Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy (2003)

Absolutely Fantastic

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Finally, a compelling documentary that doesn't use invented facts to persuade it's audience. The assassination of John F Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. A young, charismatic and very popular U.S. president, murdered in the prime of his life. And the villain? A nobody. A loser. How can that be? Then, two days later ... he is assassinated while in police custody, on live television. Smells like a conspiracy to most rational people. That's where we begin. And through interviews with local and national journalists, we get the feeling that most truly believed that there was a much bigger story than the one the public were being told. Forty years later, and clearly a great many people (most of the U.S. population) believe we have not been told the true story. I grew up hearing about the conspiracies, not the evidence that convinced the authorities that Oswald was the killer, and he acted alone. I knew that the shots Oswald made that day were impossible, and NO ONE had duplicated that kind of accuracy in that limited amount of time. This same claim is repeated in Stone's film "JFK". We've heard about a "magic bullet", which changed directions and stopped in mid-air, before continuing into the body of Governor Connelly. This is what the public, at least those who paid attention, heard from our media. I was convinced it had to be a conspiracy. Well, what this documentary does, is shine a light on the myths first introduced by Authors pushing their version of events of that day, and those in the media who parroted them. The predominant piece of media impacting the public's view of that day, being Oliver Stone's popular film "JFK". We learn, by documented evidence, that these myths are either flat out lies, or distortions of the truth. We learn that the witnesses these authors have used to make their cases, have said things that conflict with the accounts from the authors. We learn that nearly every claim which supports the conspiracy, has been discredited by the facts ... the evidence. What do we have left? We have JFK's head moving "back and to the left" after the fatal head shot. Some people will never get past that visual. I understand that urge. But, if you want to learn the evidence of this case, in a thoughtful, rational presentation, this is the documentary to see. If you're not emotionally tied to one side or the other, and just want to know what happened? Watch this documentary.

The idea that "Oswald acted alone" has been surprisingly popular in recent documentaries. It seems that this appalling event in American history still has important resonances today that require the message of "Oswald acting alone" to be frequently regurgitated. The wealth of misinformation concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy continues unabated with documentaries like Peter Jennings' Beyond Conspiracy (2003), Oswald's Ghost (2007) and The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After (2009) all of which promote the lone assassin theory as fact.The problem with these documentaries is that the wealth of information pointing to a conspiracy is strictly ignored or derided. Information is cherry picked, manipulated and fabricated to lead the viewer to the conclusion that Oswald acted alone. Why it is still so important to promote this version of events in the face of other more disturbing evidence?The Zapruder film is the "thorn in the side" for anyone promoting Oswald as the lone shooter. Some "documentary" films such as The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After, simply ignore the fact that Kennedy's head is seen to jerk backwards as a bullet strikes, as if there is a general consensus that the official version of events is undisputed. Peter Jennings' Beyond Conspiracy states that Kennedy's head jerking backward is no sign of where the bullet came from. Remember that before the Zapruder film was finally released to the public, the official story, confirmed by Dan Rather and others, was that Kennedy's head jerked violently forward so as to indicate a bullet hitting him from behind. This official description of the Zapruder film, tailored for public consumption, is the exact opposite of what is clearly seen in the Zapuder film.Peter Jennings' Beyond Conspiracy almost reaches the hysterical in its attempt to prove conclusively that conspiracy theorists like Oliver Stone are wrong. What is clear, is that Peter Jennings' Beyond Conspiracy is poorly disguised propaganda. It is as objective as NBC's infamous hit piece made to discredit Jim Garrison and his investigation into the Kennedy assassination.Documentaries that promote "Oswald as the lone assassin" seem to have greater budgets, audience exposure and production values when compared to the numerous "home-made" documentaries that support a conspiracy.One of the most compelling documentaries that supports a massive conspiracy to have Kennedy assassinated is JFK II or Dark Legacy. While some of the suppositions contained in the documentary are theoretical, the filmmaker has without doubt presented a version of events, supported by available material, that points to high-level Government/Military/Covert involvement in the murder of John F. Kennedy. Another piece of remarkable footage, too rarely seen, is the removal of Kennedy's secret service bodyguard from his open top limousine. The secret service officer is seen to be surprised at being ordered to "stand-down" by a superior officer and raises his arms in an unmistakable gesture of incomprehension. This telling piece of footage is not shown in any documentary supporting Oswald as the lone assassin.It is public record that Oswald was an American Government asset. He had an FBI employment number S179. This information again is never sited in documentaries that promote Oswald as the lone shooter.It seems that much has been learnt by American covert agencies in regard to "cover-stories" put out in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. It certainly helps to have a compliant and malleable Corporate Media to preach your message. Even if truthful information is unintentionally made available it can be easily undermined with misinformation, lies and propaganda. As is the case with the attacks on 9/11, any relevant information can be withheld, subverted, altered or swamped in a sea of misinformation.

