Executive Action

Released in November 1973, near the tenth anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, EXECUTIVE ACTION is often overlooked as a film because of Oliver Stone's extraordinarily controversial 1991 film JFK. It obviously doesn't have the high-budget gloss or the montage that Stone's film does, but what it does have is a hard-hitting inside look into the individuals who might have had a direct hand in plotting this hideous crime.

Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan (in one of his final movies), and Will Geer are the conspirators, right-wing businessmen with an axe to grind. As in Stone's film, the motivations for the assassination are disgust with the way Kennedy handled Fidel Castro and the possibility that he would have stopped our involvement in Vietnam before it ever got to the ground troop stage. Based on Mark Lane's book "Rush To Judgement", scripted by former blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, and directed by David Miller (LONELY ARE THE BRAVE), EXECUTIVE ACTION is very somber and cold-blooded, but superbly constructed. It is amazing to think that three actors with ultra-liberal political credentials like Lancaster, Ryan, and Geer should be so icily convincing in their portrayals of fascists. The film makes very plausible the banality of evil. And like JFK, it also blows holes in the Warren Commission report big enough to drive a truck through and make apologists like Gerald Posner apoplectic.

Whether seen on its own terms or as a companion piece to the much better known JFK, EXECUTIVE ACTION is worth viewing--and, like Stone's film, asks us to consider the nightmarish chain of events that seem to have resulted directly or indirectly from what happened on that dark day in Dallas in 1963.

A dramatization about how the high level covert conspirators in the JFK assassination might have planned , schemed and plotted the magnicide , being based on the records , data , Comission Warren's evidences , facts of the case and especulative proposition . It joins a group of greedy intelligence agents, free-lance assassins , ultra-conservative politicians and wealthy people with corrupt interests , all of them become increasingly alarmed at President Kennedy's policies, including his view points on race relations, winding down the Vietnam War, and finishing the oil depletion allowance . As a small group of like minded individuals join to devise a strategy for Kennedy not to be reelected. Among the group, the lead conspirator, Robert Foster (Robert Ryan) , presumably a Texas oil baron . He and the others are trying to convince , a wealthy right wing American businessman named Ferguson (Will Geer), being the chief strategist James Farrington (Burt Lancaster) , who has done similar work for Ferguson before . Farrington's main idea: kill the President sometime before the election. They decide to eliminate him through an "executive action" utilizing three teams of well-trained snipers during JFK's visit to Dallas and place the blame on supposed CIA operative Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin and being subsequently murdered by Rudy . Their plan would have the starting point of past assassinations and assassination attempts of Presidents as McKinley , Garfield and Theodore Roosevelt , the latter was a failed attempt , all those precedents which were carried out by a lone citizen standing on his own principle , and without experience in military or revolutionary strategy . Their Goal...Assassination. November 22, 1963...Accomplished!The schemers... the plotters... and the hush men behind the assassination of an American president. Assassination conspiracy? The possibility is frightening. To this day, they remain somewhere among us... these people responsible for November 22, 1963!.The way it could have happened . Probably the most controversial film of our time.

This forceful and speculation movie is based on Mark Lane's book : ¨Rush to judgement¨ and based on conspiracy theories and the engaging evidences of the Warren Commission refused to hear , the picture at the same time uses stock footage , acting re-enacting and on-the-record facts as the framework developing the action , as it features a riveting look at possible reasons for the assassination of Head of State JFK and attempting to avoid the possibility of liberally-minded Kennedy's reelection in 1964. Providing a different look at the happenings leading to the magnicide in which millionaire and unscrupulously greedy businessmen pay professional spies to kill John Fitzgerald Kennedy . This is compelling and fascinating dramatic hypothesis constructed by the great writer Dalton Trumbo and investigator Mark Lane . Including a thoughtful and provoking dialogue as protagonists argueing the dark means of eliminating "excess population" as if it were an everyday thing. The conspiracy would be meticulously thought out, and exactly executed by a motley reunion of varied people : rogue intelligence agents, right-wing politicians, ambitious capitalists , but on the surface be made to look like a lone crazed gunman executed the assassination on his own, that patsy of a person chosen ultimately being a Communist sympathizer named Lee Harvey Oswald who would have no idea of the actual plot . This plausible enough attempt to weld a political thriller is made in Costa Gavras style , in fact producer Edward Lewis was responsible of financing , nine years later , Costa Gavras' Hollywood debut : ¨Missing¨ with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek . Main cast give fine acting as Robert Ryan , Burt Lancaster , Will Geer ; along with a good support cast with brief appearances from Ed Lauter , John Anderon , Richard Bull , Paul Carr , Rutanya Alda, Lloyd Gough , Joaquín Martínez , Dick Miller , among others .

