By Jason O'Brien jaobrien@charter.net
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JFK Film Revisited in new Oliver Stone BiographyWritten by Jan StevensNow that almost five years have passed since "JFK 's release, the once-furious assassination debate in the media (which began seven months before the film opened) is almost a distant memory for most Americans. We live now in the post-Posnerian era of the JFK case, in which the media seems just plain tired of all the theories, the attacks, the contradictions; t, even if "new revelations" or new clarifications on old parts of the assassination puzzle are discovered. Did anyone, for example, see any major- media reviews or TV coverage stemming from recent books written by John Newman, the LaFontaines or our co-editor, Walt Brown? No, but wedid get Mailer, whose book was in cut-out bins before you could say "Oswaldkovich" . Most seem willing to accept the slickly-produced, tantalizingly-delivered, tersely-worded lone-nut pronouncements that accompanied the "CASE CLOSED" publicity blitz. As most would hopefully concede, Stone's 'JFK' galvanized researchers, made the case come alive to a new generation (and woke up its elders), helped bring forward new media presentations and documentaries, brought previously-ignored material (and some new stuff) to a lot more people and, in the last analysis, was the catalyst in the creation of the JFK Assassination Records Act of 1992, and the subsequent Review Board document releases. Regardless of your position on the Garrison investigation (the area, it seems, of most division among the cognoscente of the research community in regard to the film), this was one hell of an accomplishment from a product of Hollywood. In the recently published biography of film director Oliver Stone (STONE: The controversies, excesses and exploits of a radical filmmaker; New York: Hyperion, 1995) author James Riordan spends close to eighty pages of his 550- page text on the conception, creation,inner workings and controversies of "JFK". The book, of course deals with all of Stone's other films, but for our purposes, we will focus on theJFK chapter. Much of this material will not be new to those who followed the story from its early stages onto George Lardner Jr.'s premature attack of the stolen (work-in-progress) script in the Washington Post, through all the dusted-off David Belins, Gerald Fords, Tom Wickers and Anthony Lewises who came forward to do some turf-protecting and damage control in early 1992 (See "Casting Stones at Oliver: 'JFK', The Press and the Critics" by this author in THE THIRD DECADE, Vol. 8 #4, may 1992). However, there are quite a bit of behind-the-scenes tidbits of information added to the intrinsic value of retrospective viewpoint from quite a few of folks involved. Actors Kevin Costner, Ed Asner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones , Jack Lemmon, assistants Christina Hare and Richard Rutowski (who also played the grassy knoll shooter) among others including Stone himself give the author's account of the proceedings a sense of freshness and vitality. Tales of the harrowing circumstances and logistics surrounding Stone's restoration of Dealey Plaza to circa 1963 conditions are detailed (and the problems with Dallas officials), along with substantial notes on Stone's casting concerns, directorial style, courage and dedication to accuracy in the complex intricacies of the case, the cover-up and the Garrison story. As was made clear in a few interviews Stone did, the film was never intended as the story of Garrison's investigation per se, but rather a look at the conspiracy alternatives to the Warren Commission thesis. Riordan reminds us that Garrison was more of "a vehicle for a larger perspective, a metaphoric protagonist" in Stone's words, representing much other research (borrowed freely from those who came before and even AFTER him), both preceding and subsequent to the Clay Shaw trial. If you were collecting and reading a lot of published material on JFK in 1991-92, such as the ESQUIRE , NEWSWEEK and TEXAS MONTHLY cover stories, the New York Times, Washington Post and Dallas newspaper stories, etc., you've seen a lot of the chapter's content already. But several items perhaps not published before( but worth repeating at any rate), are worth noting: ITEM: Kevin Costner, at the height of his career at the time, initially refused to consider the project for some time. Riordan adds "After all, he was a man who was friends with George Bush.." (?) ITEM: Including the $50,000 given to the Dallas Historical Foundation (owners of the former Depository building) the production spent $4 million to restore the plaza to original 1963 conditions. ITEM: The aforementioned George Lardner (who was, supposedly, the last man to see David Ferrie alive) showed up and began wandering around at the production office "out of the blue". Stone told Riordan "He's an old CIA investigative reporter and has many contacts in the Agency. He was snooping around, and we escorted him off the set. And he wrote the worst possible story he could write." ITEM: When Stone first met Jim Garrison during pre-production, he "threw everything he had at the old judge. He brought up all the old accusations: that Garrison had taken bribes... even that he been a front man for Carlos Marcello and the Mob." Garrison, never one to bat an eye at such tripe, asked the director "Are you finished?", then sarcastically suggested to Stone that he go see Marcello in jail and make his film about him instead -- at which point he (Garrison) promptly got up and walked out. As is evident from the director's dealing with many people on this, and others of his films -- Stone has always been one to provoke, to challenge, to test limits, to even irritate and incite -- apparently to get past any posturing, pretense and B.S. Stone, the author suggests, is a passionate and intensely workaholic man who likes to get at the heart of the matter right away.That he had the guts to confront Garrison (by all accounts, a "tough cookie") is, I believe to his credit. "Jim Garrison made many mistakes. He trusted a lot of wierdos and followed a lot of fake leads" conceded Stone, adding however that the late judge went out on a limb against long odds, for what he believed was right in pursuing the truth of the assassination. ITEM: Many have apparently believed Stone's claim that no one had ever commercially filmed a reenactment of the assassination in Dealey Plaza, and Riordan repeats the claim here. This is incorrect. "Executive Action" had its memorable scenes, but for detail, I often recall the 1976 ABC TV-movie called "The Trial off Lee Harvey Oswald". That film started with the shooting in Dealey Plaza (in slow motion and often from Zapruder's angle of sight) and is, most unfortunately, long forgotten in many quarters. One of the most riveting scenes was actually filmed on the sixth floor, where the jury(along with "Oswald", the judge and the two attorneys) is taken to witness a reenactment of the alleged firing sequence. (The film, which I believe still stands up pretty well after nineteen years, is available on video from GOODTIMES HOME VIDEO, 401 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016) Riordan may be somewhat too patronizing of his subject at times, but he is also willing to allow those closest to Stone to balance it out with their often fearlessly honest accounts of the director's excesses and eccentricitiues. Overall, they all seem to agrre that Stone is driven by a committment to his vision, to his concept of cinematic excellence in his unusually and richly detailed movies. Film and pop culture enthusiasts will find a lot to appreciate in this meat-and-potatos narrative of the machinations, financing procedures, production methods( and much more) on JFK, as well as the others from "Midnight Express" and "Platoon" up through "Natural Born Killers" . Riordan spends ample time discussing the sociopolitical and "rewriting history" arguments leveled at Stone and his responses to them. But bear in mind that Riordan is engaged in the biography of a filmmaker, and does not attempt to handle the "JFK" controversies as would a seasoned researcher or academic. He primarily reiterates what was said and when, and(much to his credit), does not wish to personally join in the debate. It is enough that he is quite aware of many of the arguments and counter arguments that were extant in 1991-92 and Stone's (and his people's) responses to them. If, in his capacity as chronicler of a major film director's work, he is a bit weak in realizing the significance of, or expounding on "JFK" 's deep politics implications, we can forgive him. That's not his task in this book. What Riordan has done is to give us a deeper insight into an innovative, politically astute, artistically courageous and often misunderstood artist -- one who has himself "confronted the secret murder at the heart of the American dream" and triumphed. (Published in JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, Vol. 1 #3)
Note : This article was submitted by Jan Stevens himself - Jan is co-editor of the JFK / DEEP POLITICS QUARTERLY - Address is P.O. Box 174, Hillsdale, New Jersey 07642
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