JFK (1991)

Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991) remains one of the most potent political thrillers ever made. It pursues the assassination of President John F. Kennedy through the eyes of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner), forcing us to confront uncomfortable questions about government, truth, and power. The film is grand in scope, emotionally raw, and technically audacious, a rare historical drama that never feels distant despite its nearly three-hour runtime.

The story begins with Garrison’s growing doubts about the Warren Commission’s findings that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Spurred by inconsistencies, he launches a full‐scale investigation into the Kennedy assassination, navigating through conspiracies, missing evidence, questionable testimonies, and government resistance. Stone weaves fact and dramatized speculation expertly: archival footage, flashbacks, courtroom scenes, and fictionalized encounters all combine to keep the narrative both dense and urgent. 

 Kevin Costner carries the film with a motivated, obsessive portrayal of Jim Garrison, a man driven more by moral conviction than by any certainty of outcome. Sissy Spacek (Liz Garrison) gives emotional grounding as his wife, torn between domestic worries and public chaos. Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald, Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw, Joe Pesci, Donald Sutherland, and others deliver vivid and often chilling glimpses of real and speculative figures. The supporting cast adds depth to a sprawling narrative.

 Stone’s direction is bold: fast-paced editing, overlapping timelines, shifts in tone, and mixing documentary material with dramatized scenes all underscore the complexity of truth and memory. The editing by Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia is frequently praised for keeping control over a wildly ambitious narrative. The cinematography and production design recreate 1960s America convincingly: both glamorous and fractured. 

 One of the film’s constant companion pieces is its controversy: Stone takes liberties, fills gaps with speculation, and elevates Jim Garrison’s view of a conspiracy. Critics point out that some evidence has since been disputed; others argue that Stone’s purpose is less about providing definitive answers than provoking questions. JFK is “dubious as history, electric as filmmaking.” 

 On Rotten Tomatoes, JFK holds an approval rating around 85%, with many critics lauding its ambition and cinematic power. Metacritic gives it a favorable score, reflecting overwhelmingly strong user reactions and generally favorable reviews. It has won awards for cinematography and editing and remains influential as a political film that brought conspiracy theories of the Kennedy assassination into mainstream cinema. 

A Solid 4.5 out of 5
JFK (1991) is not a perfect film, its length, its controversial claims, and its mix of fact and hypothesis may frustrate factual purists. However, it succeeds as a cinematic experience that challenges the viewer: emotionally, intellectually, morally. For anyone interested in historical drama, political thrillers, or films that ask more questions than they answer, JFK remains essential.

I was largely apathetic and carefree in grade school about the world's happenings, American politics, and US history until I took my education more seriously, starting in the seventh grade. While I got the general gist of American history during eighth and ninth grades, I discovered well after graduating college that many inconvenient details were absent from mainstream textbooks. I long knew about the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, with conspiracy theories abounding about his murder, expanded upon through director Oliver Stone's "controversial" Academy Award-winning JFK, which many film critics consider his magnum opus.

The movie heavily utilizes footage from the 1960s, opening with President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell speech regarding the military-industrial complex. Then it proceeds to JFK's assassination proper in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald (who would himself be killed the same day by nightclub owner Jack Ruby), portrayed by Gary Oldman in Stone's film during his original material. The music is decent, but the irritating overuse of snare drums, chiefly during the president's murder, can be pretty annoying. After the first ten minutes, my initial impression of the film was also negative, given lines like, "Goodbye, you sorry bastard! Die!" and conversations like this:

Luckily, this doesn't indicate the movie's overall quality, as the second act is better, concluding with Jim Garrison's (played by Kevin Costner) trial against Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones), where excellent points and observations are made about the iffiness of the Kennedy assassination, only for Shaw to win. I can relate to many of the themes, like Garrison being a bad husband and father and that "official" government reports shouldn't be blindly trusted. One thing that irked me about the movie's reception from non-movie critics was that questioning the government was more "controversial" than the film's racist and homophobic slurs (and sadly, the MPAA thinks saying the F-word is worse than those, for some illogical reason).

The acting is okay, aside from lines like those above and the overabundance of allegedly "intelligent" characters, mainly the Southern historical figures and politicians, sounding like dumb hillbillies. Aside from the irritating snare drums, the music was mostly good, with the violin pieces being the strongest, particularly during the ending credits (before which comes an epilogue showing the fates of the various luminaries featured in the film). Many great quotes also abound, like "The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it."

Overall, despite a lousy beginning, some bad writing (including unnecessary gratuitous swearing), and occasional veering off-topic (like Mardi Gras and gay parties), JFK has something for everyone regardless of how they feel about the Kennedy assassination and conspiracy theories, mostly deserving the Academy Awards it received. It's easily a bucket-list film (but that is far from synonymous with "masterpiece") and makes excellent sociopolitical commentary about questioning one's government, even in the face of "official" facts--which often come from people with political agendas. While President Trump did release the JFK files, and they did reveal maybe a little new information, odds are there were many among them destroyed before then, so who knows if we'll discover the complete truth of the Kennedy assassination?

The Good

-Some of the performances are good.

-Ditto the music.

-Trial at the end is the film's high point.

-Great sociopolitical commentary.

The Bad

-Lackluster first act.

-Snare drums in music are irritating.

-Inconsistent quality of acting.

-Sometimes veers off-topic.