I have read two books by Bill O'Reilly, Keep it Pithy: Useful Observations in a Tough World and Kennedy's Last Days, respectively, only reading a few chapters from Killing Kennedy, his bestselling novel co-written by Martin Dugard. O'Reilly's writing style is basic, pretty direct, and provides the same sort of depth and analysis you'd get from a history book in terms of his historical analysis. Nelson McCormick's film adaptation of the novel is more of the same basic entertainment, which creates Kennedy's assassination as a cinematic story of suspense and sadness.
The film is a Television movie for the National Geographic channel, set to air throughout the month of November to coincide with the fiftieth (yes, fiftieth) anniversary of Kennedy's assassination. This year in particular, we have been bombarded with documentaries and films on Television being made about Kennedy's life, Kennedy's handling of the Cuban missile crisis, etc, that I can't help but feel that a film that isn't a documentary on the man himself should be made. Killing Kennedy may not be the Oscar-worthy, big-budget, cinematic recreation of history that Steven Spielberg's Lincoln was to last year's concluding movie-going season, but it's, at very least, a watchable endeavor that combines the talents of some great actors into a bleak piece of intrigue that is one of the grimmest times in American history.
O'Reilly's point of uniqueness with his "Killing" series of books, which have chronicled the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus Christ, with the forth victim to be an unknown World War II figure, has been to been to take a well-known historical figure and write their story as a suspense story that reads like fiction but is actually nonfiction. The film keeps much of that ideology intact, illustrating both John F. Kennedy's presidency and Lee Harvey Oswald's disillusionment with the military and return to America and showcasing them parallel to one another, giving the audience a feeling of what one man was doing while the other one was doing something else.
Aside from its structuring, stylistically bleak tonality that meshes to the time period, and the solid performances by everyone involved, you won't find much new in this story. Rob Lowe plays John F. Kennedy with the same kind of surface-level depth that he gave to Drew Peterson a year ago. Lowe's acting talents are strong, but he always finds himself playing huge figures that show little substance other than what the masses already know. While Lowe's performance practically nails Kennedy's eclectic accent, and is elevated by a great portrayal of smothering stress during the Bay of Pigs time, every move and thought Kennedy is magnified by supporting character dialog to make sure we are following. As gorgeous as Ginnifer Goodwin is as Jackie Kennedy, especially in the outfit which would later become a blood-soaked staple of tragedy and remembrance, she exists more to make sure we, the audience, realize what is happening to Kennedy rather than as her own character.
Lee Harvey Oswald's beyond challenging role is given to Will Rothhaar, who gives a low-key performance, heavy on minimalism and quiet facial expressions. This is a breath of fresh air as we scarcely get any insight into what is going on in Kennedy's head, so to see a reviled character get a softer, more ambiguous performance is refreshing. His wife Marina, played by Michelle Trachtenberg, however, is given a role which reduces her performance to the occasional sentence of confusion and worry, the character who constantly has their infant child in their hands, and a hopeless facial expression.
We see everything we pretty much learned about in our textbooks when it comes to Kennedy's side of the story, from dealing with the America's potential involvement in what was shaping out to be a full-fledged nuclear war to the tragedy of the Bay of Pigs (all of Kennedy's adultery and philandering included in Killing Kennedy is criminally missing in the film). Oswald's point of view is where I found the most enjoyment and where I suspect many people will remember the film for, regardless of the quality each story bears. It will be remembered because of how unknown it is. I doubt many people know of Oswald's Marxist interests, wife, children, and military service. This portrait of an unstable soul was the highlight of O'Reilly's book Kennedy's Last Days and is the unsurprising highlight of Killing Kennedy.
McCormick's direction and Stephen St. John's cinematography keep the film interesting and suspenseful, especially during the last half-hour when all hell begins to break loose. However, the one thing the film can't escape is a TV movie feel. The pacing feels a bit like a primetime crime drama in the way the music blends with the unfolding events, and even scenes interrupted by a dreaded commercial break feeling like replaying themselves after the end of said commercial break (case and point, the scene when Oswald readies the rifle as Kennedy's car approaches). Considering the professional-level of such TV movies as Behind the Candelabra (which makes me wonder how HBO would've handled this over National Geographic), the film exists near the level of quality that picture held but fails to live up to the technical standards it set.
Killing Kennedy is only as suspenseful as it is familiar, and what we're left to digest is what we would've digested if we watched a documentary on the assassination or read a book - how troubling, fearful, and bleak the days Kennedy presidency must've been, how little optimism must've existed after his tragic death, and how politics was impacted by Kennedy's leadership. This is a good film, but unfortunately not a great one, combining the intensity of a crime drama with the depth of a complex story you've heard paraphrased before.
