JFK (film)

All you want to know about JFK (film)

For details, see JFK (soundtrack).

Reaction

Filming was going smoothly until several attacks on the film and Stone began to surface in the mainstream media. On May 14, 1991, Jon Margolis in the Chicago Tribune wrote that JFK was "an insult to the intelligence."[7] This article was published while the film was only in its first weeks of shooting. Five days later, the Washington Post ran a scathing article by national security correspondent George Lardner entitled, "On the Set: Dallas in Wonderland" that used the first draft of the JFK screenplay to blast it for "the absurdities and palpable untruths in Garrison's book and Stone's rendition of it."[8] The article pointed out that Garrison lost his case against Clay Shaw and claimed that he inflated his case by trying to use Shaw's homosexual relationships to prove guilt by association.[8] Stone responded to Lardner's article by hiring a public relations firm that specialized in political issues. Other attacks in the media soon followed. Anthony Lewis in the New York Times claimed that the film "tells us that our government cannot be trusted to give an honest account of a Presidential assassination."[7] Washington Post columnist George Will attacked Stone, calling him, "a man of technical skill, scant education and negligible conscience."[7]

Time magazine took Stone to task for doing this and then ran their own critique of the film-in-progress on June 10, 1991. They also claimed that Stone was trying to suppress a rival JFK assassination film based on Don DeLillo's 1988 novel Libra. Stone refuted these claims in a letter to the magazine. The filmmaker ended up splitting his time between making his film and responding to attacks from the press. However, the Lardner Post piece stung the most because he had stolen a copy of the script. Stone recalls, "He had the first draft, and I went through probably six or seven drafts."[2]

Once the film was released in theaters, it polarized critics. The New York Times ran an article by Bernard Weinraub entitled, "Hollywood Wonders If Warner Brothers let JFK Go Too Far." In it, he called for studio censorship and wrote, "At what point does a studio exercise its leverage and blunt the highly charged message of a film maker like Oliver Stone?"[7] The newspaper also ran a review of the film by Vincent Canby who wrote, "Mr. Stone's hyperbolic style of film making is familiar: lots of short, often hysterical scenes tumbling one after another, backed by a soundtrack that is layered, strudel-like, with noises, dialogue, music, more noises, more dialogue."[9] Veteran movie critic for The Washingtonian, Pat Dowell had her 34-word capsule review for the January issue rejected by her editor John Limpert on the grounds that he didn't want a positive review for a movie he felt was "preposterous" associated with the magazine.[7] Dowell resigned in protest.[7]

The Miami Herald said, "the focus on the trivialities of personality conveniently prevents us from having to confront the tough questions his film raises."[2] However, Roger Ebert praised the film in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, saying, "The achievement of the film is not that it answers the mystery of the Kennedy assassination, because it does not, or even that it vindicates Garrison, who is seen here as a man often whistling in the dark. Its achievement is that it tries to marshal the anger which ever since 1963 has been gnawing away on some dark shelf of the national psyche."[10] Rita Kempley in the Washington Post wrote, "Quoting everyone from Shakespeare to Hitler to bolster their arguments, Stone and Sklar present a gripping alternative to the Warren Commission's conclusion. A marvelously paranoid thriller featuring a closetful of spies, moles, pro-commies and Cuban freedom-fighters, the whole thing might have been thought up by Robert Ludlum."[11]

On Christmas Day, the Los Angeles Times ran an article entitled, "Suppression of the Facts Grants Stone a Broad Brush" attacking the film. New York Newsday followed suit the next day with two articles — "The Blurred Vision of JFK" and "The Many Theories of a Jolly Green Giant." A few days later, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an article entitled, "Stone's Film Trashes Facts, Dishonors J.F.K." Stone even received death threats as he recalled in an interview, "I can't even remember all the threats, there were so many of them."[2] Roger Ebert went on to name Stone's movie as the best film of the year and one of the top ten films of the decade.[12] It currently has a rating of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes (increasing to 86% for their "Cream of the Crop" designation).

Years after its release, Stone said of the film that it "was the beginning of a new era for me in terms of filmmaking because it's not just about a conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. It's also about the way we look at our recent history...It shifts from black and white to color, and then back again, and views people from offbeat angles."[13]

Box office

JFK was released in theaters on December 20, 1991. The box office for the film started slow but picked up momentum and by the first week in January 1992, it had grossed over USD $50 million worldwide. Stone started to get support for his film. Warner Brothers executives pointed out that because of the film's long running time, it had fewer screenings.[2]

Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison and Donald Sutherland as Mr. X
Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison and Donald Sutherland as Mr. X

On its first week of release, JFK tied Beauty and the Beast for fifth place in the U.S. box office and its critics began to say it was a failure.[2] However, JFK eventually earned over $205 million worldwide, and $70 million in the United States during its initial run.[14]

Awards

JFK was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tommy Lee Jones), Best Director (Oliver Stone), Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Sound, Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay (Stone and Zachary Sklar). It won two awards for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.[15]

Cultural impact

The popularity of JFK led to the passage of The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (also known as the JFK Act) and the formation of the U.S. Assassination Records Review Board. The Act was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in late October 1992.[16] The ARRB worked until 1998. Witnesses were interviewed (some for the first time), the U.S. government purchased the Zapruder film, and previously-classified documents relating to the assassination were finally made available to public scrutiny. By ARRB law, all existing assassination-related documents will be made public by 2017.[17] Vincent Bugliosi, in his book Reclaiming History, contends that this law is largely superfluous, as virtually all documents relating to the Warren Commission have long been available to the public.

