jfk Tagged Articles at Cinematical

...and by SEs I mean big, fat, loaded mega-special editions of the studio's most popular stuff. And when WB delivers a Special Edition, they generally don't mess around. (Unlike some home video distributors *koff Universal* who throw the SE term around willy-nilly.) Just a quick scan through my mega-awesome DVD collection reveals WB SEs like Goodfellas, Dirty Harry, Amadeus, The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Superman, and a whole bunch more. If there's a catalog title you love, you should pray it gets the WB 2-disc SE treatment.

And a bunch more are on the way! According to Video Business, WB plans to double its SE output moving forward, and while we don't have any specs just yet, we do know that the following titles will be available (in fancy form) later this year: 300 (yes already, even though I thought the first 2-discer was pretty damn excellent), Casablanca (also again, but if any film deserves it...), A Christmas Story (cool!), JFK (a movie I need to see again), and I Am Legend. Come to think of it, all five of these movies already have Special Edition releases! These new discs better be pretty dang impressive.

Also on the way: The Peanuts Complete Holiday Collection. Which I definitely will own.

Oswald's Ghost is the rare film whose power increases with distance. As I sat in the historic Texas Theatre last week, where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested on the day President Kennedy was assassinated, and watched a special screening of the documentary, the suggestive rhythm of the editing and the understated urgency of the musical accompaniment lulled me into a false sense of security. I was deceived into thinking that I knew what kind of film it was and so, based on that assumption, I allowed the shaped narrative to lead me down a certain path, only to discover at the end that I had arrived at a very different destination than I expected.

Filmmaker Robert Stone says that he was initially inspired by the furor that erupted after the release of Oliver Stone's JFK in 1991. Why were people so wrapped up emotionally in what had happened so many years before? How had that pivotal event changed the nation? Ten years later, he saw parallels in how the nation responded to 9/11 and started what he calls his own "journey" to discover why America has remained obsessed with the JFK assassination, to the point that he calls it a "theology."

That being said, Stone does not take the approach I had anticipated. After an opening fusillade of opinions issued by experts, he dives right into the events leading up to November 22, 1963, laying them out one by one in distinct, logical order as though he had an organized sheaf of papers he was slapping down on a table. The drama is inherently captivating; no matter how many times you've seen news footage and photographs from the days in question, it still feels like you're dragged against your will into a nightmare.

"Although much of this film is fiction, much of it is also based on documented historical fact. Did the conspiracy we describe actually exist? We do not know. We merely suggest that it could have existed."

Released ten years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, nine years after the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and six months after the nationally televised Senate hearings on Watergate began, Executive Action theorizes that a conspiracy of industrialists plotted and carried out the murder of the President of the United States. Crisply presented, confidently straightforward and refreshingly free of melodrama, Executive Action delivers a thick slice of paranoia without resorting to hysteria.

Burt Lancaster stars as James Farrington. He leads a discussion (dated June 5, 1963) among a small group of white men intended to convince wealthy conservative oil magnate Harold Ferguson (Will Geer) of the need to kill Kennedy. Ferguson, with his white hair, white suit and Southern drawl, plays Devil's advocate, shooting holes in the worst case scenarios presented ("Kennedy will lead a Black revolution [and] withdraw from Vietnam, leaving Asia to the Communists") and expressing reservations ("I understand these things. They're tolerable only if they're necessary, and permissible only if they work"), but it's not made clear why his involvement is thought so important -- did they need his money? They seem well-funded without him.

Farrington is an old hand at running "black ops" and has two teams of marksmen training in the field, headed by William Watson and Ed Lauter. (Dick Miller plays one of the sharpshooters.) Robert Foster (Robert Ryan, who died a few months before the film's release) appears to be in charge of the operation, taking time to explain the racist spin of the conspiracy to Farrington. The real problem, Foster says, is the swarming numbers of people throughout the earth, especially the browns and blacks. Once the world's over-population is reduced, attention can be turned to America's own over-population ("blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans, poverty-prone Whites, and so forth"). As chilling as anything is Foster's matter of fact referral to genocide.

Once he's finished playing John McClane for a fourth time, Bruce Willis will be going back to school ... as a high school principal, that is. The Los Angeles Times tells us that Willis has signed on to play a supporting role in Assassination of a High School President, based off a script from newbie scribes (and former South Park assistants) Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski. Pic, which the Times describes as "a riff on JFK, All the President's Men and Robert Towne's neo-noir classic [Chinatown]," apparently revolves around a bullied high school journalist who's investigating the theft of the school's SAT exams.

Of course, this SAT controversy will most certainly lead to conspiracy theories and, I imagine, the assassination of the school's class President. Says Jakubowski, "Everything mattered so much when you were in high school - that's your world. And something that would happen to a student council president is as big as if the actual president was assassinated." Willis will play a Desert Storm veteran-turned-Catholic school principal -- the kind of guy who refers to his students as "filth." Picture the first half of Full Metal Jacket set in a high school, and you get the idea. Though it was one of the "most-liked screenplays late last year," the plot obviously delves into some sensitive territory, what with the recent Virginia Tech tragedy.

Right now, there's no word on whether the two writers will have to alter their script because of the shooting that took place on that campus (God knows rushing to greenlight a school shooting-type flick wouldn't exactly be the PC thing to do), but here's hoping they weather the storm and stay the course. Apart from Willis, ladies like Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan are showing interest in the film's "femme fatale," Francesca. Music video helmer Brett Simon will make his directorial debut, and the Yari Film Group (who optioned the script last fall) plan to begin production this July.

