So, this year is the 30th anniversary of one of the most acclaimed and controversial films of the 1990s: Oliver Stone's JFK. Is it historically accurate? By no means. Is it a wild ride of solemn-yet-sensationalistic narrative by a noted director in their prime? Hells yeah! I've seen it countless times and it never fails to draw me in and hypnotize me with its genius editing and cinematography, John Williams' most underrated score (next to Stone's Nixon), quotable dialogue and gobsmacking all-star cast (with some truly inspired picks like John Candy). This is Oliver Stone at the zenith of his popularity and notoriety. With the exception of Natural Born Killers, he has never made a film that exploded in the public consciousness like this one.

I watched it recently to see if it still holds up after three decades and it does. It's become more apparent as I've gotten older how batshit this movie is, but it is so goddamned engaging I just roll with it. The X-Files has nothing on JFK for pure high octane paranoia.

The trial scene is great until the Jim Garrison's closing summation that goes on a long, long, LONG time with at least 50 zillion quotes from famous historical figures peppered in. Ultimately, one of the most damning things of the film (along with the real life events) was it never truly establishes how Clay Shaw is involved in the conspiracy. "I don't know where he fits and I don't care," Garrison says before the trial. He doesn't care? He doesn't care where the man he's accusing of a capitol crime fits in his accusations? What the hell kind of district attorney is that?

I keep hoping and praying for a 30th anniversary re-release of this film on home video. Ideally it would be restored in 4K and include the much, much, MUCH superior theatrical cut.

So, are there any other fans of this movie in the house?

Love JFK. Think I saw it theatrically. Have yet to revisit, but I do want to see DC...

Absolutely. Top five film for
me. I’ve seen it dozens and dozens of times.

I think it's Stone's masterpiece.

Same here.

I'm going to rewatch it before I say anything too specific, because I used to absolutely love this movie... But I feel like the way it leans into conspiracy theory narrative instead of facts is a bigger disappointment over time. None of this is to suggest it's bad; it's thoroughly entertaining and worth studying as a damn fine piece of art.

Yes, I'm a fan of this film also. I saw it in a movie theater when it was released. The friend I went with was lukewarm about it, but I was mesmerized for the entire length of the film. I agree it's Stone's best film.

how is the DC with extra footage? just too much?

I watched the Theatrical Version recently on HBO Max after not watching it for a long time, and it struck me how much it plays like one of those one-man Theater pieces. It's essentially an Oliver Stone monolog just fleshed out with actors providing characters for him to bounce off of. That's not a criticism, by the way.

It messes up the tight pacing the film originally had. The scenes are fine (there's one that features the great John Larroquette!), but they are totally superfluous to the overall story.

The theatrical cut has never been released on DVD or Blu ray (but strangely enough is available on iTunes). Natural Born Killers and Nixon were released on Blu ray with both cuts. It's absurd that they haven't done the same for JFK. (Even Any Given Sunday had both cuts of the film on DVD!)

i thought the TE cut was in the 3-pack with Any Given Sunday and Natural Born Killers? i have the TE on Vudu, so i am set and will watch again soon...

I’m a huge fan of Stone’s early stuff as Platoon, Wall St and Born in 4th July is the trifecta of great movies. JFK is where he sort of went off the rails (the post JFK movies all feel bloated), as I really didn’t like anything after that. Platoon is still one of the greatest War moves, IMO.

^ I agree. JFK is good but Platoon is Stone’s masterpiece.

I wouldn’t say JFK is quite where Stone started to go off the rails. I think he held on for another couple of years and starting going off the rails for Natural Born Killers. That’s about the time his movies started to have that “acid trip” feel to them.

The Doors, NBK, Savages...those bothered me. i even liked Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Platoon was my generations Apocalypse Now. I was on edge of my my seat in theater for that one. I'll never forget Dafoe getting left behind and being shot, many, many times by Viet Cong and struggling and reaching up and ultimately dying. that was heartbreaking,

It's been ages since I've seen Platoon. It never really stuck with me. But, JFK has had me in it's spell since the first time I saw it decades ago. I know the movie by heart and it never gets old. I had never seen a film like it. It's also Stone's most disciplined film by a country mile. So, JFK is the Stone masterpiece for me.

I love the director's cut. I'll watch the TC at some point.

I'm a huge fan of Stone's work. I even enjoy watching interviews and I hardly watch any interviews with celebrities. Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of Juli and JFK are all great movies. I don't dislike any of his movies, but Any Given Sunday is the last one I liked a lot. Nevertheless I'm still looking forward to every movie he directs and Snowden was the first movie in a long time, which had a classic Stone feel to it, even if the movie isn't on the same level.

I'd like to see him tackle a Limited tv series. I liked his documentary Untold History of the United States a lot, although I don't share all of his interpretations. Something in the same vein as a scripted show, could be very interesting.

The movie is a masterpiece.

It was actually my favorite movie at one point. Need to revisit but holding out for a 4K remaster.

They must've recently pulled it off. Just went to watch it and it wasn't there.

Stone is an interesting director. A lot of his early stuff was strong, Platoon and Wall Street being top tier. I did like Talk Radio, but i rewatched it a couple of years ago and it felt very dated and didnt hold up as well. NBK i generally hated on first viewing, but have revisited over the years and i think its a stellar movie. Tarantino disowned it, but i think Stonr did a great job and it influenced a lot of film makers (hell even the anime sequence feels like it was ripped from QT for Kill Bill). In recent years his work has been very poor. The Wall Street sequel was terrible and then Savages. I loathed that movie. No second chances for that turd. His golden years are well gone now, but he had several years of solid interesting movies.

Stone is DEFINITELY hit and miss. In 1991, he put out The Doors, which comes off almost as a unintentional comedy. In the same year, he puts out JFK which just blew me and countless others way.
When it came to presidential biopics: he put out the epic, Shakespearean tragedy of Nixon, and thirteen years later he puts out W. which borders on a parody of George W. Bush. (It is an okay film, don't get me wrong). I've never seen a filmmaker as scattershot in quality as Oliver Stone.

Nixon was the last film of his that I liked, and even that felt (intentionally) derivative of JFK. All of his movies since then have ranged from meh to terrible for me. Admittedly, I have yet to watch Snowden.

What was proven to be factually wrong beyond the Magic Bullet? I saw a show on Discovery that explained that one, but what else?

* Did Oswald not defect to Russia, then come back with a wife?
* Was he not associated with that far right dude (played by Ed Asner)?
* Were the facts pointed out by the Donald Sutherland character in dispute? The phone outage in DC, the local military told to stand down, the open windows around Dealy, the limo having its top removed?

Seriously, what was proven false?

I'm no conspiracy expert, but I love the film and have done reading on it from time to time, and my takeaway is that even if some bigger picture events are factual, almost every single smaller detail is either fabricated or misconstrued.

-Oswald defecting is factual, but I don't remember if it's portrayed accurately in the film.

-As far as I know it's never been shown conclusively that Banister and Oswald had anything to do with each other.

-Pretty much everything Donald Sutherland lays out is suspect. There was no phone outage, the local military was not told to stand down, guarding open windows was not a thing the secret service really did, and the limo top was a weather deterrent, not a security feature.