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JFK
Warner Bros. Pictures

JFK reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 71 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.3 out of 10
based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language

Starring Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Michael Rooker, and Jack Lemmon

A government conspiracy is seen to be behind the assassination of President Kennedy in Oliver Stone's controversial film.


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Oliver Stone
Zachary Sklar
Jim Garrison (book, On the Trail of the Assasins)
Jim Marrs (book, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy)
 
DIRECTED BY: Oliver Stone  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: April 8, 1997 
Theatrical: December 20, 1991 
RUNNING TIME: 189 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Won Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. Oscar nominations for Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones), Director, Music - Original Score, Sound, Writing and Best Picture. Won Golden Globe for Best Director.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Stone and his editors, Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia, have somehow triumphed over the tumult of material here and made it work - made it grip and disturb us.
Read Full Review
100
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
Director Oliver Stone has fashioned in JFK a riveting, dramatic and disturbing look at one of the great whodunits of history. [20 Dec 1991]
91
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
[Stone's] filmmaking is so supple and alive, his obsession with the visual aspect of history so electrifying, that JFK practically roots itself in your imagination.
Read Full Review
90
Washington Post Rita Kempley
JFK is Stone's best and most emotional film since "Platoon."
Read Full Review
90
Time Richard Corliss
Through his art and passion, Stone makes JFK plausible, and turns his thesis of a coup d'etat into fodder for renewed debate.
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88
TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
Director and co-screenwriter Oliver Stone pulls off an amazing filmmaking feat with JFK, transforming the dry minutiae of every John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory of the past three decades into riveting screen material.
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88
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Controversy and all, JFK is one of the year's most powerful and provocative films.
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88
Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel
Does JFK capture the truth? Possibly, in a poetic sense. Is it a compelling film? Most assuredly. [20 Dec 1991]
80
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Disturbing, infuriating yet undeniably effective, less a motion picture than an impassioned. [20 Dec 1991]
80
Empire Torene Svitil
Truth or not, this is an exceptional piece of cinema, deeply provoking and audacious.
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80
Variety Staff (Not Credited)
This massive, never-boring political thriller, which most closely resembles Costa-Gavras' Z in style and impact.
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80
Washington Post Desson Howe
Stone creates a riveting marriage of fact and fiction, hypothesis and empirical proof in the edge-of-the-seat spirit of a conspiracy thriller.
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80
Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon
It's powerful film making that at the very least accomplishes what Mr. Stone said he set out to do - to offer the world an alternate myth. [20 Dec 1991]
78
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Stone makes it virtually impossible to leave the theatre convinced, beyond all shadow of doubt, of the lone gunman theory.
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75
Boston Globe Jay Carr
It's riveting moviemaking and a boost for what's left of America's ailing collective life. [20 Dec 1991]
63
USA Today Mike Clark
JFK is provocative, a technical primer and an ensemble treat with unusually well- realized star cameos. [20 Dec 1991]
63
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The movie is often tremendously exciting.
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60
The New York Times Vincent Canby
The movie, which is simultaneously arrogant and timorous, has been unable to separate the important material from the merely colorful.
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58
Baltimore Sun Stephen Hunter
JFK is entertaining, if only because the cast of characters in the New Orleans underground is so bizarre. [20 Dec 1991]
58
Portland Oregonian Ted Mahar
JFK drags but is undeniably fascinating. [20 Dec 1991]
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It is preachy, didactic and heavy-handed as only an Oliver Stone movie can be. And yet ... and yet... despite all this, the film has an undeniable cumulative power. [20 Dec 1991]
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
A three-hour oration, rambling and familiar and repetitive, during which director Oliver Stone uses the assassination of John Kennedy as an elaborate pretext for delivering a dull sermon. [20 Dec 1991]
20
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Stone's all-purpose conspiracy theory, built like a house of cards, rivals "Mississippi Burning" in its sheer crudeness and contempt for the audience.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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