim for documentary-level accuracy. Our hero is New
Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison – who, in another subtle bid for
trustworthiness, is played by 1991's biggest mainstream Hollywood star, Kevin
Costner. There's no doubt about it: Oliver Stone wants you to believe this is the
truth. Many do. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of Americans believe
there was a conspiracy behind John F Kennedy's murder – a belief which,
pollsters Gallup noted, was sustained by this movie.
The film's case
Donald's got the X factor
Nagged by fears that shady characters in his own district might have been
involved in the president's assassination, Garrison puts together a case. He has
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three key witnesses. David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) is a mercenary working with antiCastro Cuban exiles. He breaks down and confesses the entire plot to Garrison,
complete with CIA and Cuban exile involvement. Immediately afterwards, he is
murdered by his co-conspirators. Willie O'Keefe (Kevin Bacon) is a gay prostitute
involved with the conspirators. He, too, confesses the whole plot to Garrison,
exactly in line with Ferrie. Finally, Garrison goes to Washington to meet an
unnamed government insider, X, played with unabashed brilliance by Donald
Sutherland. In a coruscating monologue, X explains the full breadth and depth of
the conspiracy, bringing in the entire military-industrial complex behind the
American government.
The real case
Let me X-plain
On the strength of this evidence, the case for a conspiracy would appear
overwhelming. There's just one problem: it's all wrong. David Ferrie was a real
person, but always maintained his innocence. His big plot confession scene is a
figment of the film-makers' imaginations. Were he alive, it would constitute a
massive libel. Ferrie died of natural causes – a coroner's verdict which the real
Garrison, as district attorney, would have been ideally placed to challenge, had
he seen any suggestion of foul play. He did not challenge it. The movie's X is
fictional, based loosely on air force colonel L Fletcher Prouty, who was not part of
Garrison's investigation but did serve as a technical adviser on this movie.
Prouty's credibility was demolished in a critique of JFK by investigative journalist
Edward Jay Epstein. The mega-conspiracy to which X alludes is drawn from a
famous spoof, The Report from Iron Mountain, published in 1967 and revealed in
1972 by its author to have been a hoax.
Look into my eyes
That leaves the case hinging on Willie O'Keefe – another fictional character. In
reality, Garrison's equivalent key witness was Perry Russo, a heterosexual
insurance salesman. Russo's testimony was not particularly lively until Garrison
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administered a dubious "truth serum" of sodium pentothal – known to make
people suggestible – and subjected him to questioning under hypnosis. At that
point, Russo "remembered" all sorts of wacky things. In the movie, Garrison is
conspicuously not shown jacking his witness up on barbiturates or hypnotising
him. Because that would make his case look like a shoddy pile of incoherent
fantasies wrung out of vulnerable people by suspect means.
Ballistics
Ballistic licence
The film's stirring finale is a splendidly enacted courtroom scene, during which
Garrison pulls apart the case for a lone gunman on grounds of what he calls the
"magic bullet theory" – demonstrating that the bullet which the Warren
Commission claims killed Kennedy and injured Texas governor John Connally
performed all sorts of unlikely twists, turns and pauses in mid-air. Again, the
evidence in the film seems overwhelming. Again, that's because it's just not true.
Garrison's onscreen case is based on a partial selection of flawed
reconstructions. One example is the film's allegation that this bullet changed
direction to move upwards as it passed through Kennedy's neck. This comes
from an analysis of the bullet hole in the back of his jacket. In fact, a photograph
taken three seconds before the assassination shows Kennedy's jacket rucked up
above his shoulders. Once you take that into account, it looks like the bullet's
trajectory continued normally downwards and was consistent with a shot from the
book depository. The only thing dodging around like a magic bullet here is the
movie itself, veering erratically between misconceptions and outright lies in a
determined effort to avoid the facts.
Verdict
A classy cast clouds the truth
JFK is a cleverly constructed, tightly written and sometimes breathtakingly wellacted movie – and one of the most appalling travesties of history you're ever
likely to see.
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