wondercritic

The best thing about this film is that, in some scenes showing close-ups of Jackie, a strange and disturbing note of music comes into the soundtrack. It grounds us and reminds us what a total nightmare it must have been for this ever-presentable public figure, always concerned about public appearance, to witness her husband's murder close up. Not long into the film, we already know she is going to be reliving the moment of his fatal wound over and over in her head for the rest of her life.

What is disappointing is the anodyne treatment of how she and Robert Kennedy viewed the assassination. It is a matter of records that neither of them accepted the "lone gunman" theory of the Warren Commission, and yet in all the scenes showing just the two of them, not once does either broach the subject. There is a scene where RFK is watching news footage of Oswald under arrest in Dallas on TV, speaking at the famous late-night news conference. Jackie walks in, and they both are looking at the screen as Oswald denies having shot the president. But what are we supposed to get out of this scene? It feels vaguely as if Bobby has his doubts about Oswald, but not her.

This narrative is typical of all Hollywood productions touching on the JFK assassination. They are all lavish and dramatic with good direction and acting, but they lack dimension and authenticity. In reality, there was a ton of suspicion and mistrust swirling around at the time the events in this film take place, and before the end of the month, both Jackie and RFK were conveying that they didn't believe the FBI's "lone gunman" verdict on the killing. It would have added to the drama of Jackie's grief if that element of the assassination had been included in the script somewhere.

This movie is proof that certain directors can get the most out of their actors; others can't. Al Pacino can carry entire movies on his shoulders. He couldn't do that with this one, but "The Irishman," made only 2 years earlier, shows how at the hands of a master (Martin Scorsese), Pacino is utterly captivating.

In this one, Pacino's just good. His closing statement at the trial is the centerpiece of his performance, and it's fine. You can even forget that he's an octogenarian in real life. But the film ultimately feels strangely TV-movie-ish. The director might eventually develop beyond that, but for now it's Hallmark for him.

One day the REAL biopic of LBJ will be made. It would be comic if it weren't so sinister that Woody Harrelson's father, Charles, was a real-life hit man who was imprisoned for murder and told the world from his jail cell that he had fired the fatal shot that killed JFK. As it is, Woody plays one of his father's supposed accomplices. Who seriously doubts that Lyndon Johnson at least facilitated the assassination (if he didn't actually conceive of it) and was the prime mover in covering it up?

Details surrounding the Kennedy autopsy have come to light over the decades, and Johnson's actions in the immediate aftermath of the killing leave no doubt: LBJ executed a massive cover-up to prevent a proper autopsy. He used his authority as President over the military, Secret Service, FBI and any other institution of state he could get his hands around to crush any proper investigation, and he made sure the Warren Commission rubber-stamped s bogus report in time for the 1964 election.

All this hoopla about Johnson's amazing "civil rights" record is just hype. It was Kennedy's agenda. Johnson pushed it through as President because he knew it was both popular nationwide and also inevitable (the US lagged behind the rest of the developed world in voting rights). Johnson was a deeply evil person and a murderer. For Rob Reiner to make a paean to this evil man just shows how clueless he is. Waste of time.