JFK

Oliver Stone, 1991

You know, I've never seen an Oliver Stone film before. Well, not technically true. I sat through about half of The Doors on Vh1 when I was in high school (I watched a lot of Vh1 back then, when it was about music!) and had to turn it off because it was too depressing. If that's what Jim Morrison was really like, he's not worth the hype.

But anyway, this movie is on the list (I think) but I would have watched it anyway because I've been sort of obsessed with the Kennedy assassination (er, this one) ever since I read Don DeLillo's Libra in college. I cannot recommend that book highly enough. 

Stone's taken a lot of heat (which is something I think he not-so-secretly enjoys) because a lot of the stuff is factually inaccurate. Well it's not so much that as that facts are manipulated and omissions are made to allow Stone to make his argument. And let's just sweep that under the rug right now by saying it's a movie, for Christ's sake. If he wants to say little green men from outer space killed Kennedy using the power of their minds, he's allowed to; that's his prerogative as a storyteller. I will say two things: 1) I find DeLillo's conspiracy theory more compelling and believable than Stone's and 2) Who's to say that a lone gunman scenario necessarily occludes a conspiracy? At any rate, Stone has quite eloquently argued that the Warren Commission Report was one myth and that this film is a counter-myth, so let's leave it at that and move along.

Here's the thing about conspiracy theories: they're a helluva lot of fun. And for most of the film, Stone gets that fun creepy-crawly, who's that behind you, connect-the-dots vibe exactly right. In that sense, the film is highly entertaining.

But at times the film touches something greater than mere entertainment value, it really gets good and thinky. One of the great things about Libra (sorry to keep harping on, but you really should read it) is that it's not just about a conspiracy theory, it's about conspiracy theories and paranoia in general. It deals with the very postmodern problem of the proliferation of information only leading you further away from the truth. Stone's film is very much premised on the idea that there is a secret truth to be found, so it's less eloquent in that aspect, but you still get moments of what rabbit hole did I get myself into, and how the hell do I ever get out? There's also a very Foucaultian conception of power and how it functions, something I was very proud of myself for noticing and which you can read more about here. 

Kevin Costner is perfectly cast here; he's a mix of stalwart and vulnerable in a kind of cornball, uniquely American way; he's just the man to be agog at the notion that out government is deceiving us. Joe Pesci also does great work, but he also has the best material. Question: is the whole "it's a mystery, wrapped in s riddle, in an enigma" thing original to this film, or is that just something people say?

Comments

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Never seen a Stone flick? You need to get on Platoon and Wall Street (the latter before the sequel ruins the legacy of the original).