JFK: Un destin trahi

Viewers of Oliver Stone's 1991 polemical blockbuster all those years ago were left, like me, with a sense of something being a bit off but with no facts to get our teeth into. This miniseries blows the whole conspiracy theory wide open, for even the most conspiracy-jaded folk.

JFK- Destiny Betrayed: elegantly argued, historically contextualised, clinically put together. No other director is as persuasive as Oliver Stone and this docu-series sees him at the top of his game. Miss it at your very real peril. Freedom and democracy are at stake......

This is a methodical analysis of both the physical circumstances and political environment before and after the assassination.

The tentative conclusions reached by Stone are compelling. When combined with the details surrounding Robert Kennedy's assassination they are overwhelmingly so.

Some right wing ideologues appear to criticise Stone, not for being inaccurate, but for being 'un-American'. For example, there is a review here which exemplifies this attitude by claiming that Kennedy was a 'traitor'.

So much for democracy.

With this backdrop it is easy to see why Trump stopped the release of the final tranche of documents relating to the assassination. Who would want to be the person to reveal to the world that American institutions, with the complicity of powerful economic and political ideologues, murdered their own President.

For those who don't know, this is the 4 hour expanded edition of JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass. Much of the same aspects of the assassination are discussed here, just in more detail. There are also some that weren't mentioned in Revisited. Such as the Harper Fragment and Kennedy's foreign policy with Africa. However, while Revisited was a more appropriate length, and flowed better, this version has more issues. Mostly the structure and editing. Because it cuts back and forth between topics that don't connect and aren't relevant to the assassination. Mostly Kennedy's foreign policy. As someone who's studied the assassination for 8 years, I was let down by this. To be clear, I don't think this version is awful. Far from it. But it has more issues than JFK Revisited. Though that version is much easier for the average viewer to understand. This is version goes into far more detail.

For as long as I remember, the assassination of JFK has both bothered and interested me. I've watched the docos and read a few books, but this 4-part expose was nothing short of extraordinary. The depth of new, untold facts leads the viewer down a path of lies, deception and undoubtable truths that, frankly, left me breathless, angry and at times, in tears. Brilliantly presented, often with Oliver Stone (Director, "JFK" 1991 blockbuster with Kevin Costner) interviewing many of the extremely reputable doctors, pathologists and investigators, it is truly a must-see series that not only reveals so many closely guarded secrets and anomalies, it's presented in such a way that many doubters would hang their heads in shame that they were never lead to believe the greatest lie the world has ever been told.

"Destiny Betrayed" goes into startling detail built on the foundation of "JFK Revisited". There is a powerful coherence to the manner in which the film is structured in developing chapters and sub sections through the astonishing recounting of dozens of accounts of witness testimony and evidence that leaves one incontrovertibly with the understanding of how thorough, extensive, and calculated a cover up the Warren Commission was. One cannot come away after viewing with any other conclusion. Where the film" JFK" was long on reasonable speculation, "Destiny Betrayed" is the opposite, a compilation of a mountain of of precise and detailed evidence.

This cover up, and the complicity of the mainstream media over decades is one of the most shameful chapters in American history. One great takeaway from this incredible documentary for me is WHY the Warren Commission went to such extraordinary lengths to cover up the truth of more than one gunman. They were scared out of their minds where a true investigation might lead. One year removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis, if Castro or the Russians wee involved, their fear was it could lead to war. If it was an internal affair, it could tear the country apart. One can understand their desperation.

However now is not then. That this despicable act of national betrayal still stands is an abomination. That whoever was involved was allowed to get away with it is a national disgrace, one of the greatest in our history. At least Stone and DiEugenio have created an archive that can be accessed by those who have the desire for truth.