# What was your reaction to the JFK movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 18, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252 "2016-09-18T14:54:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/1 "2016-09-18T14:54:11Z")
I watched about 2/3 of it last night, 9/17/16 on tv. I switched it off after X reveals all to Garrison and Clay Shaw was arrested. It was almost midnight and I knew how the plot resolved. I was reading the Wiki and googling various real life characters. There is a site that lists known errors or inconsistencies in the film. > **[JFK (film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_(film))** > > JFK (released under the subtitle The Story That Won’t Go Away) is a 1991 American epic political thriller film written and directed by Oliver Stone. The film examines the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy by district attorney Jim Garrison, who came to believe there was a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy and that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone. > The film's screenplay was adapted by Stone and Zachary Sklar from the books On the Trail of the Assassins (1988) by Jim Garr... > **[Are There Factual Errors in Oliver Stone's Movie JFK? : 22 November 1963](http://22november1963.org.uk/factual-errors-oliver-stone-movie-jfk)** > > Fact and fiction in Oliver Stone's JFK: unreliable witnesses; umbrella man and three tramps in Dealey Plaza; invented characters; misleading dramatisations. I’m curious how you view this as a entertainment film? Was it entertaining? Did it keep you interested? Finally, did it change or influence your views on the JFK assassination? It’s obviously an important film, Nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 2. Oliver Stone won a Golden Globe award for best director ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/2 "2016-09-18T15:09:23Z")
I enjoyed the movie as entertainment. I think it is one of Costner’s best roles/performances. I think it is well-written (from an entertainment POV), well-directed, well-shot, etc. I didn’t alter my views on the JFK assassination at all. Edit: In fact, now that you bring the movie up I kind of feel like watching it again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/3 "2016-09-18T15:16:37Z")
Garrison clearly ran across members of a fringe anti Castro group based in New Orleans. Oswald had brief contact with them. Handing out leaflets. Imho this group probably did hate JFK for the massive US betrayal of CIA trained forces at the Bay of Pigs. But had no role in the assassination. They just weren’t that well funded or sophisticated. Imho It is an entertaining story. Great cast of well known actors. It helps a lot to google the historical characters for additional background information. Garrison did get access to the Zapruder Film and it was surreptitiously released to the public domain. We owe him a lot for that. Oliver Stone took dramatic license by inventing that scene with X. Wiki claims Garrison didn’t meet X until several years after the Clay Shaw trial. X is allegedly based on Leroy Fletcher Prouty. He served as Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President John F. Kennedy. Had a distinguished career. But made very controversial statements later in life. Big critic of the CIA. > **[L. Fletcher Prouty](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Fletcher_Prouty)** > > Leroy Fletcher Prouty (January 24, 1917 – June 5, 2001) served as Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President John F. Kennedy. A colonel in the United States Air Force, he retired from military service to become a bank executive. He subsequently became a critic of U.S. foreign policy, particularly the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which he believed was working on behalf of a secret world elite. > Prouty's commentary on the Kennedy assass... ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/4 "2016-09-18T15:28:52Z")
More on Prouty. This dude really went around the bend later in life. 😃 I guess conspiracy buffs would say he’s been deliberately targeted and discredited. Be sure to click the link in the article for Prouty’s views on other topics besides JFK. Btw, this was the link that claims Garrison didn’t meet X before the Clay Shaw trial. [The Mystery Man, "X": Oliver Stone's JFK: The JFK 100: JFK assassination investigation: Jim Garrison New Orleans investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination](http://www.jfk-online.com/jfk100whox.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/5 "2016-09-18T15:40:25Z")
It’s entertaining, like most Oliver Stone movies, but I wouldn’t take anything he produces as historical fact. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/6 "2016-09-18T15:59:53Z")
This is the best synopsis I had ever read on the JFK conspiracy theories. I think it is written by the same fellow who runs [jfk-online.com](http://jfk-online.com). Even if you’re not a JFK CTer, this is well worth reading just because it is done so well. [http://www.skeptic.com/reading\_room/jfk-conspiracy-theories-at-50-how-the-skeptics-got-it-wrong-and-why-it-matters/](http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/jfk-conspiracy-theories-at-50-how-the-skeptics-got-it-wrong-and-why-it-matters/) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/7 "2016-09-18T18:26:50Z")
