The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy

Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK is the primary target of this 90-minute ABC News documentary, hosted by Peter Jennings and originally broadcast in 2003, which systematically debunks conspiracy theories about the assassination of President Kennedy, arguing that the Warren Commission findings were substantially correct. Featuring interviews with author Gerald Posner (whose Case Closed is considered by many to be the definitive work on the subject), as well as the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald, and acquaintances of Jack Ruby, among others, the program also employs innovative computer-based extrapolations to a) demonstrate how the famed Zapruder 8mm film agrees with the Warren Commission's conclusions, and b) undermine the probative value of audio evidence discovered some years ago by the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives that supposedly suggested the presence of a second gunman. A sober, almost clinical program that's unlikely to satisfy skeptics (indeed, it's far likelier to infuriate them), the steady, dispassionate approach taken here will appeal to viewers searching for an effective brief in favor of the official explanation regarding this national tragedy (especially since polls indicate that a majority of Americans continue to believe that Oswald was not solely responsible for Kennedy's death). Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)