'JFK' movie with Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison 'JFK' assassination movie: Gripping political drama gives added meaning to 'Rewriting History' If it's an Oliver Stone film, it must be bombastic, sentimental, clunky, and controversial. With the exception of "clunky," JFK is all of the above. It is also riveting, earnest, dishonest, moving, irritating, paranoid, and, more frequently than one might expect, outright brilliant. In sum, Oliver Stone's 1991 political thriller about a determined district attorney's investigation of the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy is a slick piece of propaganda that mostly works both dramatically and cinematically. If only some of the facts hadn't gotten trampled on the way to film illustriousness. With the exception of John Williams' overemphatic score – Oliver Stone films need anything but overemphasis – JFK's technical and artistic details are put in place to extraordinary effect. Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia's editing...
- 5/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Oliver Stone's "JFK" is a masterpiece. I say that unequivocally. It's masterful filmmaking of a degree few could ever hope to reach, but it's been consistently plagued and overshadowed by the whiff of conspiracy fatigue ever since its 1991 release. This has always been strange to me. Nothing presented in the film is all that far-fetched, and depending on your opinion of Dallas journalist Jim Marrs, it was all perfectly well-reported before Stone and screenwriter Zachary Sklar came along. Meanwhile, there has been a curiously strong push lately, it seems, to ensure once-and-for-all acceptance of the lone gunman theory, which, I'm...
- 9/20/2013
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
Forgotten Classics is a recurring feature, a look back and reflection on great motion pictures that often slip under the radar and become under-appreciated, ignored relics of a previous era or simply damned by lack of face time in the spotlight.
JFK
Directed by Oliver Stone
Written by Zachary Sklar
1991, USA
Naturally, given that he has a somewhat inimitable reputation in Hollywood circles, you could fill entire cue cards with words one has described Oliver Stone with; aggressive, paranoid, searing, genius, antagonistic, childlike, ferocious. His latest motion picture is Savages, currently on release in the United States and Canada, an admittedly pointed story revolving around the hot topic of marijuana distribution. Since Stone has a confessed pro-legalization stance on the matter, it serves to make a film out of a sensitive issue. This is Stone’s remit, it would seem. A quick survey of his back catalogue shows that one...
JFK
Directed by Oliver Stone
Written by Zachary Sklar
1991, USA
Naturally, given that he has a somewhat inimitable reputation in Hollywood circles, you could fill entire cue cards with words one has described Oliver Stone with; aggressive, paranoid, searing, genius, antagonistic, childlike, ferocious. His latest motion picture is Savages, currently on release in the United States and Canada, an admittedly pointed story revolving around the hot topic of marijuana distribution. Since Stone has a confessed pro-legalization stance on the matter, it serves to make a film out of a sensitive issue. This is Stone’s remit, it would seem. A quick survey of his back catalogue shows that one...
- 8/5/2012
- by Scott Patterson
- SoundOnSight
Forgotten Classics is a recurring feature, a look back and reflection on great motion pictures that often slip under the radar and become under-appreciated, ignored relics of a previous era or simply damned by lack of face time in the spotlight.
JFK
Directed by Oliver Stone
Screenplay by Zachary Sklar and Oliver Stone
1991, USA
Naturally, given that he has a somewhat inimitable reputation in Hollywood circles, you could fill entire cue cards with words one has described Oliver Stone with; aggressive, paranoid, searing, genius, antagonistic, childlike, ferocious. His latest motion picture is Savages, currently on release in the United States and Canada, an admittedly pointed story revolving around the hot topic of marijuana distribution. Since Stone has a confessed pro-legalization stance on the matter, it serves to make a film out of a sensitive issue. This is Stone’s remit, it would seem. A quick survey of his back catalogue...
JFK
Directed by Oliver Stone
Screenplay by Zachary Sklar and Oliver Stone
1991, USA
Naturally, given that he has a somewhat inimitable reputation in Hollywood circles, you could fill entire cue cards with words one has described Oliver Stone with; aggressive, paranoid, searing, genius, antagonistic, childlike, ferocious. His latest motion picture is Savages, currently on release in the United States and Canada, an admittedly pointed story revolving around the hot topic of marijuana distribution. Since Stone has a confessed pro-legalization stance on the matter, it serves to make a film out of a sensitive issue. This is Stone’s remit, it would seem. A quick survey of his back catalogue...
