An American Affair

Last updated
An American Affair
American affair.jpg
Promotional film poster
Directed by William Olsson
Written by Alex Metcalf
Produced by Kevin Leydon
Starring Gretchen Mol
James Rebhorn
Noah Wyle
Perrey Reeves
Mark Pellegrino
Cameron Bright
CinematographyDavid Insley
Edited byScott Chestnut
Music by Dustin O'Halloran
Distributed byScreen Media Films
Release dates
  • October 2008 (2008-10)(Zurich Film Festival)
  • February 27, 2009 (2009-02-27)(United States)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$28,044 (domestic) [1]

An American Affair, also known as Boy of Pigs, [2] is a 2008 American independent period drama film directed by William Olsson and starring Gretchen Mol, James Rebhorn, Noah Wyle, Perrey Reeves, Mark Pellegrino, and Cameron Bright. It was released theatrically by Screen Media Films on February 27, 2009. [3]

Contents

The film was shot in Baltimore in late 2006. [3] It was written by Alex Metcalf, and produced by Kevin Leydon. Its soundtrack was created by Dustin O'Halloran. It premiered at the 2008 Zurich Film Festival under the title Boy of Pigs. [4]

Plot

In 1963, in the swirl of glamour and intrigue that turned President John F. Kennedy's Washington into Camelot, a young teenager, Adam Stafford (Cameron Bright) has an inside view of JFK’s torrid affair with Adam's neighbor Catherine (Gretchen Mol) and secret CIA assassination plans. The assassination plan was influenced by a Cuban national in which America was having a revolutionary threat from Fidel Castro. Catherine kept a diary which entries were about the secrets of the President. This diary was secretly stolen from Catherine by Adam Stafford when she fell asleep. The contents of this diary were the cause of her murder by the CIA, presumably.

Adam is a thirteen year old boy attending Catholic school. Catherine moves across the street and she hires Adam to do some gardening. Adam falls in love with his unattainable thirty something blonde beauty. His parents warn him that she has a reputation. In fact she is an artist and has been having an affair with President JFK. She is divorced from a man who works for the CIA. CIA operative Lucian keeps tabs on Catherine. Adam finds and keeps Catherine's diary. JFK is assassinated. Lucian comes to the Stafford home, searches and finds the diary, and burns the book telling Adam that sometimes people get confused with what is really true. Adam finds Catherine at the bottom of stairs dead.

The Catherine Caswell character and the events not involving the wholly fictional Adam Stafford are based on true life Mary Pinchot Meyer. [5] The character CIA Agent Lucian Carver is heavily based on longtime CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton, who was a well-known associate of both Mary Pinchot Meyer and her former husband Cord Meyer who was also a CIA official.

Cast

Reception

Betsy Sharkey, film critic for the Los Angeles Times , found the film an affair not to remember. She stated it is a "mess of a film that can't quite figure out what it wants to be: an illicit love story, a political thriller or a coming-of-age set piece". She did like the acting of Gretchen Mol. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>JFK</i> (film) 1991 American thriller film directed by Oliver Stone

JFK is a 1991 American epic political thriller film written and directed by Oliver Stone. The film examines the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, who came to believe there was a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy and that Lee Harvey Oswald was a scapegoat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H. R. Haldeman</span> American political aide and Watergate Scandal figure (1926–1993)

Harry Robbins "Bob" Haldeman was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate scandal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Sturgis</span> One of five Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of Richard Nixons presidency

Frank Anthony Sturgis, born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the presidency of Richard Nixon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assassination of John F. Kennedy</span>

On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by former U.S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was hastily sworn in as president two hours and eight minutes later aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. Howard Hunt</span> American intelligence officer and author (1918–2007)

Everette Howard Hunt Jr. was an American intelligence officer and author. From 1949 to 1970, Hunt served as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where he was a central figure in U.S. regime change in Latin America including the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba. Along with G. Gordon Liddy, Frank Sturgis, and others, Hunt was one of the Nixon administration's so-called White House Plumbers, a team of operatives charged with identifying government leaks to outside parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. Fletcher Prouty</span> United States Air Force officer

Leroy Fletcher Prouty served as Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President John F. Kennedy. A colonel in the United States Air Force, he retired from military service to become a bank executive. He subsequently became a critic of U.S. foreign policy, particularly the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which he believed was working on behalf of a secret world elite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gretchen Mol</span> American actress (born 1972)

Gretchen Mol is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gillian Darmody in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014). She also appeared in the films Rounders (1998), Celebrity (1998), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)—in which she played the title character—3:10 to Yuma (2007) and Manchester by the Sea (2016).

