That was an excellent one.

As Good As It Gets

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This political thriller purports to provide an alternative to the Warren Commission's report that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Directed by David Miller, it features a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo that was based on the story by Donald Freed and Mark Lane's novel Rush to Judgment.It stars Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan (among others) as wealthy conspirators that want to eliminate the POTUS before he and the rest of the Kennedy clan - they foresee the White House being occupied by JFK, then Robert followed by Teddy through 1984 - can implement their agenda, which would change the United States of America into an intolerable country for them.Actual newsreel footage is used to chronicle the President's steps: a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union, the promise of equal rights for Negroes (Kennedy's words), and military withdrawal from Vietnam, which the conspirators fear would allow the Communists to take over Asia.The actions finally convince a Southerner (played by Will Geer) to fund the assassination plot which, according to the film, included three gunmen (one behind a fence on a grassy knoll), and making a patsy out of Oswald, who was merely a Texas School Book Depository employee when the shots rang out near Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas at half past noon on that fateful day.After Jack Ruby kills Oswald, the film's denouement includes Ryan receiving a phone call that Lancaster's character has died, then pictures of several other eyewitnesses (who were reportedly killed or died mysteriously in subsequent years) are shown.A conspiracy theorist's delight!

Executive Action was released 10 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and thus is a film by those who remember the day and its aftermath so vividly. Executive Action blends fiction and historical fact into creating one possible scenario to who was responsible for the assassination of JFK, but one which the movie makes feel convincing. The film is a great companion piece to Oliver Stone's JFK; Stone has stated Executive Action was a basis on inspiration for JFK and it's not hard to see aspects of JFK within Executive Action. Like in JFK, there is much intercutting of archive footage and black & white flashbacks, while the military like score by Randy Edelman feels reminiscent of John William's score to JFK.Much of the film is comprised of engrossing documentary like discussions and presentations, making it like an adaptation of a stage play. Those behind the assassination in Executive Action are a small group of businessmen, political figures and former US Intelligence personal. They spend much of the movie alone in a mansion and come off as people who are out of touch with common society, nor are they keen on civil rights or minorities. They're like a secret society and are interested in their own agenda - an elite who believe it's their duty to pull off an action such as assassinating individuals to preserve their interests; in fact it's even stated this isn't the first time any of them have taken part in an assassination; these are business men controlling the world. Will Geer plays a stereotypical looking southern businessman who looks a bit like Colonel Sanders, while Burt Lancaster's menacing performance reminds me of his role of the evil business mogul J.J. Hunsecker in Sweet Smell of Success. These are cold blooded, emotionless men and the entire film is deliberately acted in low key performances. Whereas JFK is a film driven by emotion, Executive Action is the opposite in this respect.The film does an effective job at recreating 1963 with the fashions and cars on show; and despite the low budget there aerial shots of Dealey Plaza with the appropriate cars on the road and a recreation the billboard sign on top of the book depository as it looked in 1963. My only downside to Executive Action is the film's inconsistent pacing. The middle portion of the film drags as the story becomes less eventful, but the suspense builds up once the day of the assassination has arrived.Executive Action was made during a period when paranoia/conspiracy thrillers where at their height and right during the Watergate scandal; yet has been swept under the rug of history as it is the type of film which would be easily dismissed by critics for being speculative and other such dirty words. Thus there is a taboo like joy which comes from watching a provocative, somewhat trashy film like this.I also recommend watching the vintage featurette on the Executive Action DVD. During it the film's screenwriter Dalton Trumbo states he didn't believe in any conspiracy theories until he read the Warren Report and a dozen books on the subject and became convinced the president had been killed by bullets from two different angels. Likewise Burt Lancaster tells of how he became increasingly convinced of a probable conspiracy when doing his research. It goes to show how easy it is to be swayed into believing the JFK conspiracy.

David Miller directed this speculative conspiracy film dealing with the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on Nov.22,1963, which this film theorizes was a combination of government and business interests, threatened by the social change and end of the Vietnamese war they feared would lead to disaster. Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Gear, John Anderson, and Ed Lauter round out the cast of conspirators. Despite the explosive nature of this material(explored far better in later film "JFK") this film is inexplicably tame, presented in a coldly indifferent fashion most unsuited to the premise. Good cast keeps you interested, but film is ultimately a misfire.

This is the direct to the point account of a group of wealthy businessmen who brought together their brains and bucks to plot one of the greatest crimes of the past 100 years. They want to assassinate the President because of his extremist views. The motives are clear-racial relations, Vietnam, Cuba, general liberalism. The men involved? Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Will Geer, among others. What makes this scary? This is America less than 20 years after the fall of Nazi Germany and what is happening? Money and power are threatening freedom for all. These men truly believe that the Blacks and Hispanics should be given the same fate as the Jews of World War II. No lesson learned from those despicable crimes. Lancaster, ironically resembling Ronald Reagan, is the head of the organization, and dressed in every day casual clothes shows up at a greasy spoon to discuss the actual assassination. Robert Ryan, who sadly passed away in 1973, was very busy, appearing in four theatrical movies and one TV movie. Will Geer (Grandpa Walton!) is very memorable as the most sympathetic of the men, presenting reasonable doubts and expressing moral concerns for their plot. He also has rational reasons for going along with the group. The events building up to that November day in Dallas are presented directly, unapologetically, and seemingly historically accurate. Actual footage was interspersed with the filmed. Ironically, many of the on-lookers at the parade look very nefarious in their close-ups and it makes you wonder, how many thousands there actually knew this was going to take place? It is scary and still potent today. Stone made his film as an epic; This film is simply done to present an idea to the public to get them thinking. All this with the Watergate scandal on the front page. Considering it was Warner Brothers, the veteran studio of exposing crime to the public, producing this film, it's also a historically important film in our cinema past.