Whether you look at it as controversial, interesting, brilliant, eye-opening or a complete work of historical fiction there is no denying Oliver Stone did not approach JFK without knowing damn near every publicly available (and not so publicly available) detail there is to know about President John F. Kennedy and his assassination. If you aren’t willing to accept that then you need to pick up this copy of JFK on Blu-ray or on 3-Disc DVD and listen to Stone’s commentary over the film as well as his commentary in the 54+ minutes of deleted/alternate scenes. He is rather boring in tone and there is damn near no excitement, but it will give you a larger appreciation for what I consider his masterwork. Is there a lot of speculation and conspiracy theories presented in the film? Certainly, but they are presented as such. It isn’t as if any real conclusion is reached at the end of the film, but it certainly opens your eyes to what a scary world we live in despite living.
JFK was released in 1991 and was Stone’s follow-up to The Doors and, before that, Born on the Fourth of July. More importantly, the film was released at the absolute height of Kevin Costner’s career. In my opinion JFK is the pinnacle for Costner. He made a major name for himself in The Untouchables (1987), Bull Durham (1988) and Field of Dreams (1989), and then went on to win the Best Director Oscar for Dances with Wolves while the film went on to win another six Oscars including Best Picture. Many probably consider this to be Costner’s crowning achievement, but I have never thought Wolves deserved any of its accolades it received. Compared to JFK, which was released the same year Costner took home the hardware, Wolves is a boring exercise in how long can you sit and watch nothing happen.
This film, however, brought out the best in everyone involved. This includes Costner, but I personally enjoy Michael Rooker as Bill Broussard, Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald and two small performances by Jack Lemmon as Jack Martin and Donald Sutherland as Mr. X. Even though Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Clay Shaw, I actually thought he was the weakest of the bunch, but to say that is to say little since there really is no weak link in this crew.
As much as I think this is Stone’s best film, I also think it is his most down-to-earth. It’s an ambitious project, but Stone fills all the holes he opens, and at no point do I think he ever tries to say “these are the facts of the case” as much as he says, “Hey, look at what may have happened based on information that is out there.” Stone is no dummy, he is able to read between the lines as much as the rest of us. He is just more meticulous in his follow-up.
I believe JFK is also Stone’s most professional feature. He always has a tendency to allow at least one scene to dissolve into something of an acid trip. Alexander as he falls off his horse in Alexander, Bush on his jog in W., Nixon listening to “the tapes” in Nixon and all of Natural Born Killers. JFK has no such scene. It is actually a beautiful movie in every way. It even won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for the work Robert Richardson put in on it, the same man that shot several of Stone’s films as well as many of Quentin Tarantino’s, including his upcoming film Inglourious Basterds, not to mention Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film Shutter Island.
You then move to the score by John Williams which, Stone says right off on his commentary, he actually came up with before seeing a single frame of the film. It’s an astonishing piece of work and fits the film spectacularly with a balance between beauty mixed with military. The opening theme is definitely the most memorable piece from the film as it leads up to the first look at Kennedy’s assassination, but it fits in so well to the mood of the picture it is shocking he did it in advance of the film based on his opinion of Kennedy and a couple of visits to the set.
This, of course, is just a taste of the information you will gain from this release, which includes the director’s cut of the film, the previously mentioned deleted scenes and a couple of essays along with collectible digi-book packaging. Most impressive of all is the film itself. It looks fantastic in Blu-ray and has convinced me some dramas are definite must owns in high-definition and this is certainly one of them.
