JFK
Short description
JFK dramatizes the investigation by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Unconvinced by the official finding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, Garrison and a small team reexamine the evidence, interview witnesses connected to the case and pursue the theory that a broader conspiracy was behind the killing. Their inquiry brings them into conflict with the institutions that had already closed the matter, and it centers on a New Orleans businessman, Clay Shaw, whom Garrison ultimately charges.
Oliver Stone directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Zachary Sklar. The film was the seventh he directed, arriving between Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and The Doors (1991), and he also produced it with A. Kitman Ho and Clayton Townsend. Kevin Costner plays Garrison, with Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw, Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald, Kevin Bacon as Willie O'Keefe, Michael Rooker as Bill Broussard and Jack Lemmon as Jack Martin, among a credited cast of 155 and a crew of 147.
The production cost about 40 million USD and returned roughly 205 million USD worldwide, a strong result for a lengthy historical drama. On IMDb it holds 8/10 from 166,654 votes, and on TMDB 7.6/10 from 2,499 votes. A critics' rating of 7.7/10 from 70 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The director's cut of the film has a runtime of 206 minutes.
- After reading Jim Harrison's book, Oliver Stone immediately bought the rights to adapt it into a film using his own money.
- The real Jim Garrison played Earl Warren.
- The screenplay is based on Jim Garrison’s books “On the Trail of the Assassins” and Jim Marrs’ “Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy.”
- In December 1991, Oliver Stone organized a screening of this film on Capitol Hill for the entire US Congress. This led to the passage, a year later, of the act on collecting and storing documentary evidence about the assassination. On October 26, 2017, the administration of the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, declassified a significant portion of these documents.
- In the conversation scene, a sweaty face of John Candy (1950-1994), who played Dean Andrews, is shown. There was nothing acted about the actor's reaction. Candy was terrified at the prospect of acting in a drama alongside actors like Gary Oldman and Donald Sutherland, and literally drenched in sweat during filming.
- Lee Harvey Oswald’s (1939-1963) arrest was filmed in the theater where it actually happened. The film’s producers provided the money for the theater’s renovation.
- Preparing for the role of Marina Oswald (Marina Nikolaevna Oswald Porter, née Prusakova), actress Beata Pozniak studied all 26 volumes of the Warren Commission Report and familiarized herself with all articles in Time and Newsweek about her character, and then spent some time living in Marina's own house.
- To recreate the scene of the assassination on Dealey Plaza, the filmmakers had to pay a substantial sum to the Dallas city administration, hire police officers to redirect traffic, and close nearby streets for three weeks. Stone had only 10 days to shoot the scene. Cinematographer Robert Richardson worked with two 35mm cameras, five 16mm cameras, and fourteen types of film.
- Obtaining permission to film at the Texas School Book Depository proved difficult. They demanded $50,000 just for having an employee present in the location where Oswald stood. The filmmakers were only allowed to shoot at certain times of the day, and only five members of the creative team were allowed to be present on set inside the building. According to one of the producers, the most difficult thing was getting permission from the administration to restore the building's appearance to what it was in 1963. It took five months of negotiations. Scenes inside the building on the 7th floor were actually filmed on the 6th floor, as the 7th floor houses a museum; however, the view of the presidential motorcade from the window was filmed from the 7th floor, as were shots of the shooter in the window filmed from outside the building.
- Kevin Costner once admitted that he rehearsed his address to the jury in a swimming pool, with his mother correcting him while sitting on the edge of the pool with the script in her hands.
- Every detail of the Oval Office created on the set was accurately reproduced by comparing it to archival footage of the White House during John F. Kennedy's presidency (1960-1963). The work on the set cost approximately $70,000, although it only occupies about 8 seconds of screen time – and even then in black and white.
- The murder of Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963) was filmed on location at the very place where Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein, 1911-1967) actually shot him.
- Filming took place from April 15 to July 31, 1991.
- The conversation scene shows the sweaty face of John Candy, who played Dean Andrews. There was nothing staged about the actor's reaction. Candy was terrified of having to act in a drama alongside actors like Gary Oldman and Donald Sutherland, and he was literally dripping with sweat on set.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
