| Interview With the Assassin | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Neil Burger |
| Written by | Neil Burger |
| Produced by | Brian Koppelman David Levien |
| Starring | Raymond J. Barry Dylan Haggerty |
| Cinematography | Richard Rutkowski |
| Edited by | Brad Fuller |
| Distributed by | Magnolia Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,000,000 |
| Box office | $48,058 [1] |
Interview with the Assassin is a 2002 drama/pseudo-documentary directed by Neil Burger and starring Raymond J. Barry and Dylan Haggerty.
An unemployed cameraman, Ron Kobeleski (Haggerty), is asked by his reclusive neighbor, a retired Marine named Walter Ohlinger (Barry) who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, to document a startling confession: that he, not Lee Harvey Oswald, killed President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. A stunned Kobeleski learns that the conspiracy theory that says there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll is true — because he was that second gunman. To prove it, he shows Kobeleski a spent casing from the rifle he used.
A skeptical Kobeleski demands proof, and follows Ohlinger as he attempts to prove his claims. He speaks to people who would seem to support Ohlinger's claims, but others, most notably his ex-wife, point to Ohlinger being a fraud and a lunatic.
The film ends with Walter Ohlinger's failed attempt to assassinate the present-day president. Kobeleski later shoots Ohlinger in self-defense at his own home. Ron Kobeleski is arrested and charged as an accomplice in the assassination attempt, and sent to prison for 3 years. In a short interview with a reporter, he states that "telling his side of the story won't help him at all." The closing credits state that Kobeleski was killed in prison.
For the most part, Interview with the Assassin is filmed from the perspective of Ron Kobeleski, as if he had shot it with his own camera. On a few occasions, the viewer actually sees Dylan Haggerty, the actor portraying him.
Interview with the Assassin won three awards at The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival: Best Experimental Film, Best Director (Burger), and Best Actor (Barry). [2]
Reviewing the film for The New York Times , Dave Kehr wrote that Interview with the Assassin "is a concise summary of every who-killed-Kennedy paranoid thriller ever made, reduced to two principal characters, a single camera and a running time of 88 minutes." [3] Kehr praised Barry's portrayal of Ohlinger, describing him as "a performer who can dart between stentorian self-assurance and cringing pathos, maintaining his character's ambiguity until the final sequence of this resourceful and ingenious entertainment." [3] According to The Philadelphia Inquirer's Steven Rea, the film "is a compelling, unsettling meditation on the nature of history, identity and truth"; he favorably reviewed Barry's performance as "chillingly good". [4]
Patrick Z. McGavin for the Chicago Tribune stated "Interview With the Assassin is imbued with a sinister air of danger that unfortunately dissipates in the final moments." [5] Calling Barry's performance "excellent", McGavin wrote: "He has an authoritative presence and a sense of mystery and danger, that like this movie, demands to be taken seriously." [5] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly compared its cinematography to The Blair Witch Project and described it as "a verite enigma-thriller, the pieces of which are more gripping than the finished puzzle." [6] Manohla Dargis in the Los Angeles Times complimented Burger's cinematography and his choice of Barry as Ohlinger, but said "it's too bad [Burger] didn't work harder at finding something more original with which to test his talent than the JFK assassination and the gimmick of the phony nonfiction film." [7]
The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday wrote that the movie was filmed in "the deadpan mockumentary style familiar to fans of This Is Spinal Tap and The Blair Witch Project. In fact, the stylistic conceit is by now so hackneyed that even the most impeccable execution isn't enough to make it compelling." [8] David Wrone, author of The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK's Assassination, stated: "The facts in Interview with the Assassin were so egregiously in error, I had to stop watching it." [9]
JFK is a 1991 American epic political thriller film written and directed by Oliver Stone. It 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 President Kennedy and that Lee Harvey Oswald was a scapegoat.
James Carothers Garrison was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1962 to 1973 and later a state appellate court judge. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the prosecution of New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw to that effect in 1969, which ended in Shaw's acquittal. He wrote three published books, one of which became a prime source for Oliver Stone's film JFK in 1991, in which Garrison was portrayed by Kevin Costner, while Garrison himself made a cameo appearance as Earl Warren.
