JFK the movie

[saline]

Wow, I just watched JFK for the first time. I got it out of the library on DVD and just sat totally engrossed for three and a half hours. It was incredible, its strange to get the feeling the whole thing is being laid out for you but remembering that it's all still speculation. Incredible.

[bigwillq]

1. I only saw it once and I was in eight grade

I would like to view it again

[Redneck Socialist]

2. If you liked the movie you should read...

...Libra by Don DeLillo. It was a pretty obvious influence on the movie.

[Robb]

21. I'll go even further

to suggest everything DeLillo's written! :)

[SheilaT]

3. I can tell you that Oliver Stone

has some of his facts wrong.

Toward the end, when Kevin Costner meets with someone (I forget who but I've only seen it once and that was when it was in the theaters) in DC and one of them is trying to convince the other that JFK's murder was part of a government plot and part of the proof is that the phone lines stopped working that day.

Yes, phone service became erratic and non-existent in much of the country that day. That's because practically everyone was trying to call someone to let them know what had happened, and there were only a limited number of phone lines available -- no satellite uplinks in 1963, no wireless phones -- and as more and more phones are being used to make calls, the dial tone takes longer and longer to happen as you pick up the phone, and eventually doesn't occur at all as all the lines are in use.

That's not the only time it happened. In 1968 I was an operator in Tucson, Arizona, and late one afternoon toward the end of March we stopped being able to get lines to make phone calls -- the lights above the holes we plugged into to connect just winked out. There had been an airplane crash -- a jet from Davis-Monthan AFB went into a shopping center -- and needless to say many of the people in Tucson were trying to call other people and using up all the lines. We operators didn't have special access, we competed with the home user for lines.

A week or so later, on March 31st that year, in the evening all of a sudden the same thing happened, and my first thought was, Oh no! there's been another plane crash. Luckily a customer enlightened me. Lyndon Johnson had just announced on national TV that he was not going to run for re-election. And once again, practically everybody was trying to call someone else.

Nowadays with cell phones and the satellite and wireless technology that doesn't happen. I'm not so sure it could, really, but I haven't worked for the phone company in over thirty years, so I'm not positive.

So, no matter who really killed JFK, or what conspiracy may have actually been involved, the loss of phone service was not part of it.

[BrotherBuzz]

4. That was X (Donald Sutherland)

X (Donald Sutherland): Well that's the real question, isn't it? Why? The how and the who is just scenery for the public. Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, the Mafia. Keeps 'em guessing like some kind of parlor game, prevents 'em from asking the most important question, why? Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?

[GOPisEvil]

5. He was an amalgamation of real people, correct?

:shrug:

[BrotherBuzz]

6. I think so....

Or else it may have been a six hour movie..

[LizW]

10. X represented L. Fletcher Prouty

Prouty is a retired Air Force Colonel. I don't know if the conversation between Prouty and Garrison took place in reality.

Prouty's book, JFK -- the CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy is very interesting. Lots of the stuff that was in Stone's movie is there.

Just as interesting is Prouty's extremely detailed description of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that actually makes up the first 3/4 of the book.

[H2O Man]

13. He is one very real person.

His name is Col. Fletcher Prouty. He authored "JFK:The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John Kennedy." Citadel Press; 1992. While parts of the movie were "speculation," most of it is documented history. The only serious question is one of interpretation. Before you reach any conclusion, read Col. Prouty's book. It is powerful.

[bobthedrummer]

19. Mostly Fletcher Prouty

military spook.

[11 Bravo]

8. But the fact no one has been able to refute

is that the path of the "magic bullet" is not only improbable, it's inpossible.

[SheilaT]

9. Actually, it's been demonstrated

that the magic bullet wasn't so magic and could easily have done the damage it did. However, believe what you want to.

[H2O Man]

14. Have you ever shot a gun?

Hunted? Seen a large mammal hit with a bullet? Two bullets? Twelve? If you had any experience with guns, you would know that the magic bullet is a pathetic attempt to cover-up what happened. Keep in mind that the Warren Report did NOT include it until near the end of their investigation, when it was proven that the "second" shot MISSED the car .... and there is no question that then, and only then, did the commission have to change their report.

[Rick Myers]

7. Don't buy all of it...

It IS just a MOVIE...

I love Oliver Stone, but he does take ALOT of liberties!!!

[Dookus]

11. yes...

especially the way he mixed new black and white footage with archival footage to give the appearance that things he presumed actually happened. Totally dishonest.

[Archae]

12. JFK is an accurate movie...

Twice.

JFK did get shot and killed.

Jim Garrison put Clay Shaw on trial.

Otherwise?
The movie JFK is pure fiction.

Even that big speech and the end of the trial, with Costner playing Garrison, never happened.

The jury in that trial took 90 minutes, including going out for lunch, to come back with their verdict of not guilty.
In fact the jurors were laughing at Garrison and his wild goose chase.

[Intelsucks]

15. There is certainly no way Oswald could have fired 3 shots in 6.2 seconds

with a cheap rifle and a mal-adjusted scope. I belive the triangle theory... Three shooters would create misdirection and confusion.

[MacCovern]

16. No, it can be fired 3 times in 6+ seconds

The Peter Jennings JFK assassination special in November showed a
man in his EIGHTIES firing the rifle in less time than that, and
he even paused after the second shot, just as Oswald did, before
pulling the trigger a third time.

[Intelsucks]

17. It was a manual bolt action rifle. Impossible!

n/t

[CanuckAmok]

20. but not with any accuracy...

...Unless it was on a bag or a bipod, which nobody has suggested it was.

[Capn Sunshine]

18. Just remember one thing

it's a MOVIE
not a documentary.
Stone took a lot of liberties in that thing.

[gate of the sun]

22. great movie

funny was going to check it out last night and watch it again. Maybe next week. There is alot of information in that movie and I think I could use another go around.