terrilllankford
Interesting artifact from the 70s. Great to see Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Ed Lauter at work. But check out THE PARALLAX VIEW if you want a real juicy JFK parable. And the best of all these movies is WINTER KILLS.The filmmakers behind EXECUTIVE ACTION have the known, undisputed facts of JFK's assassination: the where and the when. By reverse engineering that info they create a conspiracy theory that is so complicated and implausible that it makes you realize that it would have been impossible to plan and execute it this way. A politically confused lone assassin with little planning makes much more sense than the scenario laid out here.But of course, that's what "THEY" want you to believe. Right?
Spikeopath
Executive Action is directed by David Miller and written by Dalton Trumbo, Donald Freed and Mark Lane. It stars Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, Gilbert Green and John Anderson. Music is by Randy Edelman and cinematography by Robert Steadman.In essence it's a film that is offering up a different theory to the Warren Commission's report that ruled Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating John F. Kennedy. Plot has Lancaster and Ryan as shady conspirators who plot the downfall of JFK on that fateful day November 22nd 1963. There's lots of talking, with the actors chewing into the dialogue whilst brooding considerably, their motives explained clearly, the framing of Oswald brought to life, and it rounds up to a triple gunmen scenario. We then get a startling revelation about what befell a number of eyewitnesses from that infamous day.It's engrossing without being truly riveting, but the cast make it worth time spent. While if you like to buy into the conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination? Then it carries some extra entertainment value. 7/10
danzeisen
To those who have studied the assassination of JFK through the years this film is very polarizing. Almost everyone has an opinion of whether or not a conspiracy was involved, and government studies have come to differing conclusions. Opinions are like navels, we all have them. It astounds me still that a movie like this with heavyweight actors such as Lancaster, and Ryan could be made ten years after the assassination. Like many alive I recall when this movie debuted in theaters and then disappeared from theaters. I never got a chance to see it then, but was told it was very "Upsetting." Having seen it at in 2011 I would use the word disturbing. The story is told in a matter of fact, low key manner, that men of power and wealth discuss and come to feel that the 35th President must die. It is very chilling to me that it is told in such a low key, almost clinical manner. There is a cabal of power brokers, lead by Geer, who is eventually convinced of, and gives the okay to the assassination. These "Superpatriots" display an arrogant, and insular skewed view of the world and imply that "They know best." Where have we seen that attitude before? Even if you don't buy the conspiracy angle, this is a great movie, well made. The hairstyles, cars folks drove and other incidentals are, in my opinion, not at all important. The message is the thing, and the thing is to think.
Lechuguilla
The film's thesis is that JFK was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy of wealthy men. In the title sequence, the producers admit that: "much of this film is fiction, much of it is also based on documented historical fact. Did the conspiracy we describe actually exist? We do not know. We merely suggest that it could have existed". In other words, the film's rationale is based on skepticism of the Warren Commission's lone-gunman theory.The three main characters, the villains, are Farrington (Burt Lancaster), Foster (Robert Ryan), and Ferguson (Will Geer), all suits, VIPs, presumably industrialists. But we're never told explicitly who they are or what they represent. Farrington is apparently the mastermind, the one who proposes that "the only possible (successful) scenario is three rifles with triangulated fire".Much of the dialogue consists of background information taken from historical government records related to Oswald and Kennedy's policies, and is therefore largely exposition. It's as if the film is giving viewers a history lesson. As a result, some of the dialogue sounds canned, scholastic, bookish.Casting is adequate. But acting is very, very wooden. Sometimes the cast acts like they're reading their lines off of cue cards.Color cinematography is conventional, though adequate. B&W newsreel footage of JFK, his speeches, the crowds that followed him, his arrival in Dallas, and Oswald permeates the film's plot, and gives the film a factual, semi-documentary look and feel. Some good aerial shots of Dealey Plaza lend authenticity to the story. And that moment when the motorcade enters the kill zone is quite dramatic, absent dialogue and music.Viewers who cling to the lone-gunman theory will hate this film. Viewers who believe in a conspiracy will probably prefer Oliver Stone's more recent, and more compelling film, "JFK" (1991). Back in the 1970s, "Executive Action" was the go-to film for those interested in this historical series of events. Now, the film seems very dated.
AD
