TODAY'S NUGGET: JFK (1991) - The Emotional Ride of Obsession

[Quick Summary: The hunt for a murderer after President John F. Kennedy is shot in Dallas, TX on Nov. 22, 1963.]

THREE THINGS I LEARNED FROM ROGER EBERT'S REVIEW:

1) FACT vs. FICTION IN FILMS.

This is not a film about the facts of the assassination, but about the feelings. “JFK” accurately reflects our national state of mind since Nov. 22, 1963. ...I believe films are the wrong medium for fact. Fact belongs in print. Films are about emotions.*

2) SO WHAT IS OLIVER STONE'S FILM ABOUT?

His film is not about the case assembled by his hero, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). It is about Garrison's obsession. The film's thrust is not toward truth, but toward frustration and anger.

3) WHY IS THE SCRIPT WORTH READING? It is not a pretty to look at (156 pgs. long, single spaced), however it is unusually nimble for the amount of detail.

Oliver Stone was born to make this movie. He is a filmmaker of feverish energy and limitless technical skills, able to assemble a bewildering array of facts and fancies and compose them into a film without getting bogged down. His secret is that he doesn't intend us to remember all his pieces and fit them together and arrive at logical conclusions.

I liked that the script kept focus on the emotional ride of obsession by showing what it costs.  It's the small things that are so devastating.

INT. GARRISON HOME - NIGHT (1967)

After dinner, toys scattered around the living room. Phone ringing as VIRGINIA, 6, answers it, playing with her doll. In background SCOOTER is chasing ELIZABETH around.

VIRGINIA: Hello.

MALE VOICE: Hello is this Jim Garrison's daughter?

VIRGINIA: Yes?

MALE VOICE: Virginia or Elizabeth?

VIRGINIA: Virginia.

MALE VOICE: Virginia, you're a lucky girl. Your daddy has entered you in a beauty contest. Would you like to be in a beauty contest?

VIRGINIA: That sounds fun.

MALE VOICE: I need some information from you then. How old are you?

VIRGINIA: Six.

MALE VOICE: And how tall are you?

In the STUDY, JIM watches the NEWS in horror. [News reports the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.]

MALE VOICE: And you get off from school at 3 every day?

VIRGINIA: Yes.

MALE VOICE: Do you walk home?

VIRGINIA: Uh huh.

LIZ comes to the phone, a look on her face.

LIZ (taking the phone): Who you talking to?

MALE VOICE: Okay Virginia, that's all I need to know. I'll call you again when it's time for the beauty contest.

LIZ: Who's this?...Hello?...Hello?

Pause. The man at the other end listening to Liz...He hangs up. Liz turns to Virginia.

VIRGINIA (excited): Mama I'm going to be in a beauty contest! Daddy.

LIZ: What did he ask you!

VIRGINIA:Well, he asked me everything. He asked me...          

Liz freaking.           

                                                                                INTERCUT TO:

LIZ marches into Jim's study.

LIZ: Did you enter Virginia into a beauty contest?

JIM (absorbed in the TV): What?

LIZ (hysterical): A man just called. He asked her everything! Her height, her weight, when she came home from school. 

JIM: Honey, some crackpot! Martin Luther King was just killed in Memphis!

LIZ (screaming): I don't give a damn about Martin Luther King! Your daughter's life was just threatened!

JIM: Just a crank making phone calls. Happens a dozen times a day at the office.

LIZ: Our home Jim!  A kidnapper, a murderer!

JIM (consoling): Only cowards make crank calls, egghead, nothing is going to happen (puts his arms around her).

LIZ (beats on him): How do you know? How do you know!

JIM: Get a hold of yourself.

LIZ: I'm leaving. I'm taking the kids and I'm leaving! I can't stand it anymore...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: After reading this script, I don't remember much about it, except the emotional toll.  Which might be the point in the end.

JFK (1991)(Jan. 1991 draft)
by Oliver Stone

* "I have no doubt Cronkite was correct, from his point of view. But I am a film critic and my assignment is different than his. He wants facts. I want moods, tones, fears, imaginings, whims, speculations, nightmares. As a general principle, I believe films are the wrong medium for fact. Fact belongs in print. Films are about emotions. My notion is that “JFK” is no more, or less, factual than Stone's “Nixon” or “Gandhi,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Gladiator,” “Amistad,” “Out of Africa,” “My Dog Skip” or any other movie based on “real life.” All we can reasonably ask is that it be skillfully made and seem to approach some kind of emotional truth. Given that standard, “JFK” is a masterpiece."