‘JFK’ Was Wildly Inaccurate, But Kevin Costner’s Performance Was Right on the Mark

The big picture

• Costner's conventional lead character is challenged as he tackles political controversy
  JFK
  .
• by Oliver Stone
  JFK
  is a controversial and inaccurate portrayal of the Kennedy assassination.
• Costner's earnest portrayal of Jim Garrison is the anchor of Stone's conspiracy-laden film.

Thanks to a filmography made up of several baseball movies and westerns, Kevin Costner embodies an idyllic Americana. Just because of his appearance as a conventional protagonist, Costner possesses a specific combination of elegance and integrity. Her radiant sincerity on screen, which continued on television with her hit series, Yellowstone, admittedly not “cool,” from a postmodern lens. It rarely appeals to new wave or rebellious sensibilities.

Costner's return to the director's chair, Horizon: An American Saga, a four-part western epic, is a throwback to a bygone era of westerns as the pinnacle of American storytelling. Costner's healthy conviction may become obsolete for some viewers, but in the controversy Oliver Stone paranoid thriller, JFKthe The seriousness of the actor was tested in the midst of a hostile political upheavall, even if the historical accuracy of the film was full.

Kevin Costner takes on the weight of a gut-wrenching political thriller in 'JFK'

When Kevin Costner played the New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison in JFK, was a household name with popular success and prestigious acclaim. As an honest FBI agent The Untouchables and the brooding Iowa farmer Field of Dreams, had matinee idol appeal and compelling dramatic chops. In 1990, Costner did the unthinkable: reviving the Western genre with his directorial debut, Dances with Wolves, which dominated the Academy Awards. As an artist, Costner proved his doubters wrong. I didn't need a provocative topic like that John F. Kennedy the murder and the murky details behind it to validate his stardom. Luckily, Oliver Stone found one a match made in heaven for its serious protagonist who becomes disillusioned with American politics.

JFK is an account of the frantic and paranoia-filled investigation into the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963. Told from the perspective of Garrison, the film is an information overload, with new details and conspiracies around every corner. The maximalist approach is complemented by a mammoth cast of the best character actors, incl Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Laurie Metcalf, Michael Rookeri Joe Pesci. At the center, anchoring this frantic maelstrom of political conjecture is Costner as Garrison, determined to uncover the truth, not just who pulled the trigger, but the motivation behind the murder. “Why was Kennedy assassinated? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up?” asks Sutherland's mysterious ex-CIA operative “X” in a show-stopping monologue. Stone never explicitly claims to report the truth, but he does the theories proposed in his film were nothing less than troubling to history experts.

Oliver Stone Makes Mass Paranoia Possible in 'JFK'

An article for The Telegraph exposes the large number of controversial historical inaccuracies a JFK. Stone's film, while highly regarded artistically, is stuck with the legacy of taking creative liberties to the point of fictionalizing the Kennedy assassination. It is in the nature of Hollywood to glamorize events and people, but with the casting of Kevin Costner, a brilliant movie star, as Jim Garrison, historians were probably incredulous. Although he brought a case involving the Kennedy assassination to trial, he was largely dismissed as disreputable when Stone began adapting Garrison's book, On the trail of the killers. In fact, the conspiracy community saw his prosecution against him Clay Shaw (Jones) as farce. Any story told from Garrison's perspective it is inherently biased towards sensationalism. “I think the real Garrison was kind of a charlatan who would do anything to win and didn't mind a bit of publicity,” he says. Tom Stone, a Dallas professor of Kennedy-related courses. It was based on a pivotal figure driving Garrison's paranoia in the film, X L. Fletcher Prouty, a CIA agent turned anti-CIA conspirator. Because of his rampant paranoid streak, his his colleagues rejected his credibility for commenting on CIA involvement in the assassination.

Considering Stone's background and previous filmography, it seems clear that he identifies with Jim Garrison. Stone was an ideal young American who felt betrayed by his country by enlisting in the Vietnam War and learning about the dark underbelly of patriotism, depicted with an autobiographical touch in section i Born on the 4th of July. When he writes and directs JFKStone was convinced that the CIA was trying to sabotage the release of his film in 1991. Not only did cast and crew members sign non-disclosure agreements, but the tight-lipped production was dubbed “Project X “, with script details saved. at least from the outside. Stone went so far as to look for wiretapping bugs in the Dallas and Los Angeles production offices, and he never consulted mainstream, respected historians, only fringe people. “They don't kill you anymore,” Stone said of the CIA. “They poison your food. You get sick. You don't die. You get sick and incapacitated for a year or two,” he continued. Regardless of his panicked space, he believed it JFK it was a true portrayal of history.

Oliver Stone paints an inaccurate portrait of John. The assassination of F Kennedy in 'JFK'

Squeezed into the dense text of JFK it is a striking representation of homosexuality. In the film, Shaw, David Ferrie (Pesci) and Willie O'Keefe (Bacon), three suspects/witnesses in the investigation, are shown in flashbacks organizing a sex party. More than any of the rash accusations, the stereotypical portrayal of homosexuality has aged pretty badly. Besides, Garrison once claimed that the three conspired to kill Kennedy to satisfy a “homosexual thrill ride.” In JFK, Ferrie's death is presumed to be a murder at the hands of people involved in the murder and cover-up. His private testimony to Garrison about the details of the conspiracy and his eventual disappearance leads to Shaw's arrest. He actually died of a brain aneurysm. Stone's penchant for bombastic provocation makes it a masterpiece of vulgar auteurism, but it has no respect for historical accuracy. Using a career demagogue like Garrison as a defender of justice, it only mitigates the dignity of the story.

Vincent Bugliosi, author of a 1,500-page treatise debunking theories of the Kennedy assassination, stated, “The problem with Stone is not, really, that he blatantly fabricated the Kennedy assassination, it's that he tried to convince to everyone who was telling the truth.” Bugliosi presents several factual inaccuracies throughout the film. Points like now Lee Harvey Oswald (Oldman) being a poor shooter, witnesses who heard six shots instead of three in Dallas during the assassination, and expert shooters who cannot replicate Oswald's quick trigger and accuracy are bogus. The Vietnam War lingers throughout the film, as Stone speculates that Kennedy's interest in getting out of Vietnam was the reason he was assassinated. The film shows that after the assassination, his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, signed NSAM Memo 273, which gave the military carte blanche in the war, reversing Kennedy's order. However, this memo was drafted by Kennedy. Stone's film popularized the magic bullet theory, a Warren Commission concept that a single bullet inflicted Kennedy despite causing multiple wounds to his body. Actually, the Warren Commission never claimed there was any zig-zag bullet.

If there was a film that crystallized the great disparity between cinema and historical documentation, this would be it JFK. Oliver Stone's film is both a poignant depiction of the loss of American idealism and a stinging provocation against the sanctity of American history. It should not be seen as a documentary, or even as a truthful statement about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but rather, a transparent demonstration of information overload and the need to discover the truth. Kevin Costner was subjected to political conspiracy and paranoid obsession. He excelled at leading the audience through the hysteria of Stone's wild theories and provocation, forcing the audience to look at the bigger picture: the status of liberty and justice in America. Along the way, viewers watch Costner's Boy Scout character deteriorate as the investigation becomes more disturbing. Costner's turn as Jim Garrison, capped by a stirring final courtroom speech, is one monumental display of optimistic conviction transforming into pessimistic defeatism. His work should forever dispense with any notion that he is an uninspiring dramatic presence.

JFK is available to rent on Prime Video in the US

Rent on Prime Video