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"It appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route..."

Report (the title is sometimes written in all caps as REPORT) is a 1967 short film (13 minutes) directed by Bruce Conner.

It is an impressionistic documentary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The film, which consists in its entirety of found footage clips, can be divided into two parts. The first part deals with the assassination. A clip of the presidential limousine, with JFK and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy waving at the camera, is shown repeatedly. (The Zapruder Film is not shown in Report, as it was not shown to the public until 1975.) Other clips, like shots of the Texas School Book Depository and a famous clip of Oswald's rifle being carried through a crowd at the police station, play along with an audio soundtrack consisting of radio news bulletins and eyewitness testimony. This portion ends with alternating clips of clear and black film leader that flicker rapidly, and may or may not be meant to represent the fading consciousness of a dying man.

The second part of the film goes further afield. Clips jump back and forth from before the assassination (going all the way back to Kennedy's inaugural parade) to after the assassination in clips showing Kennedy's funeral as well as the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. Complementing these are other film clips that reinforce the themes. We see a bullfighter and bull in the ring, clips of a nuclear bomb blast, a television commercial for a refrigerator, and an obviously symbolic shot of a rifle bullet shattering a light bulb.

Compare A Movie, another impressionistic Bruce Conner film made entirely out of found footage.


Tropes:

  • Documentary: A very impressionistic, Le Film Artistique sort of documentary short.
  • Dutch Angle: A clip of the Texas School Book Depository shown upside down.
  • Ironic Juxtaposition: Several times with the audio clips and the video. A recording of a reporter describing how "the doors fly open" on Air Force One is presented along with a clip of a woman in a commercial opening the doors to a refrigerator. A reporter talking about the "beautiful red roses" given to Jackie is presented alongside a clip of that same bouquet of roses, having been left in the abandoned back seat of the car. A description of the "gunmetal gray" presidential limousine is juxtaposed with the clip of Oswald's rifle being carried through the crowd. Clips of the funeral are juxtaposed with Colin Clive bringing the monster to life in the 1931 Frankenstein. The movie ends with a woman pressing a key on a business keyboard that says "SELL", while the audio clips says that the President "is headed downtown to the Trade Mart.
  • Old-Timey Cinema Countdown: The transition between the first and second parts is a clip of alternating black and white film leader, counting down. The flickering film leader seems to suggest a dying man, fading out.
  • Repeat Cut: Many of the stock clips are shown, then briefly rewound, then played again, several times in a row. The shot of the President and First Lady in the car is shown several times in this manner, as is the shot of the rifle being carried through the crowded police station.
  • Shout-Out: Clips from the "It's alive" scene in Frankenstein are juxtaposed with Kennedy's funeral.
  • Stock Footage: All of the movie, combined with stock audio clips, like radio bulletins about the assassination or an eyewitness talking about how he wished he hadn't seen the look on Kennedy's face after he got shot.
  • Two-Act Structure: The first half, which is an impressionistic collage of assassination footage and audio reporting. Then the second half, which uses all sorts of clips not connected to the assassination (a bullet shattering a bulb, bullfighting, war footage, a refrigerator commercial, a nuclear bomb blast) to link Kennedy's death to the violence inherent in human society.
  • Undercrank: Used for the famous clip of the bullet shattering the light bulb, as well as a similar clip of a needle popping a balloon.

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