- 7/29/2012
- by Scott Patterson
- SoundOnSight
JFK (1991) Direction: Oliver Stone Cast: Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Joe Pesci, Laurie Metcalf, Jack Lemmon, Sally Kirkland, Jay O. Sanders, Edward Asner, Walter Matthau, Vincent D'Onofrio, Michael Rooker, John Candy, Donald Sutherland Screenplay: Oliver Stone, Zachary Sklar; from Jim Marrs' book Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy and Jim Garrison's book On the Trail of the Assassins Oscar Movies Highly Recommended Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison in JFK Paranoid? Moi? If it's an Oliver Stone film, it must be bombastic, sentimental, clunky, and controversial. With the exception of "clunky," JFK is all of the above. It is also riveting, earnest, dishonest, moving, irritating, paranoid, and, more frequently than one might expect, outright brilliant. In sum, Oliver Stone's 1991 political thriller about a determined district attorney's investigation on the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy is a slick piece of...
- 2/5/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Chicago – As the 2008 awards season kicks into high gear, it’s a good time to catch up with one of the most acclaimed and nominated films of seventeen years ago, Oliver Stone’s “JFK” in a classy and well-packaged Blu-Ray edition from Warner Brothers.
In the months leading up to the 1991 release of “JFK”, the controversy surrounding the film and its conspiracy theories was deafening, but the quality of Oliver Stone’s epic film overruled the negative buzz, leading to eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
JFK: Director’s Cut
Oliver Stone’s three-and-a-half hour film chronicles the drama around the most resonant gunshot of the twentieth century. Starring Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, and many more, this version of the film includes 17 added minutes that were not shown theatrically and truly do enrich the entire film. This is an actual “director’s cut”, not just reinserted deleted scenes,...
In the months leading up to the 1991 release of “JFK”, the controversy surrounding the film and its conspiracy theories was deafening, but the quality of Oliver Stone’s epic film overruled the negative buzz, leading to eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
JFK: Director’s Cut
Oliver Stone’s three-and-a-half hour film chronicles the drama around the most resonant gunshot of the twentieth century. Starring Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, and many more, this version of the film includes 17 added minutes that were not shown theatrically and truly do enrich the entire film. This is an actual “director’s cut”, not just reinserted deleted scenes,...
- 12/11/2008
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
NEW YORK -- The Sundance Institute will workshop 13 projects at its January Screenwriters Lab, steered by a who's who of indie writers, including artistic director Scott Frank, Paul Attanasio, Kasi Lemmons, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and Doug Wright.
Towelhead author Alicia Erian, whose novel was adapted for Alan Ball's upcoming Nothing Is Private, is developing a script about an American who faces repercussions after helping a Salvadoran immigrant in Hammer and Anvil.
The other projects include Liu Hao's Beijing romance Addicted to Love; John Magary's family drama "Blood Abundance, or the Half-Life of Antoinette"; Ryan Knighton's autobiographical blindness drama Cockeyed; and Hadar Friedlich's Israeli profile Hannah M.
Patrick Vala-Haynes' father-son drama The Henchman; Moon Molson's crime drama Meadowlandz; Daniel Casey's Polish-American boxing story Poletown; and Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa and Karen Sztajnberg's Brazilian coming-of-age drama Quotas also made the cut.
Rounding out the list are Liza Johnson's portrait of a military mother, Return; Hicham Ayouch's Moroccan Muslim drama Samba Do Maazouuz; Frank Budgen's adult U.K. fairy tale, Shockheaded Peter; and Darrell Dennis' study of a Native American woman in Canada, Tales of an Urban Indian.
Other Screenwriters Lab advisers include Rodrigo Garcia, Dan Kleinman, Fernando Leon de Aranoa, Malia Scotch Marmo, Christopher McQuarrie, Walter Mosley, Tom Rickman, Howard Rodman, Susan Shilliday, Zachary Sklar, Dana Stevens, Thomas Vinterberg and Tyger Williams.
Towelhead author Alicia Erian, whose novel was adapted for Alan Ball's upcoming Nothing Is Private, is developing a script about an American who faces repercussions after helping a Salvadoran immigrant in Hammer and Anvil.
The other projects include Liu Hao's Beijing romance Addicted to Love; John Magary's family drama "Blood Abundance, or the Half-Life of Antoinette"; Ryan Knighton's autobiographical blindness drama Cockeyed; and Hadar Friedlich's Israeli profile Hannah M.
Patrick Vala-Haynes' father-son drama The Henchman; Moon Molson's crime drama Meadowlandz; Daniel Casey's Polish-American boxing story Poletown; and Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa and Karen Sztajnberg's Brazilian coming-of-age drama Quotas also made the cut.
Rounding out the list are Liza Johnson's portrait of a military mother, Return; Hicham Ayouch's Moroccan Muslim drama Samba Do Maazouuz; Frank Budgen's adult U.K. fairy tale, Shockheaded Peter; and Darrell Dennis' study of a Native American woman in Canada, Tales of an Urban Indian.
