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......

Oliver Stones enduring obsession with John Kennedy has resulted in this new four part documentary that features narration from Whoopi Goldberg, Donald Sutherland ( who as the mysterious character X in Oliver Stones 1991 film JFK, delivered a lengthy and explosive monologue about a massive conspiracy to a flabbergasted Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner) and interviews with Robert Kennedy Jnr and various others who weren't old enough or even alive when the assassination took place. The problem with this doc, as was definitely the problem with JFK the film, is that while well made and rather riveting, its based on a series of connect the dot coincidences mixed with facts but also a number of dubious assumptions mixed with even more dubious theories, none of which add up to one coming to any definite conclusions one way or the other. It takes every sinister turn it can take, the CIA, the tension with the Soviet Union, the conflict of interest amongst his own administration regarding going deeper into the Vietnam conflict, even the mafia get a mention. Lots of supposed reasons, lots of supposed suspects, lots of cloak and daggers and smoke and mirrors but it really cannot make any definitive statement one way or the other.

Jim Garrison, the hero of JFK 1991, was played admirably as a noble everyman by Kevin Costner. In reality, he was a dangerous fruit loop who arrested people without just cause, appeared on the Johnny Carson show, and even had witnesses hypnotized in a crazy bid to get them to say what he wanted them to say. The Warren Commission, which was portrayed as a group of conspirators, concluded that one rifle fired the two bullets. There was no magic bullet as the Secret Service man was not seated directly in front of the president; the car seats weren't situated that way. Lee Harvey Oswald was a communist sympathizer fantasist who attempted to assassinate another government figure some years before, but missed his mark when he fired. He wanted the notoriety of killing a public figure. The bullets WERE fired from overhead. People love a good conspiracy, and JKF was so loved, many people just would not and will not accept that his death could be so mundane and simple as a lone gunman just decided to kill him. But i believe that is what happened and the evidence dictates that.

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.

"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.

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.