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`JFK': Conspiracy in the Cross Hairs Oliver Stone's Riveting, Controversial Saga of the Kennedy Assassination

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`JFK': Conspiracy in the Cross Hairs Oliver Stone's Riveting, Controversial Saga of the Kennedy Assassination ENTERTAINMENT/THE ARTS /TV LISTINGS CALENDAR ilos Angeles egimee fJOK-: A relentless indictment of the Warren Commission - New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (portrayed by Kevin Costner) makes courtroom Surtirribtron"In'I MOVIE REVIEW `JFK': Conspiracy in the Cross Hairs Oliver StOne's Riveting, Controversial Saga of the Kennedy Assassination • Tailor-made for an increasingly cynical nation by a the national consciousness. shredding our will to believe, By KENNETH TURAN 'skillful director working at the peak of his craft, "JFK" as Albert Einstein once put it, that God does not play - TISIP S FILM (KITH: provocatively posits a conspiracy so vast the heavens dice with the universe. Trying to mend that tear are a' id he or didn't he'. Only Oliver Stone knows for can barely contain it. But in its zealous rush to accuse all whole range of conspiracy theorists and assassination sure. Or so he'd have you believe. .- .. and sundry,. it undercuts its effectiveness and ends up buffs, writers of upwards of 600 books ( not to mention D . Disturbing, infuriating yet undeniably effec-: not playing fair with its -audience. finally committing newsletters with names like the Grassy Knoll Gazette), rive, less a motion picture than an impassibnecC insistent some of the same sins it is so quick to pin on everyone all intent on proving there was a plan after all. if only we - 3-hour-and-7 -minute information barrage, Stone's had the wit to read the signs. "JFK" (citywide) is a relentless indictment of the Events like Kennedy's Nov. 22. 1963; assaslination... When we first meet Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner), he Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee. Harvey followed two days later by the murder of Oswald himself seems the least likely person to question the government Oswald was the lone assassin of President John F. by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, are so fearfully and join this underground brotherhood. The pipe-smok - Kennedy. - ' inexplicable and devastating they leave massive rents In Please see 'JFK,' F17 Continued from ing district attorney of New Orle- ans, a calm three-piece-suit type who calls his handful of kids "little bugs," Garrison initially gets brief- ly involved only because Oswald (Gary Oldman) had spent the sum- mer before the assassination in New Orleans, handing out pro- Castro leaflets and consorting with local oddballs like the shifty, un- trustworthy right-wing zealot Da- Gary Oldman, Joe Pesci, Brian Doyle Murray in "JFK": Conspiratorial trio. vid Ferrie (Joe Pesci). It's not until three years later only cleverly cast reassuringly fa- taken great delight in shredding that Garrison finally gets around to miliar faces like Walter Matthau, this thesis, calling the film "Dances looking inside the Warren Com- Jack Lemmon, Ed Asner, John With Facts" and pointing out just mission's hefty 26 volumes, and he Candy and Donald Sutherland in for openers that the Garrison that is' instantaneously transfixed. He cameo roles, he and director of Stone has conjured up bears very stays up night after night making little relation to the actual man, notes, irritating his perfect cinematography Robert Richard- son and editors Joe Hutshing and from a critical point of view that Southern wife Liz (Sissy Spacek), Pietro Scalia have proved endless- merely points to another difficulty: worrying about ignored testimony, ly inventive in coming up with new Stone, and not for the first time, leads not followed up. inconsisten- ways to shoot and cut essentially wants to have it both ways. cies and whathaveyou. Concluding static material. Nervous, insistent, On the one hand, he insists that that the truth has never come out his film is thoroughly researched and that New Orleans played a claustrophobic, "JFK" (at its best reminiscent of Costa-Gavras' "Z") and totally factual, but when in- crucial part in the story, he galva- has all of Stone's trademark inten- consistencies are pointed out, like nizes his small but loyal staff and the fact that certain characters are determines to find out what really sity, and it needs every last bit. Part of the reason "JFK" holds composites, situations are fudged, happened. Never mind that people conflicting testimony ignored and keep telling him "This is too big for our attention, obviously, is that it deals with perhaps the most potent Garrison's summation ( when he you" and "You're a mouse fighting finally does get around to bringing a gorilla," he stands foursquare event of the last 30 years, and Stone, who knows well its power, Shaw to trial) lengthened to con- behind his stirring motto, "Let returns to it again and again, both justice be done though the heavens in detailed re-creation (he even fall." Lain information not uncovered un- had the trees in Dallas' Dealey Clearly, director Stone (who also til years later, he shrugs and says Plaza trimmed to 1963 size) and in he's dramatically shaping history, co-wrote the screenplay with con- repeated vie wings of the famous spiracy buff Zachary Sklar) has kind of the way Shakespeare did. but little-seen Zapruder footage. But finally, it is not drama that based his conception of Garrison on That 8-millimeter home movie the traditional one- man -against- Stone is interested in but rather shot by a local dress. manufacturer the-system scenario Frank Capra disseminating his particular vision shows the assassination in the most perfected in films like "Mr. Smith of the reason Kennedy died. That's disturbing detail, as does a rather Goes to Washington," a point of why, though Stone has been care- graphic re-creation of (and what view Costner's comfortingly ful to tell persistent journalists that straight-arrow presence is made appear to be genuine photographs sections of his film are speculation, for. -Yet once the D.A. begins to go from) the President's autopsy. "JFK" gives the mass audience to work, a movie unlike anything that will see it cold absolutely no Jimmy Stewart ever starred in ore than that, Stone's skill is clue that this is the case, and has begins to emerge. • Msuch (especially in his pin- the temerity to have Garrison in- For "JFK," weighing in with point demolition of the controver- sist over and over that "the truth is more words per square inch than sial "magic bullet" theory) that no the, most important value we one would have thought possible, one who walks out of the theater have." That may well be the case, much less desirable, is probably the will completely believe that the but you'd end up looking rather most exposition-heavy film ever Warren Commission got it right silly if you tried to prove it by made. Exhaustive and exhausting, when it said a lone assassin was looking at this particular film. it so batters and blitzes you with responsible. But "JFK" (rated R details, incidents and occurrences, for language) is not the film to be 'JFK' like the crank at a party who won't satisfied with that. With increasing Kevin Costner Jim Garrison breathlessness it further insists Tommy Lee Jones Clay Shaw stop bending your ear, that when Laurie Metcalf Susie Cox one of Garrison's minions finally that Garrison single-handedly dis- Gary Oldman Lee Harvey Oswald covered that myriad elements of Michael Booker Bill Broussard squeals, "I'm lost, boss," there is Jay 0. Sanders Lou Iran not a person in the audience who this country's military-industrial Sissy Spacek liz Garrison complex (including Ferrie and A Le Studio Canal-,, Regency Enterprises and Alcor won't know exactly how he feels. Films, Ixtlan Corporation production, released by Warn- Yet, though "JFK" will surely at Tommy Lee Jones as New Orleans er Bros. Director Oliver Stone. Producers A. Hitman Ho, businessman Clay Shaw) conspired Stone. Executive producer Amon Milchan. Screenplay least momentarily confuse every- Stone 8. Zachary Sklar, based on the books "Ors the to kill Kennedy because he wanted Trail of the Assassins- by Jim Garrison and "Crossfire: one who is not a card-carrying The Plot That Killed Kennedy" by Jim Marrs. Cinema. conspiracy buff, the one thing it to call off the Cold War and put tographer Robert Richardson. Editors Joe Hutshing, them out of business. Pietro Scalia. Costumes Marlene Stewart. Music John never is is boring, and for this one Williams. Production design Victor Hempster. Art direc- has to give Stone the very consid- Though pundits galore and even tors Derek R. Hill. Alan R. Tomkins. Set decorator Chnspian Sallis. Running lime: 3 hours, 7 minutes. erable credit he's due. He has not many conspiracy theorists have MPAA-rated It (language). .
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