no group of top-level conspirators would ever employ someone as unstable and unreliable as Oswald to commit the biggest murder in history, no such group would ever provide its hit man with, or allow him to use, a twelve-dollar rifle to get the job done, and any such group would help its hit man escape or have a car waiting for him to drive him to his death, not allow him to be wandering out in the street, catching cabs and buses to get away, as we know Oswald did.

Unless of course Oswald was supposed to be caught to allay suspicion from others who were involved. Personally it seems unlikely given the witness testimony that Oswald acted alone.

I love Braveheart despite it's tenous grasp on historical fact. I guess I've just learned not to look to Hollywood movies in order to learn about historical events (or at least to follow up on that knowledge). I suspect there are plenty of people, unfortunately who think William Wallace was a damn fine chap and was probably the father of the future king of england!

Also, I love Born on the Fourth of July. It's one of the few disability films I can ever remember watching which doesn't patronise or demean it's subject. Powerful stuff. However my favourite of Stone's is Any Given Sunday. Not for any particular artistic genius, but simply because I love watching it - particularly with a group of mates.

That it is, amazing cast. But I always wonder whether it was worth 3.5 hrs of my time after I've watched it...wish it was shorter. My fav is probably Born on the Fourth of July - still waiting for Universal to release that on Blu-Ray.

After trying unsuccessfully to rewatch Alexander the other day (which I initially enjoyed despite it's obvious shortcomings) I realized just how few Stone films I actually like.

Ahhh ... but that's what makes it such a f%^$ing brilliant plan! (All due respect, you suck as a conspiracy theorist.)

I'd say Russell Means' character is the sole exception to the bevy of insane people.

you give people too much credit, people are generally stupid, and especially conspirators or supervillains, a truly smart individual would realize "man evil does not pay" and quit before he would get to Blofeld/Lex Luthor level.

Oswald was stupid. He might have had a better chance of escape if he had done some of the following: 1) planted the rifle in the warehouse days before the president's arrival, this way no witnesses would have remembered you bringing in "curtain rods" on the day of. 2) worn rubber gloves to avoid fingerprints on the rifle. 3) thrown the rifle out the window so it would have broken apart, and retrieved the spent shells on the floor. That way, nobody would have pinpointed the exact location of the shooter.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Bet Oswald wishes he had hindsight.

HAd he been the shooter yes, but since the CIA did the shooting and set him up then they needed all that evidence left behind.

Actually my biggest problems with the lone gunman theory were:

Why did Oswald wait until the car was heading away from him, thereby making the target smaller with each passing second?

It has been part of testimony but never explained about people near the grassy knoll producing badges to the beat cops even though there were no undercover or federal agents supposed to be in the area.

Maybe Oswald hesitated, got scared, or misjudged when the motorcade would pass by the window. Maybe, maybe, maybe. We'll never know why. But it could be that the plain simple answer is that Oswald was at war with himself at the crucial moment, scared to commit.

I voted for Platoon in the poll, but JFK is right up there too.

Oliver Stone's JFK had a clip of young Jack Kennedy in the late 1930's give a little "hip-push" to (I think) his sister Kick. I don't believe I've ever seen that clip in any of the documentaries on JFK's youth portion. Nice job, Oliver!

^what about the times when everyone wore robes. those were big

I voted JFK, but that is my biggest problem with the film. Stone in many ways undermined JFK by making nearly every subsequent film of his look exactly like it. It really worked in JFK as a one time deal (I could even let him off for Nixon, b/c that was a psuedo sequel), but by the time we got to Any Given Sunday I thought he just didn't have idea how to make a normal looking movie anymore.

Are you referring to Lynchings?

I mean ancient times

Ah, the Gladiators. Bet they weren't so "glad" to be "glad"iators. Rough times, indeed. But none of them were "famous." Not even the guys who got lynched were "famous." JFK was famous. That was a Big Murder. Big difference.

Ceasar

Caesar (for historical accuracy)

Let's not forget he also wrote the screenplay for Conan the Barbarian (with John Milius). Apparently his original "solo" screenplay was filled with epic bad assedness that was too expensive to film.

Despite the haters I think Platoon was the best Vietnam war movie made. Seeing it in the theater as a teen ager really affected me.

Platoon.

I agree,it is a fun entertaining wild film. Tommy Lee Jones is a riot as the warden. I don't think anyone who likes the film is looking for any 'message' in it and just enjoys how wild and crazy it is. If i recall,Stone was intending to make a 'summer action blockbuster' type film with it from interviews at the time('just sit back and enjoy the ride'), so any message is really superficial at best.

So I don't think anyone should feel 'bad' for enjoying the film and finding it entertaining,since what did Stone expect with such a quirky tone?

Platoon

Natural Born Killers.