JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America

JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America (2009)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely entertaining and at times brilliant documentary from The History Channel. Spread over two episodes totally just over three hours, this documentary doesn't use a single talking head but instead shows us the history of the Kennedy assassination via actual broadcasts from the president arriving in Dallas to where we are today. Every bit of the footage is shown in the order that it originally aired and this includes showing us clips of "As the World Turns", which was interrupted to announce that the President had been shot. The first episode takes a look at the first forty-eight hours, which had our President killed and then his assassin killed. Part two then takes a look at everything that has happened over the years from countless debate to the Oliver Stone movie. The first half of this documentary is downright brilliant as it gives those people who weren't around in 1963 a chance to see how the world got to hear the news. I thought the film did a masterful job at building up suspense even though everyone certainly knows what happened. Seeing the old broadcasts was incredibly interesting as was parts of the speech Kennedy gave just an hour before his death. We also get a lot of wonderful footage from the Dallas Police Station and of course the news of Oswald being murdered. What I found so fascinating is that conspiracy theories were already building up in people before the official word was released that Kennedy had died from the injuries. This here certainly fuels the second part of the film, which is rather obvious in its one sided nature in showing that there must have been more than one person involved. I thought the film lost some of its power during the final few sections just because it is so one sided. This might be due to the fact that a majority of people over the past two decades feel that Oswald didn't act alone. There's stuff here that could be debated but the real reason for anyone to watch this film are for all the scenes that deal with the hour before and after the assassination. I'm sure many buffs have seen this stuff before but seeing them in order and showed the way they originally were is quite haunting and it really makes one understand what it must have been like when someone first heard the news. I wasn't born until 1980 yet watching this stuff really made me understand everything my parents or grandparents told me in regards to their memories of hearing about the events. Fans of history will certainly want to check this out but I think even those not all that interested in the event will probably find themselves caught up in the drama.