This review is being written on the 50th anniversary of the events of the film, the murder of President Kennedy by the single gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. It is a weekend of extensive documentaries, memorials and articles by those who knew Oswald during the time depicted in this film, and even some from his childhood.
First let me say, I am pleasantly surprised by how the writer and producer of this film, Bill O'Reilly has created for those who may view this film in future years as close to an historically accurate depiction of events as possible in the two hour long film. It was necessary to truncate many characters, such as Margarette Oswald, by all descriptions a narcissistic personality, who related to non one, including her son. And given that I am familiar with most of the events from respected sources, I give credence to those that seem to fit the larger pattern of personalities and events.
At this time, over seventy percent of Americans reject the premise that Oswald acted on his own, without what is referred to as a conspiracy. The nature of this conspiracy range from the Mafia, The CIA, Texas Oilmen, Fidel Castro and his successor Lyndon Johnson. This was the premise of a popular film JFK, by Oliver Stone in 1990, that ignored the realities to weave a tale based on one irresponsible prosecutor. Conspiracy theories began soon after the assassination, exacerbated by the murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby, which was seen as silencing Oswald so he could not expose the purported conspiracy.
This film does not directly address these theories, but by presenting the full life of Oswald, how he bought the rifle to assassinate General Walker, and then only the day that he read that JFK was to be riding directly in front of the window that he had private access to did he decide to shoot him. We see in Oswald's disturbed character, his megalomania of thinking that he would have a cadre of reporters waiting for his return from Russia, his pain in his marriage breaking up because of his failures, all of the pieces falling into place that dispel the thousands of books that have been written that describe Oswald as part of a larger plot to kill JFK.
One minor error in this film is only worth noting because Ruby's silencing of JFK is part of every conspiracy theory. Ruby did not pull up to the police department and take the gun from his glove compartment and go in to kill Oswald. He had been at home in his underwear at the 10 AM time announced for Oswald to be moved, and thus vulnerable. He received a call that an employee needed an immediate wired cash advance. So, he got dressed, waited in line in the telegraph office, and sent it an hour and half after the time to move Oswald. He saw the crowd, with his pistol in his pocket as always, walked across the street at the exact moment that Oswald appeared. It takes an incredible need to turn these actual events into a coordinated part of a conspiracy to see anything other than what this was, an adventitious unlikely series of events, just as was the actual path of the motorcade right in front of Oswald's window, decided on after he had happened to have gotten the job.
For any who may come across this in years to come, I hope we have a more rational country, where those who find profit in spinning elaborate distortions disregarding who they slander will be rationally evaluated, and no longer be persuasive to the American people. This film will be the closest that those viewing as ancient history will come to the actual story of how one very disturbed individual happened to cross paths with the most powerful man in the world and was able to end his life.
This is not the way things should be, but they were then and probably still will be when you read this.
First let me say, I am pleasantly surprised by how the writer and producer of this film, Bill O'Reilly has created for those who may view this film in future years as close to an historically accurate depiction of events as possible in the two hour long film. It was necessary to truncate many characters, such as Margarette Oswald, by all descriptions a narcissistic personality, who related to non one, including her son. And given that I am familiar with most of the events from respected sources, I give credence to those that seem to fit the larger pattern of personalities and events.
At this time, over seventy percent of Americans reject the premise that Oswald acted on his own, without what is referred to as a conspiracy. The nature of this conspiracy range from the Mafia, The CIA, Texas Oilmen, Fidel Castro and his successor Lyndon Johnson. This was the premise of a popular film JFK, by Oliver Stone in 1990, that ignored the realities to weave a tale based on one irresponsible prosecutor. Conspiracy theories began soon after the assassination, exacerbated by the murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby, which was seen as silencing Oswald so he could not expose the purported conspiracy.
This film does not directly address these theories, but by presenting the full life of Oswald, how he bought the rifle to assassinate General Walker, and then only the day that he read that JFK was to be riding directly in front of the window that he had private access to did he decide to shoot him. We see in Oswald's disturbed character, his megalomania of thinking that he would have a cadre of reporters waiting for his return from Russia, his pain in his marriage breaking up because of his failures, all of the pieces falling into place that dispel the thousands of books that have been written that describe Oswald as part of a larger plot to kill JFK.
One minor error in this film is only worth noting because Ruby's silencing of JFK is part of every conspiracy theory. Ruby did not pull up to the police department and take the gun from his glove compartment and go in to kill Oswald. He had been at home in his underwear at the 10 AM time announced for Oswald to be moved, and thus vulnerable. He received a call that an employee needed an immediate wired cash advance. So, he got dressed, waited in line in the telegraph office, and sent it an hour and half after the time to move Oswald. He saw the crowd, with his pistol in his pocket as always, walked across the street at the exact moment that Oswald appeared. It takes an incredible need to turn these actual events into a coordinated part of a conspiracy to see anything other than what this was, an adventitious unlikely series of events, just as was the actual path of the motorcade right in front of Oswald's window, decided on after he had happened to have gotten the job.
For any who may come across this in years to come, I hope we have a more rational country, where those who find profit in spinning elaborate distortions disregarding who they slander will be rationally evaluated, and no longer be persuasive to the American people. This film will be the closest that those viewing as ancient history will come to the actual story of how one very disturbed individual happened to cross paths with the most powerful man in the world and was able to end his life.
This is not the way things should be, but they were then and probably still will be when you read this.