A movie solely about JFK and the events leading up to and after his assassination would be monotonous, unsurprising, and probably rated NC-17. It would be a lot of shots of the limp body of 46 year old, a lot of shots of a blood stained 1961 Lincoln Continental, and a lot of shots of a coffin being moved from car to building to car. Viewers wouldn’t be enticed by the element of surprise at all. Almost every American knows that the 35th president didn’t finish his first term no matter their education level. The only emotions that would really be present in theaters behind the silver screen or in bedrooms behind the screen of a laptop glowing with a pirated movie would be grief and shock. And that’s exactly why movies have been made about the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK’s life as a whole, but never strictly his death. The topic is too narrow, too melancholy, and much too predictable.
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The film shies away from the assassination itself and instead focuses on the lesser-known and more personable grief of his widow – Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy. In doing so it adds back surprise, it adds back suspense, and it almost loses its historicity. Textbooks cover the bullet leaving Jack Ruby’s Gun and it entering President Kennedy’s skull extensively, but they never cover the woman whose dress was soaked by that blood, the woman who planned his funeral so meticulously, and the woman who faced ten times the amount of grief that the nation
The film shies away from the assassination itself and instead focuses on the lesser-known and more personable grief of his widow – Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy. In doing so it adds back surprise, it adds back suspense, and it almost loses its historicity. Textbooks cover the bullet leaving Jack Ruby’s Gun and it entering President Kennedy’s skull extensively, but they never cover the woman whose dress was soaked by that blood, the woman who planned his funeral so meticulously, and the woman who faced ten times the amount of grief that the nation