Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy (2003)

Thanks for the memories!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Finally, a compelling documentary that doesn't use invented facts to persuade it's audience. The assassination of John F Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. A young, charismatic and very popular U.S. president, murdered in the prime of his life. And the villain? A nobody. A loser. How can that be? Then, two days later ... he is assassinated while in police custody, on live television. Smells like a conspiracy to most rational people. That's where we begin. And through interviews with local and national journalists, we get the feeling that most truly believed that there was a much bigger story than the one the public were being told. Forty years later, and clearly a great many people (most of the U.S. population) believe we have not been told the true story. I grew up hearing about the conspiracies, not the evidence that convinced the authorities that Oswald was the killer, and he acted alone. I knew that the shots Oswald made that day were impossible, and NO ONE had duplicated that kind of accuracy in that limited amount of time. This same claim is repeated in Stone's film "JFK". We've heard about a "magic bullet", which changed directions and stopped in mid-air, before continuing into the body of Governor Connelly. This is what the public, at least those who paid attention, heard from our media. I was convinced it had to be a conspiracy. Well, what this documentary does, is shine a light on the myths first introduced by Authors pushing their version of events of that day, and those in the media who parroted them. The predominant piece of media impacting the public's view of that day, being Oliver Stone's popular film "JFK". We learn, by documented evidence, that these myths are either flat out lies, or distortions of the truth. We learn that the witnesses these authors have used to make their cases, have said things that conflict with the accounts from the authors. We learn that nearly every claim which supports the conspiracy, has been discredited by the facts ... the evidence. What do we have left? We have JFK's head moving "back and to the left" after the fatal head shot. Some people will never get past that visual. I understand that urge. But, if you want to learn the evidence of this case, in a thoughtful, rational presentation, this is the documentary to see. If you're not emotionally tied to one side or the other, and just want to know what happened? Watch this documentary.

The 3d emulation which all this movie is based on is quite impressive and visually interesting and fascinating. But this documentary is too poor of important elements. No words from the many witnesses, no investigation on the many photographs and other elements and mostly, denies the last shoot to JFK's has been done from a different angle than the book deposit. Who would like to get a better idea about what happened i suggest everyone to look for the movies "the men who killed Kennedy" by Nigel Turner. Around 10 hrs of informations, evidences and witnesses interview that can really give you more clues about JFK's assassination.

The time spent on Oswald's childhood and his brother's "expert" opinion was nothing but a waste of time and proved nothing. The animated version of the Zapruder film was unnecessary and open to many inaccuracies, it's not like the cut and paste of computer saved files. It's the Flintstones or some Disney cartoon. Why do it when you have the Zapruder film!! The fellow shooting the gun in the allocated time only proved that the gun could be fired in the time frame, he wasn't aiming at anything!! It's operating the bolt and finding and re-aiming at the target that takes time!! The show does emphasize Zapruder frame 223 where Connaly appears to be hit based on the movement of this lapel. That was convincing however they fail to point out that Kennedy's arm is already showing reaction which would not be possible if it were the same bullet. They also fail to point out that Connaly by frame 232-233 was showing no reaction to the hit and only displays reaction at 236.The show only served to prove the conspiracy not to disprove anything. A better presentation would be to line up the debatable points and present both sides.

Unlike most documentaries that I've seen on the assassination, this one presents most, if not all of the differing views and lays them out for the viewer to see. The viewer is invited to follow along with the serious researchers and see for himself what they've spent years trying to painstakingly uncover: a search for the truth, whatever it may be. It presents the theory that Oswald murdered the President and acted alone in a much more convincing manner than previous works I've read or watched on television. The flaws of all the conspiracy theories are examined as well as the works of the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s. It is time well spent for the serious intellectual who seeks to better understand the assassination from every angle. As someone who believed for more than twenty years that there was a conspiracy to murder President Kennedy, I now question it. I never thought anything would ever change my mind about that. This is a must-see documentary that will open your eyes to the truth if you are willing to listen.