Oliver Stone has stirred up a lot of controversy with his film JFK, as he dared to shake up viewers' complacent views about what really happened on the day that President Kennedy was murdered. It may be reassuring to believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was an isolated nutcase with a gun... certainly more reassuring than seriously considering that the Warren Commission just swept the whole thing under the rug to prevent uglier facts from coming to light. While JFK is not an attempt at portraying the events with exact historical accuracy – Stone uses dramatic license in focusing events on Jim Garrison's investigation and extrapolating and inventing where necessary – it does what it sets out to do: it opens the question of "what really happened?" up for a fresh look. Whether or not you agree with the conspiracy theory that Stone offers in the film is irrelevant, because Stone's ultimate argument is not that Garrison had everything right, but that Garrison was right to at least pursue the truth.

JFK offers a slate of very respectable actors in a variety of roles, from Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison to Gary Oldman as Oswald and Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Bertrand, and a number of other well-known actors in minor roles, and they all turn in believable performances, if nothing out of the ordinary. After all, apart from Garrison (played adequately if not brilliantly by Costner), the characters are really not the most important part of JFK: that honor goes to the overall story, the uncovery of the assassination conspiracy. JFK won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and another for Best Editing, and I'd say that both were well earned: for a film that relies so heavily on characters recounting information to each other, or poring over books and papers for bits of information, it's visually quite well handled. That's not to say that it's always engaging, but as a general rule the use of flashbacks, "what if" shots showing what the characters are imagining could have happened, and grainy newsreel-style footage is handled well to make JFK a quite polished film.

But is it a good film? The key question with JFK is this: how fascinated are you by John F. Kennedy and his assassination? If the answer is "Extremely!" then Oliver Stone's JFK is sure to be of interest: it may ruffle your feathers, it may drive you nuts if you are a stickler for exact historical detail, but it will surely capture your attention.

On the other hand, if your answer is "Not especially interested," then JFK will likely seem a little cold and distant. Basically, the film counts on a certain level of interest already existing, and on being able to push certain buttons in the audience. To begin with, the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman who killed Kennedy may become part of popular myth in the U.S., but the rest of the world has taken a look at the evidence and concurred that yes indeed, there were multiple shooters... in that sense, Stone is pointing out things that many of his viewers may not want to hear, with his dramatization of the absurd "magic bullet" theory and his emphasis on the existence of evidence that was overlooked or brushed off in the hurry to nail the guilt on Oswald, but he's not really presenting anything really revelatory. On the other hand, his extrapolations about who might have been responsible for the killing (once we realize that yes, there was some kind of conspiracy involved) are where the heat can really be turned up.

But the heat never really goes up all that much. One of the most potent elements in the film's bag of tricks is... the shocking idea that the government might have been involved in the assassination. Call me cynical if you must, but the idea that the U.S. government isn't pure and clean-handed doesn't strike me with the force of revelation. Nor does it surprise me that motives other than a desire for truth and justice were at work in creating the Warren Report and in handling the whole assassination situation in general.

The Director's Cut of the film adds 17 minutes of new footage; this is not the first time that the director's cut has been made available, as an earlier Special Edition release included the longer cut. I didn't find that the new scenes stood out in any way, but it had been long enough since I'd seen the theatrical cut of JFK that this isn't particularly surprising. On the whole, though, I'd say that JFK's main fault is its sheer ponderousness; despite its clever editing and interesting cinematography, the film is just longer than is really effective. By the time the final courtroom scene comes around, we're just... tired out. Extending the running time and adding even more detail just compounds the problem; at 3 hours and 24 minutes, JFK is longer than it needs to be.

The DVD

JFK: Director's Cut is presented in a two-disc edition, in a cardboard fold-out case inside a slipcase. The film is on the first DVD, and the special features are on the second DVD.

Video

JFK is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and is anamorphically enhanced. The print is extremely clean: there's no noise to be spotted anywhere in the image, and I only saw one tiny print flaw. The image is very nicely textured in close-up shots and has a reasonable level of detail in longer shots. This is consistent with its bit rate, which averages around 7.8 Mb/s.

The very clean print, in combination with the excellent handling of contrast and very natural colors, results in a very attractive picture. JFK is certainly not a particularly bright or colorful film, but Stone does play around with different tints in different scenes for ambiance, as well as mixing in the deliberately grainy black-and-white flashback or news footage segments; it's nice to see that the transfer captures all of that very well. The only things that detract from an otherwise outstanding transfer are some edge enhancement and pixellation, both of which reduce the sharpness of the image in a some of the scenes.

Audio

The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack does a nice job of presenting a clean, clear, and distinct audio experience for JFK. The dialogue is always perfectly understandable, and while it is certainly a mainly dialogue-driven film, the surround channels are put to good effect in a few key scenes.

Extras

The special features on JFK are aimed toward history buffs and those who are fascinated by the whole JFK assassination controversy; this makes sense, since these are the viewers who will find the most repeat viewing value in the film itself.

The first DVD contains the film itself, along with a full-length audio commentary by director Oliver Stone. Stone is very articulate and offers a thoughtful commentary on what he's doing and why. Rounding out this disc are cast filmographies and a listing of the awards won by the film.

The second DVD is the real treasure trove of special features; this is a two-disc set that justifies its existence. Getting first billing is a 90-minute documentary called "Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy." It's practically a film in its own right, as it looks not only at the making of the film but also at the facts and fabrications in the JFK case itself. Quite a few notable people are interviewed here: not just Oliver Stone and Kevin Costner, but also people like the real Jim Garrison and Marina Oswald Porter.

The next section offers 12 deleted/extended scenes (six of each), which add up to 54 minutes of additional footage. The scenes can be viewed individually or viewed with a "play all" feature, and viewers have the choice of listening to them with the original production audio or with Oliver Stone's commentary.

The section of "Multimedia Essays" is actually a lot more substantial than the name implies. I was expecting some text essays, possibly with a few photos thrown in, but what we actually get is two full featurettes. "Meet Mr. X: The Personality and Thoughts of Fletcher Prouty" is an 11-minute interview piece with Prouty, and "Assassination Update: The New Documents" is a 30-minute piece that informs viewers of the new information about the Kennedy assassination revealed by the government's Assassination Records Review Board when they re-examined the evidence (including previously classified or expurgated documents) in 1994-1997.

Finally, we wrap up the special features with a trailer for the film. Oddly, the DVD case claims to also include "Collected Reviews of the Film," but they're not present on either disc.

Final thoughts

Sure, JFK was a controversial film, raising uncomfortable issues and questioning the comfortable conclusions of the U.S. public. But when we look at JFK as a film, the question is whether Oliver Stone crafts something that stands well on its own, apart from its shock value in suggesting a government conspiracy. I'd give it mixed marks on that. It's a competent film, but it depends for a lot of its effect on the viewer being already fascinated by the topic of JFK's assassination, and it really doesn't offer a lot of replay value. I'll give it a general "recommended" for those who have never seen it before; those who love the film will want to consider it more highly recommended, as the transfer and special features are excellent.