Oliver Stone: JFK (1991), JFK Revisited (2021)
JFK is the only Hollywood film to receive a massive media attack before it was released in theaters. It is also notable for resulting in significant political change: public outrage got Congress to enact a law to require disclosure of hidden documents about the assassination.
on this page:
JFK (1991)
Assassination Review Board
JFK Revisited documentary (2021)
Oliver Stone, Putin and Ukraine on Fire
Stone's next film will promote nuclear power
(the most dangerous way to boil water)
Stone supports RFK Jr's attack on public health (despite being at high risk from a bad case of Covid-19 due to age)
Some of Stone's films are excellent, but Stone's first screenplay, Midnight Express, promoted racism and homophobia
JFK compresses an enormous amount of material into a three hour film. A few minor characters are composites but a full telling of the story would be far too long for a movie. The conclusion of the film -- the military industrial complex removed Kennedy from office because he wanted to end permanent war -- is correct and the reason the media from The Washington Post to the television networks to The Nation and Noam Chomsky united to defend the official lie of the Warren Commission.
JFK is best seen in combination with Thirteen Days, Kevin Costner's "pre-quel" to JFK (he plays the lead role in both films although neither film explicitly mentions the other). Thirteen Days is a reenactment of the Cuban Missile Crisis that shows some of the motivation for the removal of President Kennedy -- he refused to attack Cuba and worked out a back channel deal with the Soviet Union to defuse the crisis. His behavior was partly reckless but he refused to let the generals wage full scale war, and they got their revenge in Dallas.
Some claim that talking about cutting Social Security benefits is the "third rail of politics" -- touch the electrified third rail and you are (politically) dead. Discussing covert operations of government is the real "third rail."
oliver stone
- JFK - only film attacked in advance - success - pressured congress AARB followup documentary
democracy now 2013 - start with oswald, ballistics, lone gun vs autopsy then move to the why
very effective
- salvador (didn't bother with world trade center)
- not a fan of violent films, especially after learning too much about actual violence, wars, fascism, torture, coups, death squads, the Holocaust, nuclear war plans. Dramatization of actual violence can have its place in telling important stories, but even that is traumatic to an extent.
JFK - pivotal
attacked by the entire media
left gatekeepers - Chomsky and Alexander Cockburn
best scene - donald sutherland - reprised in revisted
disinfo - Charles Spiesel - omission in "revisited"
"my myth" - not really, but it got the crazy making to subside a bit - dramatization and condensing - but the core messages were correct. Stone was sent to Vietnam and this was part of his catharsis, understanding that the war would not have escalated if Kennedy had not been extrajudicially removed from office.
pressured Congress - AARB
Stone on Democracy Now for the 50th
excellent
followed up with Thom Hartmann, "Mafia did it" (kennedyandking links)
JFK Revisited (2021)
best documentary to date
almost perfect
great summary of Oswald the patsy
three shots - magic bullet - magic bullshit theory
tampered autopsy (but how to get the medical community to take that seriously while also pushing pandemic disinformation, fringe and wrong doctors misrepresenting the efficacy of masks and other precautions, plus vaccine denial?)
transition in film - beautifully done
I would have reversed ratios.
Most people interested in the assassination already have heard some of these stories. Three shots? Not even the official story any more - HSCA is now, although rarely mentioned by media defense of the Warren Commission. Nice to have it encapsulated.
Whoopi Goldberg
seemingly odd choice
I don't follow celebrities but did hear, years ago, her questioning that the Moon landings ever happened. Meanwhile, JFK Revisited and JFK (1991) are the only films I have been able to find that mention that President Kennedy offered to make the Moon race a cooperative effort with the Soviet Union.
A small redemption for Whoopi Goldberg. On January 19, 2022 the Bill Maher show denounced pandemic precautions, featuring a right wing media personality previously unknown to me.
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1485678047282008064?s=21
The View’s Whoopi Goldberg goes off on Bill Maher for mocking COVID mitigation measures:
"That’s not really funny to people who’ve lost … family members or dear friends ... This is not something we’re doing because it’s sexually gratifying."
Four hour version
"nuclear"
disarmament
Cuban Missile Crisis
American University
Test Ban
United Nations
Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia
Stone still the only one to mention cooperative Moon mission offer, ironic to have Whoopi Goldberg in the film as a narrator (ouch). Reflects the weirdness of our society.
