JFK is a film, first released in Canada and the United States on December 20, 1991, which purports to tell the history of the President of the United States John F. Kennedy's assassination. December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Seal of the President of the United States The President of the United States is the head of state of the United States. ... John F. Kennedy The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 PM Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC). ...

The film follows the 1967 to 1969 investigation led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) and interweaves flashbacks of the theories behind the assassination with actual assassination movie films footage, such as the Zapruder film. 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... Jim Garrison (November 20, 1921 - October 21, 1992) was District Attorney of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973; he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. ... Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American film actor and director who has often produced his own films. ... Abraham Zapruder Abraham Zapruder ( May 15, 1905 - August 30, 1970), a manufacturer of womens clothing, filmed US President John F. Kennedys motorcade traveling through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas and unexpectedly recorded the entire John F. Kennedy assassination. ... Frame 150 from the Zapruder Film The Zapruder film is the 8mm home movie footage made by an assassination witness, Abraham Zapruder in Dallas, Texas within Dealey Plaza while standing next to the grassy knoll during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. ...

JFK stars Kevin Costner, Ron Rifkin, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Oldman, Jay O. Sanders, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, John Candy, Brian Doyle-Murray, Gary Grubbs, Wayne Knight, Vincent D'Onofrio, Michael Rooker and Pruitt Taylor Vince. The movie was adapted by Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar from the books On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs. Stone directed it. During the filming Dealey Plaza was completely restored to how it looked on November 22, 1963. Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American film actor and director who has often produced his own films. ... Ron Rifkin (born October 31, 1939) is an American actor born in New York City, New York. ... Donald Sutherland (born July 17, 1935) is a Canadian actor. ... Kevin Bacon Kevin Bacon (born July 8, 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American film actor who has starred in Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among others. ... Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and director from San Saba, Texas. ... Laurie Metcalf (born June 16, 1955, Carbondale, Illinois) is an American actress and comedienne most closely associated with her role in the television show Roseanne. ... Leonard Gary Oldman (born March 21, 1958) is a British actor. ... Mary Elizabeth Sissy Spacek (born December 25, 1949 in Quitman, Texas) is an Academy Award winning American actress and singer. ... Joseph Pesci (born February 9, 1943), better known as Joe Pesci, is an Italian-American actor who often plays the role of a mobster. ... John Candy in the motion picture Brewsters Millions John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994) was a Canadian comedian and actor. ... Brian Doyle-Murray (born October 31, 1945) is an American comedian and actor from Chicago, Illinois. ... Wayne Knight is best known for his role as Newman on Wayne Knight (born 7 August 1955) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Newman in Seinfeld and as police officer Don Orville in 3rd Rock from the Sun. ... Vincent Phillip DOnofrio (born June 30, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American character actor and producer. ... Michael Rooker (born April 6, 1955 in Jasper, Alabama) is an American actor. ... Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946 in New York City) is an Academy Award-winning American film director. ... Jim Garrison (November 20, 1921 - October 21, 1992) was District Attorney of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973; he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. ... Jim Marrs is a news reporter, college teacher, and author of books and articles on conspiracy theories. ... Dealey Plaza (Warren Commission exhibit #876) Dealey Plaza, (pronounced deal-ee) in Dallas, Texas, United States, is famous as the location of the John F. Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963. ... November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

JFK won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tommy Lee Jones), Best Director, Best Music, Original Score, Best Sound, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, and Best Picture. Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is awarded each year to a cinematographer for his work in one particular motion picture. ... The Academy Award for Film Editing was first given for films issued in 1934. ... The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... The Academy Award for Directing is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ... From Rule Sixteen of the Special Rules for The Music Awards Original Score: An original score is a substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. ... This is a list of films that have received an Oscar for best sound. ... The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. ... The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ...

Ironically, the real Jim Garrison, a severe critic of the Warren Commission, plays Supreme Court Chief Justice, Earl Warren in the film. Supposed assassination witness Beverly Oliver, who claimed to be the Babushka lady, also appeared in a cameo, non-speaking role. Warren Commission report cover page Josh brown has no weiner Headline text The Presidents Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as The Warren Commission, was established on November 29, 1963 by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy. ... Seal of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest federal court in the United States. ... In order to become a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, an individual must be nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the U.S. Senate, with at least half of that body approving in the affirmative. ... Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was a California district attorney, the 30th Governor of California, and the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953–1969. ... The Babushka Lady is a nickname for an unknown woman who might have filmed the presidential motorcade during the John F. Kennedy assassination. ... Since its first use in 1851, a cameo role or cameo appearance has been a brief appearance in a play (or later, a movie) that stands out against the general context for its éclat or dramatic punch. ...

