JFK: Un destin trahi

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.

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.

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.

I was optimistic about this miniseries but unfortunately its mostly a let down. Episode one starts out interestingly enough with the untold story of Dag Hammerskold's plane crash and various other nefarious activities of the CIA. It then goes into minutiae of released documents that for the most part don't go anywhere. The dots aren't connected. Too much time is spent on Kennedy's foreign policy by Hollywood lefties. I wanted focus on the Deep State and how a president isn't really in charge of the executive branch to this day. The Assassination and Mrs Paine is much better option on the subject, also available on Amazon.