foreign policy more than detail of ballistics
microanalysis
steve g - jfkmoon / oliver stone
jim dieugenio
oliver stone interview - film
Dulles
dulles on warren commission - lobbied to be on it
Wall Street background, power brokers
Allen Dulles - World War II
Allen and John Foster - Eisenhower - Shah of Iran - fascist coup in Guatemala
airport photo
David Talbot's book
"conspiracy"
the rest of his family is just as entitled to their family's tragic legacy even if Jr is - now - the most outspoken
jackie
bobby
kerry
cousin
they're afraid, justifiably
and there's not much social support network if they spoke out
majority disblieve the official story but unsure what to think instead
with ratio
favorite part of JFK and JFK Revisited
Mr. X - based on Col. Fletcher Prouty
didn't meet Garrison at the time of the investigation, fictionalized version of their correspondance
Pentagon liaison to CIA, sent on trip out of the country just before, saw biography of Oswald in local NZ paper on the way back and realized it was a cover story, no media could possibly have had the narrative neatly packaged that quickly. "Secret Team" - classic read. Sequel. prouty.org (Len Osanic) ratical.org (Dave Ratcliffe). Unfortunately both of them got sucked into covid disinfo, promoting ultra right wing "sources" that are medically incorrect, but on JFK they are excellent. Differentiation is important - just because someone is right on one topic does not guarantee they are also correct on something else.
Garrison (played by Costner): I never realized Kennedy was so dangerous to the establishment. Was that why?
Mr. X (played by Sutherland): That's the real question, isn't it, why? The how and the who is just scenery for the public. Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, the Mafia, keeps them guessing like some sort of parlor game, prevents them from asking the most important question. Why? Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefitted? Who has the power to cover it up?
Salandria, False Mystery
not in this film
"The Assassination and Mrs. Paine" - http://jfkpaine.com 2022
DS: Many people at home felt that after Kennedy's death a period of depression and cynicism overtook the country and that America was somehow changed forever. Our overwhelming disbelief in the Warren Commission's findings contributed to increased skepticism of all our foundational beliefs about government.
DT: "Allen Dulles's appointment to the Warren Commission was one of the great frauds of US history"
David Talbot: What really happened with Allen Dulles is the CIA lobbied to have him put on the Commission because they needed to have one of their own on the Commission -- they needed to make sure certain doors remained closed.
DT: "I think there's a direct thread between the events of 1963 and the kind of horror show that America is having to endure right now. Once you kill a President in broad daylight on the streets of an American city, and everyone knows that powerful forces did it, that sends a signal - not only to the American people, but to the American media, to America's future leaders.
"If America really wants a democratic society we should get to the bottom of this traumatic crime that continues to reverberate."
"Conspiracy theory is now conspiracy fact"
qanon
conspiracy land - maze of mirrors
250 parts of a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle
gaeton fonzi we know what happened
fonzi - disinfo
JFK film - surprise witness
extreme skepticism is not always justified
healthy to know the unpleasant history, but not everyone is part of it consciously
most are complict by avoidance, distraction, doing good deeds and ignoring the bad
some of Stone's other films
Salvador
Nixon
ultraviolent films I did not bother to watch - Platoon, Natural Born Killers
World Trade Center - not interested
W - did anyone want to see a dramatization of George W. Bush on his way out of office - those of us who were not supporters just wanted him gone, just like seeing a film dramatizing Trump's life would not be popular today
2018 - Community Forklift - book section of titles why Bush was a bad President - in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in the country, just gathering dust
Oliver Stone's history of America - good, pulled punches about Kennedy, though
better film - 2021
Oliver Stone, Putin and Ukraine on Fire
I watched this film along with the Netflix "Midnight on Fire". They were like parallel universes. Stone's documentary started with a short history of Ukraine that "forgot" to mention the Holodomor, but I doubt any Ukrainian grade schooler is unaware of that. I don't object to interviewing Putin but to ONLY interview Putin and his lackeys was one sided.
Timothy Snyder's book "Bloodlands" points out that the Holodomor and the Holocaust could be seen as a continuous atrocity, one from Stalin, the other from Hitler, but both shattered societies with consequences we still see today. I also recommend "Babi Yar" by Anatoli Kuznetzov, who was a kid in Kyiv during the Nazi occupation. His book mentioned the Holodomor although he wasn't old enough to have experienced it himself. It has some humor in the story telling to offset the horror.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6MwWr2w1P4
Oliver Stone and a former member of the Bundestag are now mouthpieces for Russian propaganda 3,760 views
Apr 29, 2022
UATV English
[Ukrainian government channel]
Unfortunately, people once great like the film director Oliver Stone are now working for excusing the Russian war against Ukraine. Serhii Leshchenko also claims that his film 'Ukraine on Fire' (2016) is a repeater for the Russian propaganda narratives, claiming the Euroatlantic course of Ukraine is 'the American game'. Learn about the other up-to-date fakes and Kremlin narratives in the briefing.
