Wick's Review

Summary - Good 3.0

Killing Kennedy could easily be titled Kennedy’s Killer given its salutary focus on Lee Harvey Oswald. JFK we knew. It’s unfortunate then that Killing Kennedy spends time on the Leader of the Free World’s womanizing. Given 90 minutes of real runtime, bikinis take away from also understanding Jack Ruby, which is essential to knowing whether we can put this thing to bed. Not knowing caused a big crackup.

If Ruby killed Oswald of his own volition, per Killing Kennedy, JFK’s assassination wasn’t a conspiracy.

Oswald we barely knew, till now. Killing Kennedy’s best moment is Will Rothhaar’s Lee Harvey Oswald posing for a snapshot brandishing his rifle and two Communist newspapers, a signature moment in American history. If you’ve looked into the JFK assassination you’ve seen that picture. It even made the cover of LIFE. This movie brings it alive, perhaps for the first time, as teased in the poster above. Damn.

Oswald sought fame. He got the kind of infamy where untold millions now use his middle name – Harvey – a name he never used. He was Lee Oswald here in America, Alik Oswald as a defector in the Soviet Union. That’s where he met his Russian wife, Marina. Her’s was not a happy marriage.

Salient scenes abound.

• Oswald gathered with Russians in Dallas to watch Kennedy’s Cuban Missile Crisis speech. Traitor.
• He slept with Marina the night before the assassination, even though she’d previously kicked him out for beating her up and not providing for their family.
• A radio reporter cites a “friendly crowd in downtown Dallas,” notwithstanding anti Kennedy sentiment. Bill O’Reilly is such an ace newsman, that’s no doubt accurate. However, it took Killing Kennedy’s craftsman to see it hiding in plain sight.
• The movie tells JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald’s stories in parallel. It ends contrasting Oswald’s funeral with JFKs, which occurred on the very same day. Pow.

Killing Kennedy is compelling and essential viewing, even if inferior to Killing Lincoln. O’Reilly’s freshman effort wisely employed a narrator, and not just anyone – Tom Hanks, on-screen guidance being necessary when putting this much history into play. Rob Lowe’s terrific JFK almost makes up for it. Almost.

Acting - Very Good 3.5

Rob Lowe’s JFK is more than credible. It’s classic, starting with his perfect JFK hair, which a generation of boys wanted to have – my generation of boys. The deadly handsome Lowe is uniquely suited to essay Jack Kennedy’s deadly cocktail of sex, drugs and power. Plus it’s not the first time he’s played a major West Wing dude. Sam Seaborn done got a promotion to the Oval Office. He wears it well.

Ginnifer Goodwin’s Jackie Kennedy underwhelms until after the assassination, when she conveys the First Lady’s dignified grief very well. It’s become clear that Jackie Kennedy is very difficult to play, given that she was moviestar beautiful and stunningly refined herself. Goodwin joins Katie Holmes in The Kennedys as recent actresses who haven’t measured up.

Will Rothhaar makes an entirely credible impression as Lee Harvey Oswald. He comes across as a naive blowhard with a chronic need to achieve greatness, first by defecting to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War and then by attempting one assassination before succeeding at another.

Michelle Trachtenberg is plenty affecting as his pretty Russian wife Marina.

Others:

• Jack Noseworthy is adequate as Bobby Kennedy.
• Francis Guinan is also adequate as Lyndon Johnson.
• Casey Siemaszko portrays Jack Ruby as an emotional suck-up. It would have been good to see more about the man who shut Oswald’s mouth forever.

Film - Good 3.0

The second in Bill O’Reilly’s Killing series, Killing Kennedy follows Killing Lincoln from the top of the NY Times Best Seller List to the top of the TV ratings for NatGeo. It is certainly the most popular property that National Geographic’s ever handled.

Unfortunately the assassination doesn’t occur until well past the halfway point, whereas Killing Lincoln devoted the last half of its runtime to the post-assassination. Granted that there was more activity to cover in the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination than Kennedy’s, but much of the pre-assassination section tells us things about JFK that aren’t new.

Given that one of Killing Kennedy’s virtues is that it gives us a sense of Jack Ruby, it would have been helpful to see more of him, as he quieted Oswald forever. Perhaps the historical record doesn’t afford this, which is probably the case given what an ace reporter Bill O’Reilly is. A narrator could have set all that straight, another deficiency of KK versus KL.

Edge - Risqué 1.9

Reality - Natural 1.0

Killing Kennedy is credible and non sensationalized, even though it depicts the most sensational assassination of modern times. This is a considerable public service, unlike the ridiculously sensationalized and fictionalized account in Oliver Stone’s JFK. Stone has it that the assassination was a conspiracy effected by a long-running cabal. Killing Kennedy shows that to be balderdash.

O’Reilly is the master of the notable detail. For instance, when the President lands in Dallas, his plane is called Air Force Number One. The word “Number” must have been dropped sometime thereafter.

O’Reilly’s inclusion of a radio announcer describing a welcoming crowd in Dallas must salt the wounds of Left Wingers who want to blame Right Wing hate in Dallas for Kennedy’s murder. What an irony that he was killed by an ultimate Left Winger, the Communist true believer – Lee Harvey Oswald.

Lefties take pride in their sense of irony, though perhaps not this time.

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