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 Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine. 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.
J. D. Tippit was an American World War II U.S. Army veteran and Bronze Star recipient, who was a police officer with the Dallas Police Department for 11 years. About 45 minutes after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Tippit was shot and killed in a residential neighborhood in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was initially arrested for the murder of Tippit and was subsequently charged with killing President Kennedy. Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, two days later.
Mary Ann Moorman is an American woman who chanced to photograph US President John F. Kennedy a fraction of a second after he was fatally shot in the head in Dallas, Texas. The Badge Man, whom conspiracy theorists claim to be one of Kennedy's assassins, is purportedly visible in another of her photographs taken that day.
Jay Russell, is an American film director, writer and producer.
A Dictabelt recording from a motorcycle police officer's radio microphone stuck in the open position became a key piece of evidence cited by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in their conclusion that there was a conspiracy behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Made on a common Dictaphone-brand dictation machine that recorded sound in grooves pressed into a thin vinyl-plastic belt, the recording gained prominence among Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists following the HSCA's 1978 conclusion, based in part on this evidence, that there was a "high probability" that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone and that the Kennedy assassination was the result of a conspiracy.
Raymond John Barry is an American film, television, and stage actor. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film Steel City.
Manohla June Dargis is an American film critic. She is the chief film critic for The New York Times. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
James William "Ike" Altgens was an American photojournalist, photo editor, and field reporter for the Associated Press (AP) based in Dallas, Texas, who became known for his photographic work during the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy (JFK). Altgens was 19 when he began his AP career, which was interrupted by military service during World War II. When his service time ended, Altgens returned to Dallas and got married. He soon went back to work for the local AP bureau and eventually earned a position as a senior editor.
On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District attorney Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy, with the help of Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie, and others. On January 29, 1969, Shaw was brought to trial in Orleans Parish Criminal Court on these charges. On March 1, 1969, a jury took less than an hour to find Shaw not guilty. It remains the only trial to be brought for the assassination of President Kennedy.
Orville Orhel Nix was a witness to the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. His filming of the shooting, which only captured the last few seconds of it, but shows the grassy knoll in its entirety, is considered to be nearly as important as the film by Abraham Zapruder.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy and the subsequent conspiracy theories surrounding it have been discussed, referenced, or recreated in popular culture numerous times.
Niels Mueller is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His directorial debut film, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is a Palestinian-Jordanian man who assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy Sr., a younger brother of American president John F. Kennedy and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1968 United States presidential election. On June 5, 1968, Sirhan shot and mortally wounded Robert F. Kennedy shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; Kennedy died the next day at Good Samaritan Hospital. The circumstances surrounding the attack, which took place five years after John's assassination, have led to numerous conspiracy theories.
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. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that the CIA was not involved in the assassination of Kennedy.
The assassination of 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.
David R. Wrone is an American academic, author and historian. He is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a specialist in the fields of Native American history and political assassinations, writing books and articles on the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.
'71 is a 2014 British thriller film directed by Yann Demange and written by Gregory Burke. Set in Northern Ireland, it stars Jack O'Connell, Sean Harris, David Wilmot, Richard Dormer, Barry Keoghan, Paul Anderson and Charlie Murphy, and tells the fictional story of a British soldier who becomes separated from his unit during a riot in Belfast at the height of the Troubles in 1971. Filming began on location in Blackburn, Lancashire, in April 2013 and continued in Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool. The film was funded by the British Film Institute, Film4, Creative Scotland and Screen Yorkshire, and had its premiere in the competition section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, held in February 2014, where it was particularly praised for O'Connell's performance and Demange's direction.
Harold Weisberg served as an Office of Strategic Services officer during World War II, a U.S. Senate staff member and investigative reporter, an investigator for the Senate Committee on Civil Liberties, and a U.S. State Department intelligence analyst who devoted 40 years of his life to researching and writing about the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. He wrote ten self-published and published books and approximately thirty-five unpublished books related to the details for those assassinations, mostly with respect to Kennedy's assassination.