Starring: Rob Lowe, Ginnifer Goodwin, Will Rothhaar, and Michelle Trachtenberg. Directed by: Nelson McCormick.
The film is a Television movie for the National Geographic channel, set to air throughout the month of November to coincide with the fiftieth (yes, fiftieth) anniversary of Kennedy's assassination. This year in particular, we have been bombarded with documentaries and films on Television being made about Kennedy's life, Kennedy's handling of the Cuban missile crisis, etc, that I can't help but feel that a film that isn't a documentary on the man himself should be made. Killing Kennedy may not be the Oscar-worthy, big-budget, cinematic recreation of history that Steven Spielberg's Lincoln was to last year's concluding movie-going season, but it's, at very least, a watchable endeavor that combines the talents of some great actors into a bleak piece of intrigue that is one of the grimmest times in American history.
O'Reilly's point of uniqueness with his "Killing" series of books, which have chronicled the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus Christ, with the forth victim to be an unknown World War II figure, has been to been to take a well-known historical figure and write their story as a suspense story that reads like fiction but is actually nonfiction. The film keeps much of that ideology intact, illustrating both John F. Kennedy's presidency and Lee Harvey Oswald's disillusionment with the military and return to America and showcasing them parallel to one another, giving the audience a feeling of what one man was doing while the other one was doing something else.
Aside from its structuring, stylistically bleak tonality that meshes to the time period, and the solid performances by everyone involved, you won't find much new in this story. Rob Lowe plays John F. Kennedy with the same kind of surface-level depth that he gave to Drew Peterson a year ago. Lowe's acting talents are strong, but he always finds himself playing huge figures that show little substance other than what the masses already know. While Lowe's performance practically nails Kennedy's eclectic accent, and is elevated by a great portrayal of smothering stress during the Bay of Pigs time, every move and thought Kennedy is magnified by supporting character dialog to make sure we are following. As gorgeous as Ginnifer Goodwin is as Jackie Kennedy, especially in the outfit which would later become a blood-soaked staple of tragedy and remembrance, she exists more to make sure we, the audience, realize what is happening to Kennedy rather than as her own character.
Lee Harvey Oswald's beyond challenging role is given to Will Rothhaar, who gives a low-key performance, heavy on minimalism and quiet facial expressions. This is a breath of fresh air as we scarcely get any insight into what is going on in Kennedy's head, so to see a reviled character get a softer, more ambiguous performance is refreshing. His wife Marina, played by Michelle Trachtenberg, however, is given a role which reduces her performance to the occasional sentence of confusion and worry, the character who constantly has their infant child in their hands, and a hopeless facial expression.
We see everything we pretty much learned about in our textbooks when it comes to Kennedy's side of the story, from dealing with the America's potential involvement in what was shaping out to be a full-fledged nuclear war to the tragedy of the Bay of Pigs (all of Kennedy's adultery and philandering included in Killing Kennedy is criminally missing in the film). Oswald's point of view is where I found the most enjoyment and where I suspect many people will remember the film for, regardless of the quality each story bears. It will be remembered because of how unknown it is. I doubt many people know of Oswald's Marxist interests, wife, children, and military service. This portrait of an unstable soul was the highlight of O'Reilly's book Kennedy's Last Days and is the unsurprising highlight of Killing Kennedy.
McCormick's direction and Stephen St. John's cinematography keep the film interesting and suspenseful, especially during the last half-hour when all hell begins to break loose. However, the one thing the film can't escape is a TV movie feel. The pacing feels a bit like a primetime crime drama in the way the music blends with the unfolding events, and even scenes interrupted by a dreaded commercial break feeling like replaying themselves after the end of said commercial break (case and point, the scene when Oswald readies the rifle as Kennedy's car approaches). Considering the professional-level of such TV movies as Behind the Candelabra (which makes me wonder how HBO would've handled this over National Geographic), the film exists near the level of quality that picture held but fails to live up to the technical standards it set.
Killing Kennedy is only as suspenseful as it is familiar, and what we're left to digest is what we would've digested if we watched a documentary on the assassination or read a book - how troubling, fearful, and bleak the days Kennedy presidency must've been, how little optimism must've existed after his tragic death, and how politics was impacted by Kennedy's leadership. This is a good film, but unfortunately not a great one, combining the intensity of a crime drama with the depth of a complex story you've heard paraphrased before.
Starring: Rob Lowe, Ginnifer Goodwin, Will Rothhaar, and Michelle Trachtenberg. Directed by: Nelson McCormick.