10 Greatest Movies About American Politics

JFK takes a scattershot approach to the myriad explanations of the 35th U.S president’s assassination, but the presentation and detail is so great that Stone will have cynics believing - for a while at least.

Kevin Costner turns in another stately All American performance as Louisiana D.A Jim Garrison, whose investigation into the assassination proves costly for his career and family life. Costner brilliantly captures the distress of the nation after the unthinkable act of the President’s murder.

The film’s secret weapon is Tommy Lee Jones, perhaps career best as the shady suspect Clay Shaw. Stone isn’t reluctant to give us his thoughts on the whole matter, and the film certainly pushes Shaw as the brains of the operation. But even if you subscribe to the official verdict that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, JFK is amazingly captivating.

Almost the entirety of the last hour is given over to the trial, Garrison vs Shaw, and it’s one of the best courtroom scenes ever put to film. Typical for Stone, the film is brash, bold, and hugely opinionated, but acted so well and with such grand ambition that it’s fantastic fun, and historically relevant.