Stone's next film will promote nuclear power
(the most dangerous way to boil water)
https://blackopradio.com/archives2021.html
Show #1072 Original airdate: Dec 09, 2021 Guests: Oliver Stone Topics: JFK Revisited Play Show 1072 (30:02) Youtube Video
next film - nuclear power - not clean energy
black op radio interview - mini nukes in antarctica - easy to dump the waste where it won't be in anyone's backyard, but some of this stuff is so long lasting that ice ages and global warming episodes will come and go before this stuff won't damage life - plutonium 24000 years - half a million years to drop a million times
BOR host - Len Osanic
not interested in ecology and energy
upset with me for talking about energy limits
Prouty - like 99% of his work
Donald Sutherland, "X"
Secret Team, JFK, Understanding Special Operations
a shame he died a few months before 9/11 -
"stand down" comment - would have been interesting to hear his view of 9/11
but supported "abiotic" oil claim - before understanding of plate tectonics - and not his field of primary expertise, no one is right about everything
the conspiracy claim about abiotic - oil is more plentiful than assumed, therefore restricting production boosts the price and therefore controlling power of the oil companies
plate tectonics became understood after Prouty "learned" about abiotic oil theory, better explains how oil and gas are created
actually, overstated - especially with coal - Richard Heinberg
unconventional oil has masked peak -
conventional oil
fracking
tarsands
offshore
Arctic
all peaked, perhaps
conventional gas
fracking
LNG
Russian exports - wild card of war and economic distruptions
motive for grabbing Iraq (and pipelinestan)
renewables - pushed by governments as distraction from depletion
yes, pollution is real, yes burning fossil fuels is wrecking the climate, but we're also running into limits
limits to growth
prouty - round earth (known before Columbus, but trade routes to "new world" opened up rush by European monarchs to dominate the world, technology to sail across the ocean)
limits to growth - 1972
predicted permanent resource crisis around the turn of the century
wasn't focused on exact year, even doubling the amount of resources didn't change the outcome significantly, whether 2000 or 2010 or 2030 doesn't matter much, it's the trend
peak resource preceed peak pollution - fracking and tar sands confirm this
explains the permanent crises we are entering much better than political explanations, although politics and greed are factors
the smarter industrialists understand this and this is their "transition" plan - to manipulate the downslope for their benefit, as much as possible. Unlikely to be successful in the long run, even for them - no wealth on a dead planet, and being dead to the suffering of others means their wealth is meaningless. The resources for battles to control what's left are the resources we would need to pull back from the cliff edge as a global civilization, as a species. Covid was a test of this, a real time planetary exercise - the scientists cooperated to develop vaccines and treatments in record time, but fear and nationalism and covering up the full scale of the tragedy got in the way
nothing clean about nukes
tryign to sustain the unsustainable
correct that solar and wind aren't enough for exponential growth
but nothing is - m king hubbert
ratical.org - nuclear power section
hopefully this project will not be completed
probably best for "JFK Revisited" to be the culmination of his career
permaculture, relocalization, cooperation, curb greed, compassion, might keep civilization
militarism is the core - capitalism's invisible army - a brief pulse in history
how to prepare for its end in physically realistic ways?
Stone supports RFK Jr's attack on public health (despite being old enough to be at high risk from a bad case of Covid-19)
"RFK Jr.'s story of Fauci's failure as the government's AIDS coordinator is a highly disturbing prologue to his COVID mandate as head of NIAID. So, who is Dr. Fauci in the end? Has American medicine truly become a 'racket,' as corrupt as a mafia organization? Does everything in our country turn on the size of the money involved? How can we begin to solve this? The Real Anthony Fauci is a fascinating starting point. RFK Jr. has written a strong, strong book." —Oliver Stone, award-winning director, producer, and screenwriter
Stone's first screenplay: Midnight Express promoted racism and homophobia
A side note about the first movie I saw that Stone was involved with. He was screenplay writer for Midnight Express, a 1978 drama based on Billy Hayes, an American who spent years in a Turkish prison for drug smuggling. I saw this when it was released. The film is shocking, definitely a different life experience than living in boring suburbia. I later read the book by the protaganist and was shocked by the contrast between the end of the film and how his story really ended. In the movie version, our hero escaped from jail after killing a guard who was about to rape him. In reality, he escaped when he was transfered to an island prison where he stole a rowboat, rowed many miles to shore, and walked undetected to the Greek border. He also had a fellow (male) prisoner as a lover in prison for part of his sentence, while the film suggested he rejected those advances. It was a dramatic expression of Hollywood homophobia.
In 2004, during a visit to Turkey, Stone publicly apologized for the film's cartoonish depiction of Turks. I don't know if he apologized for the film's homophobia. In 2007, Hayes was allowed to visit Turkey and he also apologized for the film, saying he hadn't written it.
Things are bad enough there's no need to make stuff up.
reviews of JFK Revisited
www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/31/jfk-revisited-oliver-stone-and-the-new-jfk-fact-pattern/
DECEMBER 31, 2021
JFK Revisited: Oliver Stone and the New JFK Fact Pattern
BY JEFFERSON MORLEY
in the film, former Washington Post reporter
has contributed to our understanding of the cover up - George Joannides mentioned in the movie
www.jfkfacts.com
related websites:
JFKMLKRFK.com - by Mark Robinowitz - updated
April 30, 2024