Oliver Stone's political film "Kennedy" is a powerful work. It reopened the biggest unsuccessful case in American history, the assassination of President Kennedy, and pointed the finger at the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, the FBI, and the military, unequivocally claiming that they had conspired to assassinate the President. The film caused great shock in American society. People from the left, middle and right have expressed their views on this, and for a while everyone seems to have become a film critic. Some people accuse Stone of being deliberately sensational and making it out of nothing; some people support his view and ask the government to publish the materials of the Kennedy case. According to a public opinion survey jointly conducted by Time magazine and CNN Broadcasting Corporation, 73% of people believed that the assassination was a planned conspiracy, and 72% believed that the government had concealed the truth from the people. In a word, most people do not believe the official conclusion that "the assassination is just a personal action", and believe that there is a black hand behind it. The social debate on "Kennedy" only extends beyond the scope of the film, and involves this period of American history. Because those audiences who were only going to watch a feature film when they entered the venue, they had forgotten that it was just a movie when they entered the venue, believing that everything was true and seriously joined the dispute. Moreover, the Kennedy incident occurred in 1963, and the vast majority of young people who constitute the current movie audience have not personally experienced that period of history, and they are more likely to accept the film's point of view.
The three-hour screening of "Kennedy" must prove: 1. Oswald, Foley, Brighton and others knew each other, and the assassination was a collective action, not Oswald’s personal action; 2. Bullets from three Shooting from different sides, a total of seven shots, indicating that the murderer was not alone; 3. The purpose of the assassination was for the United States to continue the Vietnam War. In a word, the assassination of Kennedy was an organized conspiracy. Stone himself also said: "I want people to get rid of the conclusions of the Warren Committee and think about another possibility: a court coup to eradicate Kennedy." In order to make his argument more convincing, Stone shot "Kennedy". Beyond the general reasoning film, historical film, documentary film, thriller film mode. There has never been a Hollywood movie with so much information and so many dialogues. From the beginning to the end, the film resembles a press conference with a clear purpose. At the same time, it has a high visibility, a great fascination, and a strong propaganda effect. As a political film, it is very successful-it has become a political event in itself. After more than half a year of controversy across the country, the U.S. Congress finally opened a case to re-investigate the Kennedy incident and decided to make all the findings of the investigation public except for those related to national security. This is undoubtedly a great achievement for Stone.
However, "Kennedy" is still a feature film after all. Although it uses a lot of historical data, and some are even irrefutable facts, the film’s argument is based on reasoning: if Kennedy is re-elected as president, he will let the U.S. military withdraw from Vietnam (Order 263 only ordered the withdrawal of 16,000 U.S. military advisers) 1000 people), there will be no Vietnam War, and this violates the interests of the hawks, and thus leads to killing. This assumption has not been proved by facts. The Kennedy in the film is a beautified and fictional Kennedy. Garrison in the film is just a person in the play. Therefore, Stone used X to let the audience "don't believe me, think for yourself".
In fact, the Kennedy incident has always been controversial in the United States. If there is a view that Kennedy's death is related to the Mafia. Those who hold this view say that Kennedy has a deep relationship with the Mafia, and he has a close relationship with Sam Giancana, the godfather of the Chicago Mafia. He was able to become president, Giancana contributed a lot, and Ken also paid off afterwards. However, the two fell out shortly before Kennedy's assassination, so Giancana planned the conspiracy. Those who hold this view point out that Jack Ruby himself is a mafia member. There are also some other opinions. Stone's view is not new. The reason why "Kennedy" was able to provoke decades of controversy again has to be admitted to Stone's skill. He used complex film techniques to interlace facts and reasoning, allowing the audience to unknowingly accept reasoning as fact. Due to different views on the Kennedy incident, "Kennedy" uses the "Rashomon" approach to express the views of both parties. But "Rashomon" is purely objective. The three people speak their own truths, and the truth is sumo confusing, while "Kennedy" is extremely oriented. Although it also takes opposite views, it instills established views into the audience through clever techniques. For example, Clay Schal said that he did not know the male prostitute O'Keeffe when asked, but the picture shows the memory of him and O'Keeffe dining at the same table; the lawyer said that he had not seen Clay Brighton, and Clay was sitting on him in the picture. At the desk. In this way, the audience immediately received a message: they were lying.
Flashback occupies a large proportion in "Kennedy". In the flashback, colors are used for facts and black and white for reasoners. The reasoning part is not necessarily not a fact, but a lack of physical evidence. For example, a railway worker who witnessed the abnormal situation in the vicinity before the incident was filmed in black and white. Because the worker was later killed, his narrative will never be confirmed. However, some key scenes, such as the narratives of witnesses (proving that the bullet was shot from three directions, although they were also witnesses) were shot in color. In this way, the audience will naturally include it in the category of facts according to the above-mentioned rules. The scene of the assassination was deliberately blurred, creating the impression of a reporter rushing to shoot. Similar to many methods, the purpose is to make the audience unknowingly accept Garrison's point of view. It should be said that the photography and editing of "Kennedy" has played a great role in assisting the director to complete the highest task, and it is also very distinctive. No wonder that among the eight Oscar nominations for "Kennedy", the final winners were the Best Photography and Best Editing Awards. In addition, the soundtrack of "Kennedy" is also very distinctive. For all key scenes, the soundtrack is unique and eye-catching, as if it were some important words and sentences in an article with key symbols.
Oliver Stone has always been known for his passion for anti-Vietnam War themes. He directed "El Salvador-Add a Vietnam", "Field Platoon", "Born on July 4th" and other films with intense views. This is because he was conscripted into the army and fought in Vietnam, so he has a keen experience of this unjust war. In "Field Platoon" and "Born on July 4th", Stone portrays ordinary people injured by this war. In "Kennedy", he wrote about the entire country that was hurt by this war-the "democratic tradition" that the Americans have always been proud of has been ruthlessly trampled on.
Stone intends to make Garrison meet with X in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. 128 years ago, Lincoln proposed to make the US government a government that "owns, governs, and enjoys the people," but the president who advocated the liberation of slaves was assassinated by his political opponents. In the end, Garrison said sadly in court: "When I was a child, I thought democracy was a matter of course, but now I know otherwise... What is the use of the constitution? What is democracy? How many insiders died of so-called'heart attacks'. Even the head of state Anyone can be killed at will. What has become of this?!——Fascism!...What we have lost is not only Kennedy’s head, but justice!" He became more and more excited, and finally said to the jury with tears in his eyes: "Recovery The United States' "people, rule by the people, and people enjoy" depends on you!" When Garrison said this, his eyes were looking directly at the camera-the audience. This unusual treatment shows that Stone is an appeal to the public, calling on everyone to stand up for democracy and restore the spirit of the United States.
Stone put a lot of effort into making "Kennedy". He interviewed more than 200 people, went to the sixth floor of the building on Elm Street to do a field test, rebuilt a car at the time, let it really slow through Elm Street, and calculated the exact shooting time... what he did The experiment is said to be more than the official experiment on this case. He rented that precious piece of historical information from the family of the witness Zaprud at the time. He studied the Warren report carefully and meticulously, and raised his own doubts. All this has made "Kennedy" extremely convincing, and also guaranteed the success of film art. At the same time, Stone also received strong support from peers. Today's Hollywood's most popular actor Kevin Costner plays Garrison. His superb acting skills make the otherwise boring long speech also lively and moving. In addition, some well-known celebrities, such as Sisi Spasek, Jack Lemmon, and Donald Sutherland, also volunteered to play few supporting roles in the film.
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