Oliver Stones enduring obsession with John Kennedy has resulted in this new four part documentary that features narration from Whoopi Goldberg, Donald Sutherland ( who as the mysterious character X in Oliver Stones 1991 film JFK, delivered a lengthy and explosive monologue about a massive conspiracy to a flabbergasted Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner) and interviews with Robert Kennedy Jnr and various others who weren't old enough or even alive when the assassination took place. The problem with this doc, as was definitely the problem with JFK the film, is that while well made and rather riveting, its based on a series of connect the dot coincidences mixed with facts but also a number of dubious assumptions mixed with even more dubious theories, none of which add up to one coming to any definite conclusions one way or the other. It takes every sinister turn it can take, the CIA, the tension with the Soviet Union, the conflict of interest amongst his own administration regarding going deeper into the Vietnam conflict, even the mafia get a mention. Lots of supposed reasons, lots of supposed suspects, lots of cloak and daggers and smoke and mirrors but it really cannot make any definitive statement one way or the other.
Jim Garrison, the hero of JFK 1991, was played admirably as a noble everyman by Kevin Costner. In reality, he was a dangerous fruit loop who arrested people without just cause, appeared on the Johnny Carson show, and even had witnesses hypnotized in a crazy bid to get them to say what he wanted them to say. The Warren Commission, which was portrayed as a group of conspirators, concluded that one rifle fired the two bullets. There was no magic bullet as the Secret Service man was not seated directly in front of the president; the car seats weren't situated that way. Lee Harvey Oswald was a communist sympathizer fantasist who attempted to assassinate another government figure some years before, but missed his mark when he fired. He wanted the notoriety of killing a public figure. The bullets WERE fired from overhead. People love a good conspiracy, and JKF was so loved, many people just would not and will not accept that his death could be so mundane and simple as a lone gunman just decided to kill him. But i believe that is what happened and the evidence dictates that.