It contains an atmospheric and adequate cinematography by Robert Steadman . As well as impressive and thrilling musical score by Randy Edelman . This speculative agitprop picture was compellingly directed by David Miller .Filmmaker David Miller was a good professional , a fine craftsman who made a few and nice films , and some of them were successful enough . He directed all kinds of genres , such as : ¨Bittersweet Love¨ , ¨Executive action¨ , ¨Heroes¨ , ¨Hammerhead¨ , ¨Captain Newman¨ , ¨Back Street¨, ¨Midnight lace¨ , ¨Happy anniversary¨ , ¨Billy the Kid¨ , ¨The story of Esther Costello¨ . Being his two greatest hits : ¨Executive action¨ and this ¨Lonely are the brave¨ . Rating : 7.5/10 . Better than average . Worthwhile seeing . Essential and indispensable watching for political film lovers .

It was hard back then to cut out Lee Harvey Oswald's face, paste it on a body holding a gun, and then copy it so it looked like a real photo. Made conspiracy challenging.

"Executive Action" from 1973 is another film that theorizes how the assassination of JFK went down - this time, it's a bunch of rogue intelligence agents, conservative politicians, greedy businessmen who were worried about President Kennedy's policies on race relations, ending the Vietnam War, and ending the oil depletion allowance.

This film's conspiracy is a lot more straightforward than what was posited in JFK, and it really could have gone down this way - with fake Oswalds, three gunmen, and a lot of people getting out of Dodge as soon as it was over.

Unfortunately we don't know what happened. This could be close though. Much of the film has actual footage mixed in with film footage. Although the assassination was a re- enactment, it was mixed with actual footage and is still devastating to watch.

One thing I've never doubted for one minute is that Ruby was allowed to kill Oswald. Take a look at that scenario. This man supposedly just killed the President and Ruby saunters into the garage, Oswald comes up with a man at either side, walking somewhat slowly - where? Why wasn't the transport right at the door? Never could get over that.

"Executive Action" is handled in a very naturalistic style; the actors speak conversationally, and it makes what they're planning scarier.

The most impressive part of the film is showing that 18 material witnesses to the assassination were dead by 1967. Sobering.

Good film, makes you think. Depressing too.

This movie was made almost twenty years before Oliver Stone's JFK so of course people are going to say that it is trite, inferior and dated. I really enjoyed it though because it is a good thriller. Was the Kennedy assassination planned by a group of disgruntled rich guys who didn't want him to obtain cival rights and pull out of Vietnam? Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan are both superb as the big bosses. They honestly believe they are doing the country a favor by killing Kennedy. They believe they are being true patriots. Its really suspenseful watching the plot unfold and come together. The liberal use of newsreel footage adds to the realism and the scenes leading up to the assassination are particularly good and suspenseful. You can feel your pulse raising as the president rides to his doom. Sadly, Ryan died shortly after this film came out. Also, its fun seeing Will Geer, the lovable Grandfather Walton, in a slightly sinister role.

David Miller's conspiracy-theory 're-enactment' shows the plotting by several oil-barons and intelligence officers to murder the then- President of the United States John F. Kennedy. Kennedy's pushing of the Civil Rights movement and plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam proves a threat to these emotionless rich folk, and the removal of Kennedy will benefit their business and, to them, their country. Farrington (Burt Lancaster), a black ops specialist, plans out the assassination in minute detail, with the backing of Foster (Robert Ryan), an oil baron. The action cuts between meetings between these men, the preparations of the gunmen and their target practice, and the recruitment and actions of a Lee Harvey Oswald lookalike.

While not being a fact-based and detailed account like the portrayal of Jim Garrison's investigation in Oliver Stone's excellent JFK (1991), Executive Action makes no claims to be historical fact, but instead a theory of how Kennedy's assassination could have been planned. How much is based on fact I don't know, as I had trouble finding much information about it. While it is certainly very interesting from a conspiracy- theorists point-of-view, the film works far better as a straightforward thriller, and certainly manages to build up plenty of tension regardless of the fact that we know what is going to happen, and that what is being played out in front of us is unlikely to be true.

It's a cold and emotionless film, which made me like it more. Lancaster's Farrington prepares the assassination as if he is preparing a holiday - matter-of-factly, routinely. The terrifying thing is that these men believe that what they are doing is patriotic and for the good of the country. Because of this, the film can be seen as a damning commentary of American values - the pursuit of money and desire for security is held in higher regard than doing the right thing, or equality. The film's low budget is certainly noticeable, and some of the supporting acting is often questionable, but this is a riveting thriller that contains many qualities that made the 70's the greatest era for American cinema.

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