This November will mark the 58th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy—a game-changing moment in the history of United States politics, and an incident that every American student learns about when discussing the history of our country. Yet Oliver Stone, who seems to only get more obsessed with age, is convinced that no one remembers a thing about that day… despite the fact that anyone who was alive at that time could tell you exactly where they were the moment the news reached them. And millions more have made some sort of “back and to the left” joke as a punchline, in reference to the so-called “magic bullet” theory.
Now, a full 30 years after he released JFK, the nearly three-and-a-half-hour epic about that terrible day in American history and the tumult surrounding it (and jam-packed with plenty of Stone conspiracy theories), Stone’s back at it again—this time in the form of a documentary, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, which is slated to premiere at Cannes later this week. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter about his ongoing obsession with the murder of the 35th president, and why he has continued his crusade for learning the truth about what happened that day, Stone had this to say:
“There’s a memory hole about Kennedy. And I think, before I quit the scene, I would like to reveal what I know about the case. I can’t put everything I know into this documentary. But I can assemble a lot of the facts that came out after the movie [1991’s JFK] as well as reaffirm some of the facts in that movie because it was attacked on a broad scale. It’s very important for my conscience for the people who care to have this exist. That’s what motivated the documentary. We got the documents out. Not all. Trump was about to release them in 2017. And 12 hours before, he backed off. There’s a lot of documentation that hasn’t been released, and that’s in addition to the Secret Service, which f***ed up unusually on that day and [later] destroyed everything.”
One of JFK (the movie’s) lasting legacies was that it renewed interest in the case, which prompted Congress to pass the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which declared that all documents related to the former president’s assassination be made available to the public no later than October 26, 2017. While many once-private documents were released, there were still some that scholars—and one keenly interested Oscar-winning writer-director who just cannot let it go—who were excited to have former president Trump announce his plan to release the remaining documents while in office… but that never happened. When asked why he thought Trump reneged on his promise, Stone had this to say:
“Who knows what Trump ever thinks. He’s a mystery man. I’m sure he got pressure of some kind. And then they told him, ‘We can’t do this for security reasons.’ He did back off other things, too, when it came to us challenging the intelligence agencies. Remember that quote from [Sen. Chuck] Schumer? Trump, don’t f*** with the CIA or they will destroy you.”
Will JFK Revisited answer any remaining questions, or just trigger a slew of new ones. Looking at the director’s past work, the latter seems more likely.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