Oliver Stone is back in action. After a brief absence where he attempted to steer clear of highly-controversial subjects and politically charged themes with films like Any Given Sunday and the ill-advised (and ill-received) Alexander, the director is back to form with his newly announced project -- an adaptation of the book Jawbreaker by former CIA case officer Gary Bernstein.

The deal for Jawbreaker was announced a few days ago by Paramount Pictures, which also financed World Trade Center, and the pic will be Stone's next project for the studio. And even though Stone has attempted to distance himself from political themes of late, and insists that his film World Trade Center was "the least political" film he's ever made, there is no denying that Stone will generate some strong reactions with his choice of a screenwriter to pen the second draft of the Jawbreaker screenplay -- Cyrus Nowrasteh, producer/writer of ABC TV's controversial mini-series The Path to 9/11. The mini was sharply criticized by the Democrats in particular, even before it aired, for its assertions that President Clinton's inaction was partially to blame for the 9/11 attacks.

He is also sure to generate some strong reactions simply by taking on the adaptation of a book like Jawbreaker -- which among other things, details the accounts of Bush Administration officials inept handling of the search for Osama Bin-Laden during the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In the book, Bernstein asserts that Bin-Laden was there at the time and that the US Military let him escape. This directly contradicts the Bush Administration's account of the events. Highly controversial subject matter if I've ever heard it.

In a recent Reuters article, Stone insists that Jawbreaker will be as non-political as World Trade Center and that his goal is to "create compelling drama, not a polemic" but its pretty hard to buy that statement when it comes from a man who's previous films include Salvador and JFK. It seems clear to me that no matter how much Oliver Stone tries to distance himself from politics and controversy, he eventually goes back to these types of stories because, deep down, these are the kinds of stories he wants to tell. I, for one, am glad that he does.

What's your favorite Oliver Stone film?

One of the greatest things about a controversial film is that it sparks debate. It shocks us. Scares us. Changes us. And helps us to look at the world differently. Be it about war, religion, politics or pop-culture, a good controversy will often lead to a colorful discussion. However, Hollywood doesn't really care about discussion or debate -- to them, controversy equals big box office numbers ... some of the time.

Take, for example, recent films like The Da Vinci Code and United 93. One was controversial for its belief that Jesus Christ was married and fathered a child -- an idea that goes against what many feel is a proven truth. The other was about a horrific event that took place only five years ago, and raised questions over whether or not it was too soon to come out with a commercial film about what actually took place. While The Da Vinci Code took in millions at the box office, United 93 didn't do as well. However, both were engulfed in controversy. What does this tell us? Well, for starters, Jesus will always be Hollywood's number one superstar.

This week's Entertainment Weekly ranks the 25 most controversial films of all time. Not surprisingly, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ came in at number one. Also on the list are JFK, A Clockwork Orange, Natural Born Killers, Basic Instinct and Fahrenheit 9/11, among others. Some of these films are controversial because of only one or two scenes. I mean, Clockwork is number 2 on the list, mainly because of its one violent scene. Does it belong there? On a list that spans the entire history of film?

So, I ask you: How should we rate controversial films on a list like this? Also, what makes one stand out from the next. Oh, and for fun, what are some of your favorite controversial films of all time?

 

I am in no way ashamed to say that President’s Day is my favorite of any holiday ever invented. There are no cards, no gifts, no dinners and no complaining. It’s one of those “feel good” holidays, simply because having a day off makes us all feel real good.

However, it wouldn’t be right if we ignored the real reason behind why we celebrate…to acknowledge our President. Or is it other Presidents? Wait, who exactly are we remembering anyway? And are we remembering or acknowledging? Do you even care?

While most of us (okay, me) try to figure out exactly what we’re supposed to be doing this President’s Day, let us look back on some of the more memorable Presidential-themed films. From a President who kicks ass to those that act like one, it’s all about another three-day weekend on this week’s Trailer Park…

Did Cuba pay Lee Harvey Oswald to assasinate John F. Kennedy? That's the driving theory behind a new documentary from award-winning German filmmaker Wilfried Huismann. Rendezvous with Death is the result of a three-year investigation, through which Huismann interviewed with former Cuban secret agents, U.S. officials and a Russian intelligence source, and also delved into Mexican security archives. The film alleges that in 1963, Oswald made a journey to Mexico City, where he was paid $6,500 by agents at the Cuban embassy. The film apparently revolves around the damning testimony of a former Cuban secret agent, who claims that Oswald was a "dissdent" who would do anything to harm the United States. "He was so full of hate, he had the idea. We used him ... He was a tool." The Cuban government, the film postulates, wanted to get rid of Kennedy to clear the path for the assendancy of Castro and the Communist Revolution. Whether the country had a hand in Kennedy's death or not, that goal was claerly met: in the documentary, a former CIA official tells Huismann, "[Castro] beat us. He bested us. He came out on top, and we lost."

The film was shown to reporters in Berlin yesterday; there's no word yet on when it'll be made more widely available, but as I'm total conspiracy theory nerd, I'll let you know the minute I hear anything.

Though there's some debate as to its legitimacy, there's a Quicktime file of the Zapruder film making the rounds, and I'm having a hard time taking my eyes of it. I certainly don't understand the technology involved, but someone's ostensibly taken the footage – shot on a home movie camera by an innocent bystander to the JFK assasination, and the key to a conspiracy theory made infamous by Oliver Stone's JFK – and digitally stabilized and sharpened it. It runs in a loop at the link, and even slowed down, the meat of the thing goes by so quickly that, if you're anywhere near as morbidly fascinated in this kind of stuff as I am, you might have a hard time clicking away. Safe for work, but definitely graphic.

[via Boing Boing]