It was “entertaining” is the sense of laughing at all the stupidity throughout it. I am still amazed that most people who saw it thought it was … _real_ and some of the stuff in it has entered society as things “everybody knows” is true about the JFK assassination. Garrison was a vile, immoral person. He needed to be portrayed as the exact opposite. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/8 "2016-09-18T20:11:22Z")
I was 13 when I saw it and thought it was ludicrous. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/9 "2016-09-18T20:32:01Z")
I was initially impressed, but in later years I came to see how ridiculous it was. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/10 "2016-09-18T20:41:13Z")
Watching this film was like trying to make sense of some crazy person’s babblings on a subway train. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/11 "2016-09-18T21:31:22Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Watching this film was like trying to make sense of some crazy person’s babblings on a subway train. It’s a case of “if you can blow enough smoke up the audience’s ass, some of them will end up convinced they’re on fire.” I remember a family member all hot and on fire, trying to convince me it was great, with the basic argument, “But it asks SO MANY QUESTIONS!” ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/12 "2016-09-18T22:52:45Z")
I just finished re-watching “JFK”. Definitely a good entertaining conspiracy film. It is like a magic act. I love watching a magic act and going “Well, there you have it, magic is real.” So like this I watch and go “Well, there you have it, there was a conspiracy to kill JFK.” All while of course knowing, magic isn’t real/there was no conspiracy. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/13 "2016-09-19T01:50:38Z")
I saw it in the theater the day it came out and enjoyed it a lot. At the time I was of a mind, as I had been all my life, that the official story made no sense, so it fit into that nicely. Nowadays I see that it happened mostly the way the Warren Commission said. Like all conspiracy theories it just collapses under its own weight. The biggest thing that changed my mind was a couple of PBS documentaries that gave extremely good and accurate explanations for how the so-called ‘magic bullet’ was nothing of the kind. I still like the film as a great piece of cinema. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/14 "2016-09-19T04:12:04Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Watching this film was like trying to make sense of some crazy person’s babblings on a subway train. I enjoyed the Seinfeld “magic loogie” version. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/15 "2016-09-19T12:09:39Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Garrison was a vile, immoral person. He needed to be portrayed as the exact opposite. And his appearing in the film is another stain on it. Entertaining, yes. Grotesquely\* dishonest too. \*Read “American Grotesque” (about the Clay Shaw trial) to get an idea just how sleazy and immoral Garrison was. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/16 "2016-09-19T13:13:46Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > \*Read “American Grotesque” (about the Clay Shaw trial) to get an idea just how sleazy and immoral Garrison was. Well, it’s that sturdy, trustworthy “Jim” that does it. If he’d remained Earling Carothers Garrison, you’d know right off he was a sleazy South’ren lawyer type. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/17 "2016-09-19T17:17:36Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Well, it’s that sturdy, trustworthy “Jim” that does it. And let’s not forget that Garrison was, like, really tall (6’6). There’s a photo in “American Grotesque” of one of Garrison’s A.D.As gazing up worshipfully at him. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/18 "2016-09-19T21:18:00Z")
I saw it in the theater, then went back and watched it again two days later. I’ve seen it several times since, but not in years and years. I think it’s an extraordinarily well-made movie. The directing, the editing, the sound, some of the performances (esp. Tommy Lee Jones), and probably some other elements I’m not thinking of right now were astonishing. Every film student should watch it, several times. I know it’s stupidly long, but I never felt that it dragged, and my attention never wandered. It did absolutely nothing to affect what I think about the assassination. But it’s a brilliant motion picture. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/19 "2016-09-20T15:13:17Z")
Yeah, Oliver Stone really _really_ smoothed over Garrison’s rough edges. There was a scene shot recreating his _Tonight Show_ appearance (with John Larroquette playing Carson) which was cut from the final film. I’m not sure how accurate it was, but I’ve read descriptions of his actual interview and he comes off as pretty crazy. He obsesses over the significance of digits in various people’s phone numbers matching the sums of various people’s addresses, or something like that… 😕 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252/20 "2016-09-20T15:21:45Z")
Paraphrasing Huxley: It is a beautiful movie that is killed by very “ugly” facts. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-reaction-to-the-jfk-movie/766252.md?page=2)