YMMV / JFK

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Even if one doesn't buy in to the film's pro-conspiracy ideas at all, Kevin Costner's performance still provides a surprisingly accurate depiction of an honest man with a few initial doubts finding himself an echo-chamber and spiraling down the Conspiracy Theorist rabbit hole ("We're through the looking glass, here," after all), resulting in paranoia and nearly ruining his own career and family as a result.
• Award Snub: Some may see Tommy Lee Jones losing out the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor to Jack Palance in City Slickers as this, or at least when one sees how it might have led to his win for The Fugitive over Ralph Fiennes in 1993.
• Awesome Music: Composed by John Williams, what else would you expect? Try listening to "Prologue" without getting stirred feelings inside.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Gary Oldman as Oswald.
  • Donald Sutherland as "X"
  • Joe Pesci as David Ferrie.
  • Tommy Lee Jones, managing to stand out enough to get an Oscar nomination.
  • John Candy, whose role is a perfect example of Playing Against Type. Despite the fact that he was so intimidated to be acting alongside the likes of Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland that his character's sweating was NOT acting, fans consider it one of his best performances.
• He Really Can Act: Critics praised John Candy's performance as Dean Andrews Jr. and considered it to be is neck-and-neck with Del Griffith as his best performance, especially because it was a rare example of Candy Playing Against Type.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Donald Sutherland plays an informant who warns of the ominous inner working of the CIA. Unsealed documents in 2017 would reveal that Sutherland was on an NSA watchlist for two years at the request of the CIA due to his protests against the Vietnam War.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Martin Sheen (supplier of the opening narration) actually played JFK himself in the NBC/ITV Mini Series Kennedy. And before that, he played RFK in the Made-for-TV Movie Missiles of October...
• Memetic Mutation: "Back and to the left," so much so that one episode of The Critic has Jay reviewing the director's cut, which is apparently eight additional hours of that one line.
• Narm Charm: Dean Andrews' constant stream of Totally Radical slang is made far more palatable by John Candy's comedy skills, plus by all accounts the real Andrews really was like that.
• One-Scene Wonder: Donald Sutherland as X who utterly steals the film with his long explanation as to why the assassination happened, making what could have been simple exposition into an utterly riveting moment. Also, John Candy as Dean Andrews manages to be creepy even without doing anything remotely evil on screen.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The movie was well-loved when it came out and is still considered a classic, but its sheer disregard for history to prop up a conspiracy has made it a target for a lot of historians' hate. Additionally, promoting conspiracy theories is seen as a lot more dangerous and unethical today than when the film was made, making the film very uncomfortable to watch for some.
• Protagonist Title Fallacy: Many people allegedly went to the movie expecting to see Kevin Costner playing John F. Kennedy.
• Spiritual Successor: To Executive Action, the first film to outline a conspiracy to kill Kennedy, using the exact same "triangulated fire" theory, complete with the third shot hitting Connally but not Kennedy.
• Strawman Has a Point: Bill Broussard (played by Michael Rooker) raises an excellent point when he argues that Garrison's conspiracy scenario — which involves the CIA, FBI, anti-Castro Cubans, the Mafia, the Dallas Police, right-wing oil billionaires, and the military-industrial complex to name just a few — would be impossible to successfully pull off and keep a secret owing to it's complexity and how many people would have to be involved. True, Broussard's own theory isn't great either, but his inability to construct a comprehensive simple conspiracy together with his criticism of Garrison's overcomplexity unintentionally undermines the film's pro-conspiracy message and lays out one of the best arguments for lone gunman proponents. However, since the real Garrison later claimed that the person whom Broussard was based upon had undermined his case from day one and Oliver Stone largely believed whatever Garrison said and made his character a mouthpiece for his own views, Broussard is subsequently treated as a villain who's secretly working with the FBI against Garrison (despite discovering the key "Shaw is Bertrand" connection earlier in the film) while Garrison is portrayed as in the right, regardless of the nonsensical nature of his entire premise.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The film takes a very pro-conspiracy theory attitude towards the JFK assassination and opened in a time when such speculation was generally regarded as harmless or even necessary after political scandals like the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and Iran-Contra. However, in the decades since the film's release, with the rise in completely false & disingenuous conspiracy theories facilitated by social media that have proved incredibly dangerous for those they target/blame, ^note Case in point: the 2021 U.S. Capitol Attack which was fueled by conspiracy theories and led (directly or indirectly) to nine deaths, hundreds of injuries, and more than a thousand individual charges the film's message doesn't sit nearly as well with many of today's audiences.
  • In reality, a lot of the specific ideas presented in the film were initially spread by the KGB in the 1960s as a way to undermine the credibility of the U.S. government. The idea of someone taking a Russian disinformation campaign this seriously plays a lot different now, especially given Stone's personal track record of doing just that in other projects like The Untold History of the United States or The Putin Interviews.
  • From the time of the actual assassination until years after the film was made, the idea of a disturbed young man murdering a target of opportunity for no greater motive than Fame Through Infamy remained a rather unfamiliar, unsettling, and thus unbelievable idea to the general public, underpinning the film's supposition that there must've been more behind Kennedy's death. Modern audiences, however, more than a generation after the Columbine massacre when such self-aggrandizing slayings have become almost mundane, might be more accepting that Oswald could indeed have acted alone.
• The Woobie: David Ferrie: expelled from the life he wanted for being gay, becoming involved in shady deals almost by accident, and eventually getting in so over his head that he can't tell which way is up anymore. Whether you think his death was murder or suicide, you can't help but feel sorry for him. Incidentally, in real life, he was as staunch a supporter of JFK as you'd ever find in New Orleans (he really did want to be a priest, and was thrilled that a Catholic had been elected president). And his death was from a Berry aneurysm, the culmination of years of poor health — there's no evidence that foul play was involved.
  David Ferrie: All I ever wanted in my life was to be a Catholic priest. Live in a church, serve God... I had one FUCKING weakness, and they defrocked me.

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