Entertainment Weekly ranked it the 5th Most Controversial Movie Ever.[18]

See also: John F. Kennedy assassination, Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, and Trial of Clay Shaw

DVD

To date, there have been three separate releases of Stone's film on DVD. The first edition was released in 2000 on a single disc with the movie split over both sides. It was a director's cut that added 17 minutes to the film. Due to an error on the packaging, this version states it features an anamorphic widescreen transfer. However, the DVD itself contains a non-anamorphic widescreen print, further compounded by a rather poor transfer.[19]

In 2001, the "Director's Cut" was released again, this time part of the Oliver Stone Collection box set with the movie on one disc and supplemental material on the second. Stone contributed several extras to this edition, including an audio commentary, two multi-media essays, and 54 minutes worth of deleted or expanded scenes with optional commentary by Stone.[20] Finally, in 2003, a two-DVD "Special Edition" was released with all of the extras on the 2001 edition in addition to a 90-minute documentary entitled, Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy.[21]

References

  1. ^ "Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Film Studios", New York Times (June 18, 1996). Retrieved on 2007-11-26. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Riordan, James (September 1996). "Stone: A Biography of Oliver Stone", Aurum Press. 
  3. ^ a b Crowdus, Gary (May 1992). "Getting the Facts Straight: An Interview with Zachary Sklar", Cineaste. 
  4. ^ a b Crowdus, Gary (May 1992). "Clarifying the Conspiracy: An Interview with Oliver Stone", Cineaste. 
  5. ^ a b c d Fisher, Bob (February 1992). "The Whys and Hows of JFK", American Cinematographer. 
  6. ^ Stone, Oliver (2000). "JFK: The Book of the Film", Applause Books. 
  7. ^ a b c d e f Petras, James (May 1992). "The Discrediting of the Fifth Estate: The Press Attacks on JFK", Cineaste, pp. 15. 
  8. ^ a b Lardner, George (May 19, 1991). "On the Set: Dallas in Wonderland", Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-08-01. 
  9. ^ Canby, Vincent (December 20, 1991). "Review/Film: J.F.K.; When Everything Amounts to Nothing", New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-28. 
  10. ^ Ebert, Roger (December 20, 1991). "JFK", Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-28. 
  11. ^ Kempley, Rita (December 20, 1991). "JFK", Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-03-28. 
  12. ^ Ebert, Roger (1990). "Roger Ebert's Top Ten Films of the 90s", Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved on 2007-08-01. 
  13. ^ Carnes, Mark C (Vol. XXII. No. 4. 1997). "Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies", Cineaste. 
  14. ^ "JFK", Box Office Mojo (May 1, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-01. 
  15. ^ "JFK", Academy Awards Database (1991). Retrieved on 2007-08-17. 
  16. ^ "Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board", The Assassination Records Review Board (September 1998). Retrieved on 2007-04-18. 
  17. ^ "ARRB Updates", The Assassination Records Review Board (September 1998). Retrieved on 2007-04-27. 
  18. ^ "25 Most Controversial Movies Ever", Entertainment Weekly (August 27, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-27. 
  19. ^ Stephenson, Cliff (February 15, 2000). "JFK", DVDFile.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-02. 
  20. ^ Nunziata, Nick (January 22, 2001). "JFK (Oliver Stone Collection)", IGN. Retrieved on 2007-11-02. 
  21. ^ Patrizio, Andy (August 27, 2003). "New JFK DVD on 11/11", IGN. Retrieved on 2007-11-02. 

Further reading

  • Mark C. Carnes (Fall 1996). "Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies", Cineaste. 
  • Gary Crowdus (May 1992). "Clarifying the Conspiracy: An Interview with Oliver Stone", Cineaste. 
  • Eric Hamburg (September 2002). JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone and Me: An Idealist's Journey from Capitol Hill to Hollywood Hell. PublicAffairs. ISBN 1586480294. 
  • James Riordan (September 1996). Stone: A Biography of Oliver Stone. Aurum Press. ISBN 1854104446. 
  • Oliver Stone (February 2000). JFK: The Book of the Film. Applause Books. ISBN 1557831270. 
  • Robert Brent Toplin (1996). History by Hollywood "JFK: Fact, Fiction, and Supposition",pp.45-78. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252065360

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Films directed by Oliver Stone
Feature films
Seizure (1974) • The Hand (1981) • Salvador (1986) • Platoon (1986) • Wall Street (1987) • Talk Radio (1988) • Born on the Fourth of July (1989) • The Doors (1991) • JFK (1991) • Heaven & Earth (1993) • Natural Born Killers (1994) • Nixon (1995) • U Turn (1997) • Any Given Sunday (1999) • Alexander (2004) • World Trade Center (2006) • W. (2008)
Documentaries
Persona Non Grata (TV 2003) • Comandante (2003) • Looking for Fidel (2004)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_(film)"

No comments have been added.



Your name:

City:

Country:

Your comments:

Security check *
(Please enter the number into adjoining box)

 

  • Ads

           
eXTReMe Tracker