Its appropriate I suppose that I am writing these words near the 40th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. The day that was like blood on the American flag and darkness at noon. I have always eagerly watched every movie or documentary on the assassination. Everyone loves a good mystery and this is one mystery that will never be solved. Ruby And Oswald was first shown when I was in the fourth grade and I have seen it several times since. Frederic Forrest and Michael Lerner (who is unfairly known mainly for looking like Roger Ebert) both do a fine job in the title roles. One is a bitter young loner seeking fame by killing the President the other is a hot-tempered man driven to violence by grief. The only thing that I have against this film is its very naive and simplistic viewpoint. Its almost as if the writers just read the Warren Commission report and took it as Gospel without looking below the surface. The one question that I have is this. If Ruby loved Kennedy so much (there is a scene early in the film where he tells his nightclub audience about "our dear President Kennedy" and angrily attacks a man who insults the President) why wasn't he out watching the motorcade as it practically passed by his front door? He was in a newspaper office at the time going over ads for his nightclub! I think its been proven that Ruby was just a pathetic loser who wanted his "fifteen minutes" of fame so to speak by shooting Oswald. I recently wrote a letter to Jim Leavelle the Dallas detective who was handcuffed to Oswald when Ruby shot him. Leavelle wrote me that there was no conspiracy and that people like Oliver Stone are basically just out for a buck and don't give a tinker's damn about the truth. I called Mister Leavelle and spoke with him and he said that he thought Ruby believed he would be a hero and that everyone would shake his hand and he would be on the Ed Sullivan show for shooting Oswald. Still, this is a good film with fine performances that really brings that terrible day to life.
