BY DON IMUS (OCT. 2, 2012):
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
"Killing Kennedy" [the 2013 TV movie] was absolutely horrible.
While watching it, I had the feeling I was sitting through a non-stop series of mini movie trailers. That's the way it felt to me anyway. Short little scenes. Nothing fleshed out. And too many errors in the details to possibly mention them all. One of which was: They actually had pictures of Oswald visiting the Mexico City embassies. They just decided to invent some pictures that never existed, and then Hosty shows the pictures to Oswald after his arrest. A most curious fairy tale there.
One other mistake that had me laughing aloud was when someone is listening to their car radio and they are supposedly hearing Walter Cronkite's CBS-TV bulletin of JFK's death---on their RADIO. That's just a nit-picky thing, I know. But to someone who knows it was impossible, it's still funny. Now if they had chosen to use the NBC-TV coverage for that "car radio" scene, then it would have been correct, because the NBC Radio Network was airing the NBC Television audio when the official death announcement was made.
A few more "Killing Kennedy" gaffes (for good measure)....
....The film has Lee Harvey Oswald flagging down a moving cab on the street after leaving Cecil McWatters' bus, instead of approaching William Whaley's parked taxicab at the Greyhound terminal. And the filmmakers have Oswald getting in the back seat of the cab, instead of the front seat (which we know is wrong; Oswald really got into the front seat and sat beside driver Whaley).
....Charles Givens seeing Oswald standing practically right next to the assassin's window on the sixth floor after Givens goes back up to get his jacket and cigarettes.
....Secret Service agents Sorrels and Lawson engage in some really funny made-up dialogue before the motorcade, with one of them saying to the other: "Can't we avoid this sharp turn onto Elm in Dealey Plaza?" (Hilarious.)
....Plus, I guess we're supposed to buy into the notion that the Secret Service had aerial photographs made of Dealey Plaza before the shooting too. (LOL)
....Jackie walks into the White House pool area and sees the top of a girl's bathing suit floating on top of the water. (Also hilarious.)
I will say, though, that I do feel a little sorry for Bill O'Reilly, Ridley Scott, and Company -- they had the impossible task in front of them of trying to shoehorn way too much material into about a 90-minute timeframe. It just can't be done. They wanted to cover all of Kennedy's Presidency, plus a large part of Oswald's life in Russia and Texas and New Orleans, plus a bit of Jack Ruby thrown in, plus the assassination story and all of its aftermath. All in 90 minutes. It's no wonder the scenes were short and choppy and "trailer"-like in their feel.
I have always thought that David Wolper's "Four Days In November" would never be surpassed as the best JFK assassination motion picture ever to be made. I've never seen it surpassed at any rate. And Bill O'Reilly's "Killing Kennedy" doesn't even come close. (Although, granted, the two films aren't exactly the same type of documentaries, with "Four Days" not relying on any actors at all. It only relies on the actual news coverage and interviews with the real witnesses.)
Too bad, too. Because Bill O'Reilly does have the bottom-line facts correct -- Oswald killed Kennedy and Tippit, and LHO took a shot at General Walker too. It's just a shame that the "Killing Kennedy" filmmakers tried to jam a six-hour story into ninety minutes.
David Von Pein
November 11-12, 2013
May 14, 2018
