10 Conspiracy Movies That Will Make You Paranoid
4. JFK
Oliver Stone is about as divisive a filmmaker as you can get, but there's no denying that JFK - his adaptation of Jim Garrison's book, On the Trail of the Assassins - is really quite special.
Part political thriller, part courtroom drama, JFK captured the attention of those who always felt there was more to the assassination of the 35th President than met the eye. It was embroiled in controversy right from the very get-go, but regardless of its inaccuracies, Stone's film makes for a suspenseful watch. Costner is convincing as the controversial Garrison, a New Orleans D.A. determined to prove the conspiracy that ostensibly felled Kennedy, but there are others - such as Donald Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones - who make the film even better.
There's something almost unnerving in the way Stone, and by extension Garrison, assemble their case for a conspiracy having been responsible for the President's assassination. It might be riddled with inaccuracies, inconsistencies and certain contrivances, but the film was a cultural phenomenon, sparking renewed interest in the deliberations of the Warren Commission and with it JFK's death.
No matter your thoughts on the Kennedy assassination, Stone's film is worth watching for its assemblage of Garrison's work as well as for its cultural salience. That and Donald Sutherland is magnetic as Mr. X.