Executive Action

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 .

I forgot about this movie until I saw it on tape in a cut-out bin. I don't know why it isn't a well-known film, it's very good. The cast is excellent, and the straight-forward tone is unique. There's no judgement provided by the movie makers on the plotters, who are on one hand presented as earnest men doing what they believed to be in the best interest of the country, and on the other as lunatic facists, discussing eliminating "excess population" as if it were an everyday thing.

The purpose of the movie is to educate, it seems, presenting a lot of facts or what are presented to be facts, about Oswald as a patsy. I've read enough to know that not all of what is presented as factual is true (the phone system being cut out in D.C. is a well-known canard, repeated in "JFK"), but the movie uses this approach to lay out a very logical scenario regarding how it could have been done. The political background, and the details of the lapses of the Secret Service are used to good effect.

Finally, there is the presence of JFK himself as a counterpoint throughout the movie. Films of some of his best lines combined with the haunting musical score lend an air of melancholy appropriate to the subject matter, a feeling that is shared by the plotters. There is a quote from Shakespeare given by Robert Ryan that sums it up; ". . . and nothing can we call our own but death . . . let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings." It's one fine moment of many in a well-crafted film.

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.

Executive Action is directed by David Miller and written by Dalton Trumbo, Donald Freed and Mark Lane. It stars Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, Gilbert Green and John Anderson. Music is by Randy Edelman and cinematography by Robert Steadman.

In essence it's a film that is offering up a different theory to the Warren Commission's report that ruled Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating John F. Kennedy. Plot has Lancaster and Ryan as shady conspirators who plot the downfall of JFK on that fateful day November 22nd 1963. There's lots of talking, with the actors chewing into the dialogue whilst brooding considerably, their motives explained clearly, the framing of Oswald brought to life, and it rounds up to a triple gunmen scenario. We then get a startling revelation about what befell a number of eyewitnesses from that infamous day.

It's engrossing without being truly riveting, but the cast make it worth time spent. While if you like to buy into the conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination? Then it carries some extra entertainment value. 7/10

Entertaining and interesting film which puts forward a seemingly plausible theory as to why JFK was assassinated.

The main thought seems to be that President Kennedy's ideas in regard to nuclear disarmament, racial equality and ensuring a square deal for America's most lowly paid workers were just too radical as far as the country's hard line conservatives were concerned.

Appears to have been generally well researched and non sensationalist.

However, it's a fair criticism to note that some of the finer points of period detail are slightly shaky. For example, some of the hairstyles and fashions definitely belong to the '70s rather than the early '60s. We have a '61 Chevy coupe with a tattered rear back seat which has obviously been parched by a decade of sun exposure. But these are minor points.

Don't worry too much about nit picking as this movie is most certainly well worth a look.