Other Screenwriters Lab advisers include Rodrigo Garcia, Dan Kleinman, Fernando Leon de Aranoa, Malia Scotch Marmo, Christopher McQuarrie, Walter Mosley, Tom Rickman, Howard Rodman, Susan Shilliday, Zachary Sklar, Dana Stevens, Thomas Vinterberg and Tyger Williams.
- 12/14/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A good defense lawyer only needs to cast a reasonable doubt to get his client off the hook, we Kennedy followers have learned, and 1960s slugger Oliver Stone proves he's a masterful litigant in this gumbo-filled historical reconstruction of John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Essentially, it's not about Kennedy but rather the tale of New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison who -- not believing the Warren Commission's Report that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot down JFK -- launched a widespread investigation, eventually prosecuting one New Orleans citizen Clay Shaw for the crime. In Garrison's eye, Shaw was a cog in a murderous conspiracy hatched by the CIA, the defense industry, Southern rednecks, Cuban refugees and all sorts of goose hunters.
If any cause or special interest group wanted to hire a filmmaker to document the rightness of their issue, Stone would be unbeatable. In this view of nimble bombast, it's not doubtful that Stone could spin a masterful cinematic web linking John Sununu's resignation with the collapse of Pan Am. Aesthetically, ''JFK'' is crafty, super-skilled filmmaking: propaganda every bit as cinematically splendid as Frank Capra's ''Why We Fight'' or Leni Riefenstahl's ''Triumph of the Will.''
Dignifying D.A. Garrison, who even in the jambalaya of this country's screwiest state was considered a Loose Cannon, is the savvy casting of good-old-reliable, salt-of-the-earth Kevin Costner. As the obsessed litigant, Costner evens sucks on a pipe, avuncularly a la the great wise man of the era, Walter Cronkite.
Opposing this judicious breadwinner are the wide array of ''conspirators, '' shrewdly chosen among Hollywood's finest nutcase players -- prominently Joe Pesci as a hypertensive co-conspirator and Donald Sutherland as a slithery CIA op. Down the French Quarter line, you've also got died-blonde Tommy Lee Jones as gay Clay Shaw and Ed Asner as a swaggering redneck. Before we even present the facts, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, which side would you trust: gray-suited Kevin or Joe Pesci and the boys.
In the film, Garrison quotes Adolf Hitler as saying the bigger the lie, the more people are likely to believe it; paraphrasing that cynicism, the bigger the movie the more likely people are going to believe it, especially in this post-literate age where college kids only know JFK as the president who got laid a lot. And screenwriters Stone and Zachary Sklar present the ''facts'' in a stentorian wave of shrewd and sometimes dubious juxtapositions (aided and abetted by muted trumpet and stacatto of the snares).
The narrative movement is thus: Garrison espouses theory, interrogates slimeball who lies to him, followed by flashback to ''reality'' shot in black-and-white showing Garrison's suppositions are correct.
Indeed, Stone's savvy, documentary-style black-and-white footage casts an aura of truth over this theoretical treatise. Stone has built his case, starting with documentary clips of Dwight Eisenhower's warning of the terrors of the ''military industrial complex, '' through a winning montage of Camelot (the energy of the New Frontier; the disastrous Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the triumph of ''Ich Bin Ein Berliner'' speech, to Dallas.
Throughout, Stone stretches one thread: the CIA and military industrial complex, furious at Kennedy for not providing air support in the Bay of Pigs and fearing his pulling out of Vietnam, hatched a plot.
At its most questionable, a voice-over enumerates the military/industrial types who would benefit from JFK's death -- while panning over the likes of the Joint Chiefs and LBJ. While Oliver Stone has certainly stirred up the waters, with good conscience and, in JFK's own parlance, ''with vigah, '' most people are likely to regard ''JFK'' as BS.
JFK
Warner Bros.
In Association with Le Studio Canal Plus, Regency Enterprises and Alcor Films
An Ixtlan Corp. and an A. Kitman Ho Production
Producers A. Kitman Ho, Oliver Stone
Director Oliver Stone
Screenwriters Oliver Stone, Zachary Sklar
Executive producer Arnon Milchan
Director of photography Robert Richardson
Production designer Victor Kempster
Co-producer Clayton Townsend
Editors Joe Hutshing, Pietro Scalia
Music John Williams
Costume designer Marlene Stewart
Casting Risa Bramon Garcia, Billy Hopkins, Heidi Levitt
Based on the books ''On the Trail of the Assassins'' by Jim Garrison and ''Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy'' by Jim Marrs
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Jim Garrison Kevin Costner
Liz Garrison Sissy Spacek
David Ferrie Joe Pesci
Clay Shaw Tommy Lee Jones
Lee Harvey Oswald Gary Oldman
Bill Broussard Michael Rooker
Lou Ivon Jay O. Sanders
Susie Cox Laurie Metcalf
Jack Martin Jack Lemmon
Sen. Long Walter Mattheu
Dean Andrews John Candy
Guy Bannister Ed Asner
Willie O'Keefe Kevin Bacon
Earl Warren Jim Garrison
Running time -- 188 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Essentially, it's not about Kennedy but rather the tale of New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison who -- not believing the Warren Commission's Report that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot down JFK -- launched a widespread investigation, eventually prosecuting one New Orleans citizen Clay Shaw for the crime. In Garrison's eye, Shaw was a cog in a murderous conspiracy hatched by the CIA, the defense industry, Southern rednecks, Cuban refugees and all sorts of goose hunters.
