On E List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Executive Action (1973)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
5/21
5/21:
Before there was Oliver Stone's JFK, there was Executive Action.
It's a highly interesting, albeit frustrating, picture about the day that John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas and
what led to his assassination. This version claims Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do it and was merely set up as
the fall guy. To this day, nobody, except for those in the inner circle (and many died immediately afterwards),
knows what exactly happened, hence the frustration.
Having read about some conspiracy theories, I believe it was a CIA-Mafia joint operation. The main reason is
this: to get back at JFK for the chain of three significant events (the Mafia being stabbed in the back when RFK
attacked them after giving JFK the presidency by stuffing the ballots in Chicago; the loss of Mafia empire in
Cuba which included hotels, casinos, and brothels and it was the exporting base of heroin and cocaine into the
United States; and the Bay of Pigs fiasco [although plans for it were actually started during Eisenhower's term]).
JFK's intention of getting the troop out of Vietnam permanently warrants attention because big money was being made
in Asia through drugs, most specifically heroin that's cultivated from opium poppy seeds.
Whatever the answer is, it doesn't matter; the bottom line is: JFK wasn't a wholly good person. His list of
criminal activities, which began with his father, is lengthy which wasn't reported in the news. Instead, he's
exalted as the greatest president of the century, yet it was his looks that made people think of this way. To get
the full truth of who JFK really was, you'll have to read Seymour M. Hersh's The Dark Side of Camelot.
JFK cared about civil rights? Ha! He was all talk and no action, voting for nothing of that kind and didn't bring
such a bill to the table during his career in Congress. The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was eventually
signed into law by LBJ. The real reason why JFK didn't help the blacks is that he needed the white southern
voters to be re-elected. He never sent federal troops to the South to enforce desegregation; hence, the movie
Mississippi Burning is a total myth. Foreign
affairs dominated JFK's attention while the CIA tried to carry out assassinations of world leaders.
Back to Executive Action, it's an interesting movie in many ways. There are several details I never knew
before such as some of the Secret Service agents were drunk the night before and stayed up too late, the complete
layout of the Dealey Plaza and where everybody was situated, and Donald Sutherland originated the project but
failed to secure financing and moved on yet made up for it by appearing in JFK.
The acting is good which is meant to be straightforward in a documentary manner. It's why the once-banned film can
come off as dull for some. The involvement of Burt Lancaster helps, but the topic is much bigger than him. It's
Robert Ryan's final film as he died of cancer shortly afterwards.
All in all, like JFK, Executive Action is among the best in the conspiracy
theory genre.