Gerald Hemming, a former Marine who has claimed involvement in various CIA activities, photographic expert and longtime JFK assassination researcher and author Robert Groden, and actual assassination witness Jean Hill were some of the many advisors for the film. Jean Lollis Hill (1931 - November 7, 2000) was a witness to the John F. Kennedy assassination. ...

One of the characters in the movie, "General X," (played by Sutherland) was loosely based on L. Fletcher Prouty's theories and actual military experience. (However, at the time of the assassination Prouty had no connection to Presidential security as is implied in the film). Prouty was a former Colonel in the Air Force and military liaison between the CIA and the Pentagon who wrote the 1975, (1992 republished) book The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World, was also used as an advisor for the movie. L. Fletcher Prouty (January 24, 1917 - June 5, 2001) was a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, author, banker, and critic of US foreign policy, especially as regarded the activities of the CIA. His books include The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the... Seal of the Air Force. ... A pre-9/11 view of The Pentagon, looking east with the Potomac River and Washington Monument in the distance. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Upon release, JFK earned mostly favorable reviews and was financially successful, earning over US$205 million during its initial movie run.

In JFK, as in what actually occurred, Garrison indicted for trial a New Orleans international businessman Clay Shaw for being involved in the conspiracy to murder President John F. Kennedy. In March 1969, a jury acquitted Shaw of the charges after less than an hour of deliberation. Although the film portrays members of that jury stating publicly that they believed there was a conspiracy involved behind the assassination, but that there was not enough evidence presented at trial to link Shaw to the conspiracy, this is mostly based on pro-Garrison books. Other sources have the juries giving different views on the idea of a conspiracy. New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... Clay Laverne Shaw (March 17, 1913- August 14, 1974) was a successful businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Order: 35th President Vice President: Lyndon B. Johnson Term of office: January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963 Preceded by: Dwight D. Eisenhower Succeeded by: Lyndon B. Johnson Date of birth: May 29, 1917 Place of birth: Brookline, Massachusetts Date of death: November 22, 1963 Place of death: Dallas, Texas First...

The film suggests that President Kennedy was killed by a group opposed to Kennedy's policies, especially his reluctance to invade Cuba as the CIA had planned to overthrow Communist Fidel Castro since 1959, and Kennedy's plan to withdraw American armed forces from the Vietnam War (the President had preliminarily approved a withdrawal of 1,000 men to be completed by the end of 1963). Members of the CIA, Mafia, the military-industrial complex, Secret Service, FBI, and Kennedy's vice-president Lyndon Baines Johnson are also implicated as co-conspirators with motives responsible for Kennedy's assassination and/or the cover-up afterwards. Stone has stated that the movie JFK was "intended as counter-fiction to the Warren Commission's fiction." The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the American foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Fidel Castro Fidel Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926), has led Cuba since 1959, when, leading the 26th of July Movement, he overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and transformed Cuba into the first Communist-led state in the Western Hemisphere. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Vietnam War was fought from 1957 to 1975 between Soviet and Chinese-supported Vietnamese nationalist and Communist forces and an array of Western and pro-Western forces, most notably the United States. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the American foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... // Mafia The Mafia, also referred to as La Cosa Nostra (Italian, variously translated as This Thing Of Ours or Our Thing), is the collective name of various secret organizations in Italy, Sicily, Corsica and the United States. ... The term military-industrial complex usually refers to the combination of the U.S. armed forces, arms industry and associated political and commercial interests, which grew rapidly in scale and influence in the wake of World War II, although it can also be used to describe any such relationship of... The United States Secret Service is a United States federal government law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security (prior to the founding of that department in 2002, it was under the United States Department of the Treasury). ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Lyndon Baines Johnson ( August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician. ... Warren Commission report cover page Josh brown has no weiner Headline text The Presidents Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as The Warren Commission, was established on November 29, 1963 by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy. ...