If any cause or special interest group wanted to hire a filmmaker to document the rightness of their issue, Stone would be unbeatable. In this view of nimble bombast, it's not doubtful that Stone could spin a masterful cinematic web linking John Sununu's resignation with the collapse of Pan Am. Aesthetically, ''JFK'' is crafty, super-skilled filmmaking: propaganda every bit as cinematically splendid as Frank Capra's ''Why We Fight'' or Leni Riefenstahl's ''Triumph of the Will.''
Dignifying D.A. Garrison, who even in the jambalaya of this country's screwiest state was considered a Loose Cannon, is the savvy casting of good-old-reliable, salt-of-the-earth Kevin Costner. As the obsessed litigant, Costner evens sucks on a pipe, avuncularly a la the great wise man of the era, Walter Cronkite.
Opposing this judicious breadwinner are the wide array of ''conspirators, '' shrewdly chosen among Hollywood's finest nutcase players -- prominently Joe Pesci as a hypertensive co-conspirator and Donald Sutherland as a slithery CIA op. Down the French Quarter line, you've also got died-blonde Tommy Lee Jones as gay Clay Shaw and Ed Asner as a swaggering redneck. Before we even present the facts, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, which side would you trust: gray-suited Kevin or Joe Pesci and the boys.
In the film, Garrison quotes Adolf Hitler as saying the bigger the lie, the more people are likely to believe it; paraphrasing that cynicism, the bigger the movie the more likely people are going to believe it, especially in this post-literate age where college kids only know JFK as the president who got laid a lot. And screenwriters Stone and Zachary Sklar present the ''facts'' in a stentorian wave of shrewd and sometimes dubious juxtapositions (aided and abetted by muted trumpet and stacatto of the snares).
The narrative movement is thus: Garrison espouses theory, interrogates slimeball who lies to him, followed by flashback to ''reality'' shot in black-and-white showing Garrison's suppositions are correct.
Indeed, Stone's savvy, documentary-style black-and-white footage casts an aura of truth over this theoretical treatise. Stone has built his case, starting with documentary clips of Dwight Eisenhower's warning of the terrors of the ''military industrial complex, '' through a winning montage of Camelot (the energy of the New Frontier; the disastrous Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the triumph of ''Ich Bin Ein Berliner'' speech, to Dallas.
Throughout, Stone stretches one thread: the CIA and military industrial complex, furious at Kennedy for not providing air support in the Bay of Pigs and fearing his pulling out of Vietnam, hatched a plot.
At its most questionable, a voice-over enumerates the military/industrial types who would benefit from JFK's death -- while panning over the likes of the Joint Chiefs and LBJ. While Oliver Stone has certainly stirred up the waters, with good conscience and, in JFK's own parlance, ''with vigah, '' most people are likely to regard ''JFK'' as BS.
JFK
Warner Bros.
In Association with Le Studio Canal Plus, Regency Enterprises and Alcor Films
An Ixtlan Corp. and an A. Kitman Ho Production
Producers A. Kitman Ho, Oliver Stone
Director Oliver Stone
Screenwriters Oliver Stone, Zachary Sklar
Executive producer Arnon Milchan
Director of photography Robert Richardson
Production designer Victor Kempster
Co-producer Clayton Townsend
Editors Joe Hutshing, Pietro Scalia
Music John Williams
Costume designer Marlene Stewart
Casting Risa Bramon Garcia, Billy Hopkins, Heidi Levitt
Based on the books ''On the Trail of the Assassins'' by Jim Garrison and ''Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy'' by Jim Marrs
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Jim Garrison Kevin Costner
Liz Garrison Sissy Spacek
David Ferrie Joe Pesci
Clay Shaw Tommy Lee Jones
Lee Harvey Oswald Gary Oldman
Bill Broussard Michael Rooker
Lou Ivon Jay O. Sanders
Susie Cox Laurie Metcalf
Jack Martin Jack Lemmon
Sen. Long Walter Mattheu
Dean Andrews John Candy
Guy Bannister Ed Asner
Willie O'Keefe Kevin Bacon
Earl Warren Jim Garrison
Running time -- 188 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 12/16/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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