OSWALD'S GHOST: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
Seventy percent of Americans continue to believe that the murder of 46 year old President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, was the result of a conspiracy. Did Lee Harvey Oswald, a twenty-four-year-old former marine and communist sympathizer, act alone? Was he influenced by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro or a rogue element of the CIA? Did the KGB or Russian government order the killing? Featuring interviews with authors Norman Mailer and Edward J. Epstein, politician Gary Hart, news anchor Dan Rather, activist Tom Hayden, attorney Mark Lane and others, Oswald's Ghost presents archival material - much of it never before publicly seen or heard - to chronicle America's obsession with the pivotal event of a generation.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
Our enduring fascination with perhaps the most senseless and mystifying political assassination of all time - of an admired US President in his prime - is fed with the release of this recent doco, Oswald's Ghost - What Really Happened. Of course, it doesn't tell us what really happened; that's still shrouded in mystery and always will be, since Lee Harvey Oswald was shot within two days of his arrest. His death extinguished any hope of getting closer to the truth - whatever that may be. And even if he was innocent. It's akin to psychological torture for a country (and much of the free world) to not know the truth.

Although Robert Stone canvasses much of the familiar territory, such as the conspiracy theories, there is still enough archival footage and some interviews that seem fresh enough to warrant attention. In particular, I think, this film makes out a cold case that Oswald was not the only shooter.

There's much to ponder - again - here. Stone also draws a clear but disturbing line between the three key assassinations in the 60s; John in 1963, Robert and Martin Luther King in 1968. Three key figures, all carrying the hopes of the nation for a better society, gunned down by unknown forces. Scary stuff. But back to Oswald and Kennedy and the conspiracy theories: as journalist Edward J. Epstein points out, it is hard to conceive a conspiracy that would withstand four decades - something would have come out.

Published December 18, 2008