Controversy and inaccuracies

Even while JFK was still being filmed, the media generated considerable controversy when it speculated as to the film's accuracy and Stone's motives in making the film; JFK also encouraged general discussion about the Kennedy assassination. Some people accepted Stone's theories, at least in part, while others have argued Stone exceeded the limits of fictional license and was guilty of deliberate distortions, misrepresentations and falsehoods.

The film is also widely regarded as conspiracy theory. Some of Garrison/Costner's allegations are based on circumstantial evidence, such as his immediate conclusion, upon viewing the assassination of Robert Kennedy on TV, that the two assassinations must be linked. This proposed logo for a U.S. government agency was dropped due to fears that its Masonic symbolism would provoke conspiracy theories. ... In law, circumstantial evidence is indirect evidence. ... Robert Kennedy Robert Francis Bobby Kennedy, also called RFK (November 20, 1925–June 6, 1968) was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, and was appointed by his brother as Attorney General for his administration. ...

The film's lengthy narrative and vast plot create some self-contradiction. For instance, at one point in the film Garrison/Costner mentions that Oswald, were he the lone gunman, would have had only 5.6 seconds to fire three rounds from his bolt-action carbine (pausing to reload between each shot) and would have had to hit a small moving target a long distance away, in spite of the unreliability of his weapon, his own reputedly poor marksmanship, and a tree partially obstructing his shot. Garrison/Costner cites a test the FBI conducted, in which one of their sharpshooters was unable to perform this feat, as evidence for the unlikelihood of this scenario. However, near the end of the film, during the courtroom trial of Clay Shaw, Garrison/Costner discusses the so-called "magic bullet" theory--that the third bullet followed a very strange flight path to inflict seven varying wounds on John F. Kennedy and John Connally, who sat in the car's passenger seat, in front of Kennedy. Here he dismisses out-of-hand an FBI ballistics test showing that this scenario might have occurred, simply because the test was conducted by the FBI. A carbine is a firearm similar to, but shorter or weaker than, an ordinary rifle or musket of a given period. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Clay Laverne Shaw (March 17, 1913- August 14, 1974) was a successful businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... The single bullet theory (also known as the magic bullet theory by the majority of critics and conspiracy theorists) is the crucial element of the Warren Commission theory that only one assassin shot during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. ... John Bowden Connally, Jr. ...

The general public's reactions, outcries, and contacting of their Congressional representatives to the film led directly to the formation of the U.S. Assassination Records Review Board in 1992. The bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The ARRB worked until 1998 interviewing witnesses (some of whom had never been interviewed before), the U.S. government purchasing the Zapruder film, and making assassination-related still classified documents that were being withheld from public scrutiny available for the public (though thousands of pages are still being withheld classified as of 2004). By ARRB law, all assassination related documents that have not been destroyed will be made public by 2017. 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Frame 150 from the Zapruder Film The Zapruder film is the 8mm home movie footage made by an assassination witness, Abraham Zapruder in Dallas, Texas within Dealey Plaza while standing next to the grassy knoll during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2017 is a Common year starting on Sunday. ...

In his 1993 miniseries, Wild Palms - set in 2007 - Stone had a small cameo in which he played himself on a television interview program, where he revealed that the documents pertaining to the assassination had been made public and the film was right. 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... A miniseries, in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. ... Wild Palms is a six hour sci-fi drama mini-series about the dangers of brainwashing through technology and drugs. ... 2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 Lincoln cent, Obverse, proof with cameo Cameo is a method of carving; or an item of jewelry made in this manner. ...

Trivia

• This is the only film in which both Walter Matthau (Senator Long) and Jack Lemmon (Jack Martin) appear where they do not share a scene.

Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 - July 1, 2000) Matthau and Sophia Loren in Grumpier Old Men Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American comedy actor possibly best known for his role as the gruff and less tidy member of The Odd Couple. ... Jack Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was a consummate Hollywood actor. ...

External links

• JFK at the Internet Movie Database
• JFK (motion picture): A Selective Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library
• The JFK 100: One Hundred Errors of Fact and Judgment in Oliver Stone's JFK
• Jim Garrison: A Road To The Truth
• "JFK" concise overview