Silver Screenings

Kevin Costner (left) in 1991’s JFK, directed by Oliver Stone. Image: Letterboxd

Hollywood director Oliver Stone called film historian/journalist Roger Ebert one of the great film critics, because Ebert understood what filmmakers are trying to achieve.

Stone’s comments may be due, in part, to Ebert’s appraisal of Stone’s controversial 1991 film, JFK. “This is not a film about the facts of the [John F. Kennedy] assassination, but about the feelings,” Ebert wrote. “JFK accurately reflects our national state of mind since November 22, 1963.”¹

Ebert defended Stone’s choice of New Orleans State Attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) as the film’s protagonist. “Whom should he have chosen?” asked Ebert. “As a filmmaker it is his assignment to find a protagonist who reflects his feelings. Jim Garrison may not have been on the right track [while investigating the assassination], but he was a perfect surrogate for our…

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