Ramparts was a glossy illustrated American political and literary magazine, published from 1962 to 1975 and closely associated with the New Left political movement. Unlike most of the radical magazines of the day, Ramparts was expensively produced and graphically sophisticated.

<i>The Interpreter</i> (2005 film) 2005 film directed by Sydney Pollack

The Interpreter is a 2005 political thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, and Jesper Christensen. It was the first film shot inside the United Nations Headquarters, as well as the final feature film directed by Pollack before his death in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States</span> Panel investigating intelligence activities within the U.S.

The United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States was ordained by President Gerald Ford in 1975 to investigate the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies within the United States. The Presidential Commission was led by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, from whom it gained the nickname the Rockefeller Commission.

<i>The Good Shepherd</i> (film) 2006 spy film directed by Robert De Niro

The Good Shepherd is a 2006 American spy film produced and directed by Robert De Niro and starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and De Niro, with an extensive supporting cast. Although it is fictional, loosely based on events in the life of James Jesus Angleton, it is advertised as telling the history of the birth of counterintelligence in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Pinchot Meyer</span> American socialite and painter (1920–1964)

Mary Eno Pinchot Meyer was an American painter who lived in Washington D.C. She was married to Cord Meyer from 1945 to 1958, and became involved romantically with President John F. Kennedy after her divorce from Meyer.

James Truitt was an American journalist who worked for Life and Time magazines. He later became the vice president of Newsweek magazine.

Cord Meyer IV was a war veteran, a world federalist, a CIA official and a writer. After serving in World War II as a Marine officer in the Pacific War, where he was both injured and decorated, he led the United World Federalists in the years after the war. Around 1949, he began working for the CIA, where he became a high-level operative, retiring in 1977. After retiring from intelligence work in 1977, Meyer wrote as a columnist and book author.

<i>The Ten</i> (film) 2007 American film

The Ten is a 2007 anthology comedy film directed by David Wain, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ken Marino. It was released through ThinkFilm. The film was released on August 3, 2007. The DVD was released on January 15, 2008. It is an international co-production between the United States and Mexico. It received mixed reviews.

The John F. Kennedy assassination and the subsequent conspiracy theories surrounding it have been discussed, referenced, or recreated in popular culture numerous times.

<i>The Other Boleyn Girl</i> (2003 film) 2003 British television film

The Other Boleyn Girl is a 2003 BBC television film directed and written by Philippa Lowthorpe, adapted from Philippa Gregory's 2001 novel of the same name. It centres around courtier Mary Boleyn and her sister Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, King of England, and their competition for his affections.

The CIA Kennedy assassination is a prominent John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory. According to ABC News, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is represented in nearly every theory that involves American conspirators. The secretive nature of the CIA, and the conjecture surrounding the high-profile political assassinations in the United States during the 1960s, has made the CIA a plausible suspect for some who believe in a conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists have ascribed various motives for CIA involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy, including Kennedy's firing of CIA director Allen Dulles, Kennedy's refusal to provide air support to the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy's plan to cut the agency's budget by 20 percent, and the belief that the president was weak on communism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories</span> Conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of JFK

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 has spawned numerous conspiracy theories. These theories allege the involvement of the CIA, the Mafia, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, the KGB, or some combination of these individuals and entities. Some conspiracy theories have alleged a coverup by parts of the federal government, such as the original FBI investigators, the Warren Commission, or the CIA. Former Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi estimated that a total of 42 groups, 82 assassins, and 214 people had been accused at one time or another in various conspiracy scenarios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Janney</span>

Peter Janney is an American writer, psychologist and lecturer based in Beverly, Massachusetts. He is best known for his book Mary's Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace, in which he makes a detailed case that ex-CIA wife and John F. Kennedy mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer was murdered by the CIA in order to cover up what she had discovered about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

References

  1. "An American Affair". Box Office Mojo.
  2. "New Article". Washington City Paper. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Baltimore-Made Independent Film Gets Distribution". WJZ. February 4, 2009. Archived from the original on March 25, 2009.
  4. "Boy of Pigs - Zurich Film Festival".
  5. Taft, Kevin (August 4, 2009). "An American Affair". Edge.
  6. Sharkey, Betsy (March 6, 2009). "An American Affair" . Retrieved November 26, 2018.