Oliver Stone directs Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones in this blockbuster speculative essay on the theories, conspiracies and inconsistencies around the infamous assassination of President Kennedy.

Long, dense with two fantastic monologues. How often did Costner play white boy obsessives? His clean cut All American image frequently got channelled into stable men who could not give up… to the point of ruination. Stone cleverly just overloads you with evidence. Some of it contradictory, some of it so speculative it invites ridicule. Yet the ultimate point is we do not know the truth about one of the defining events of the 20th century. Whether you believe Cuban freedom fighters supported by CIA funded homosexuals killed JFK or one lone Russian sleeper agent, the fact is we don’t know. All we ultimately know is that the average marksman Lee Harvey Oswald could never have made three rifle shots in that timeframe with that accuracy by himself. And bullets aren’t THAT magic. “Back and to the left. Back and to the left.” So what happened? With a mixture of film stocks, breathless storytelling and a dozen uncredited A-List cameos, Stone sets out an epic case for the curious in this mega hit. There’s a clear influence on Oppenheimer here, and while Nolan’s unlikely smash is nowhere near the stamp of JFK, it is at least heartening that the mass public can still have their imaginations stirred up by these gargantuan cinematic reshapings of recent history.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Nixon (1995)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/