I read a few comments on this scattered across the web prior to viewing it, and the condemning ones clearly outweighed the positive reviews (I didn't take the time to read those). I had devoured Jim Garrison's book (after watching Oliver Stone's "JFK") and found it convincing. In any case with that much smoke around, there's usually some fire, and if only the - possible - premature demolition of a certain WTC building for a little insurance or stock market fraud.The BBC has a reputation for well-researched, non-sensationalist documentaries that generally go along with official lines, and this film is a good example. Watching it with an open mind, I must say it offers a persuasive account of the Kennedy shooting. At least Dale Myers's computer-based reconstruction regarding the "magic bullet" is very convincing. Computer graphics are nowadays an essential part of every major accident investigation - in reality, not just in "Mayday" episodes. They are only as good as the data they rely on, but unless inaccuracies are found, this is definitely the most reliable method available today.The film also debunks some of the serious errors made by Oliver Stone's "JFK": That Oswald was a bad shot (he was actually a sharpshooter), the Kennedy-Connally bullet (surgically recovered fragments prove it really caused the wounds, ballistics show it was fired from the Oswald rifle) and others. It doesn't bring up all the "evidence" for a conspiracy, particularly the witnesses and the allegedly negative nitrate test on Oswald. And - as others have pointed out - Oswald's killing of the policeman Tippet is not really a "rock-solid fact". There is no "rock-solid" evidence for a conspiracy either, but that doesn't rule it out completely - until the 1990's, there was not overwhelmingly much tangible evidence for Auschwitz (see D.D. Guttenberg's book on the David Irving trial).The filmmakers took the trouble to interview a lot of people who knew Oswald and his wife personally, and their memories paint quite a different picture of the "secret agent": most notably Ruth Paine (who got him the job at the Texas Book Depository), Oswald's brother (who describes him as a social dropout seeking attention) and people who met Oswald during his time in Russia. Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's successor, seems to have been convinced that Fidel Castro was behind it - an allegation that Castro himself objected to because it would have created the perfect pretext for an invasion of Cuba. John Ruby, the alleged mafia hit-man, is portrayed as a hothead on the fringes of the mob, at most - yet another "trigger-happy American" stereotype.Because all the alleged ringleaders - Ferrie, Shaw/Bertrand and Oswald - of the "conspiracy gang" are dead, it's up to guess if that's really all there's to it. The filmmakers vindicate Clay Shaw, the businessman/alleged CIA agent Jim Garrison prosecuted unsuccessfully, of any involvement, without delving into any of Shaw's mysterious ways - based on a lie detector test on Garrison's main witness Perry Russo. Here some will cry "foul", at the latest. Garrison tells us there were other witnesses. As always, it's a question of credibility.In my opinion, the film doesn't deserve the vilification it has received from some people that called it "propaganda" intent on bending the truth to reach foregone conclusions. Some "evidence" you ignore, some you disbelieve - the other side does the same. It's well made, maybe too good for everybody's taste, but certainly worth to take the time and make up your own mind.

Unlike most documentaries that I've seen on the assassination, this one presents most, if not all of the differing views and lays them out for the viewer to see. The viewer is invited to follow along with the serious researchers and see for himself what they've spent years trying to painstakingly uncover: a search for the truth, whatever it may be. It presents the theory that Oswald murdered the President and acted alone in a much more convincing manner than previous works I've read or watched on television. The flaws of all the conspiracy theories are examined as well as the works of the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s. It is time well spent for the serious intellectual who seeks to better understand the assassination from every angle. As someone who believed for more than twenty years that there was a conspiracy to murder President Kennedy, I now question it. I never thought anything would ever change my mind about that. This is a must-see documentary that will open your eyes to the truth if you are willing to listen.