Documentary Review: 'Peter Jennings Reporting - The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy'
On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy, the youngest Chief Executive ever elected, was mortally wounded by a series of rifle shots fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas' Dealey Plaza. Within an hour, the President was declared dead at Parkland Hospital, and Lyndon Johnson, having been sworn into office aboard Air Force One, flew back to Washington, D.C. believing the assassination was part of a larger Soviet-led conspiracy to wipe out America's top leaders as a prelude to World War III.
Later that afternoon, Dallas police officers arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine and avowed Communist sympathizer who had once defected to the Soviet Union, for the murder of Officer J.D. Tippett. Later it was determined that he was the only employee at the School Book Depository unaccounted for after JFK's shooting, and he became the prime suspect for the murder of the President.
Sadly, before Oswald could be put on trial for both murders, strip club owner Jack Ruby shot him a few days later as he was being transferred from Dallas Police HQ to the county jail, leaving millions of Americans to wonder if there had been a conspiracy.
Peter Jennings Reporting - The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy, produced by ABC News and presented on the History Channel, seeks to refute such ardent conspiracy theorists as Oliver Stone and David Lifton by taking the viewer along the chronology of Oswald's short and tortured journey from lonely child to being a man willing to make his mark on the world in a spectacular way.
The centerpiece of Peter Jennings Reporting - The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy is a detailed simulation created by computer animator Dale Myers. Using the infamous Zapruder film, Myers replicates every detail of the location to conclusively show that Oswald could -- and did -- shoot the President from his sniper's nest in the School Book Depository.
The 84-minute presentation makes a good case for the anti-conspiracy camp, even contrasting the real Jim Garrison to the supposedly heroic conspiracy-minded crusader played by Kevin Costner in 1991's JFK. It also includes interviews with Robert Dallek, Gerald Posner, Michael Beschloss, and Lee Harvey Oswald's brother Robert.
Peter Jennings Reporting - The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy probably won't change any die-hard conspiracy believers' minds, even though the narrative goes out of its way to discuss the various theories that have been proposed. But its straightforward, just-the-facts approach and the late Peter Jennings' calm narration, tied in to the detailed animation by Myers, counteracts some of the more lurid and loathsome accusations made by authors hungry for a quick buck or people (like Stone) who can't accept that a nobody with a cheap rifle could -- and did -- shoot the President of the United States, changing America and the world in a very drastic and terrifying manner.
Product Details
Later that afternoon, Dallas police officers arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine and avowed Communist sympathizer who had once defected to the Soviet Union, for the murder of Officer J.D. Tippett. Later it was determined that he was the only employee at the School Book Depository unaccounted for after JFK's shooting, and he became the prime suspect for the murder of the President.
Sadly, before Oswald could be put on trial for both murders, strip club owner Jack Ruby shot him a few days later as he was being transferred from Dallas Police HQ to the county jail, leaving millions of Americans to wonder if there had been a conspiracy.
Peter Jennings Reporting - The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy, produced by ABC News and presented on the History Channel, seeks to refute such ardent conspiracy theorists as Oliver Stone and David Lifton by taking the viewer along the chronology of Oswald's short and tortured journey from lonely child to being a man willing to make his mark on the world in a spectacular way.
The centerpiece of Peter Jennings Reporting - The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy is a detailed simulation created by computer animator Dale Myers. Using the infamous Zapruder film, Myers replicates every detail of the location to conclusively show that Oswald could -- and did -- shoot the President from his sniper's nest in the School Book Depository.
The 84-minute presentation makes a good case for the anti-conspiracy camp, even contrasting the real Jim Garrison to the supposedly heroic conspiracy-minded crusader played by Kevin Costner in 1991's JFK. It also includes interviews with Robert Dallek, Gerald Posner, Michael Beschloss, and Lee Harvey Oswald's brother Robert.
Peter Jennings Reporting - The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy probably won't change any die-hard conspiracy believers' minds, even though the narrative goes out of its way to discuss the various theories that have been proposed. But its straightforward, just-the-facts approach and the late Peter Jennings' calm narration, tied in to the detailed animation by Myers, counteracts some of the more lurid and loathsome accusations made by authors hungry for a quick buck or people (like Stone) who can't accept that a nobody with a cheap rifle could -- and did -- shoot the President of the United States, changing America and the world in a very drastic and terrifying manner.
Product Details
- Format: Color, NTSC
- Studio: Koch Records
- DVD Release Date: April 6, 2004
- Running Time: 1 hour, 24 minutes
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