Oswald’s Ghost
Directed by Robert Stone
Documentary
Paramount Home Video
Available Jan. 14, 2008

Questions about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy have echoed through America for over 40 years.

Think of it — an American President was gunned down in broad daylight on a public street in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses and captured on film by Abraham Zapruder.

Yet, no one was ever brought to trial and evidence was mishandled or missing. The President’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was killed a few days later. President Johnson appointed The Warren Commission to investigate Kennedy’s shooting, but the commission’s report was so spotty and left so many questions unanswered, the majority of Americans today believe JFK’s assassination was part of a shadowy conspiracy.

Robert Stone’s documentary Oswald’s Ghost, part of the excellent American Experience series on PBS, doesn’t present any new evidence on the assassination. Stone’s purpose is not to contribute to the controversy, but to look at the controversy itself. Oswald’s Ghost shows how controversial aspects of the assassination originated and why JFK’s murder continues to haunt the American psyche like a jeering, paranoid mockingbird. Stone interviews a variety of assassination aficionado’s including Norman Mailer, Dan Rather, and politician Gary Hart. Insights are also provided by Mark Lane, whose book Rush To Judgment, was not only the first book to suggest Kennedy’s assassination was a conspiracy, but also suggested that the Warren Commission was probably in on it.

Mailer believed for many years that Oswald was the fall-guy in a larger conspiracy, but later came to believe Oswald acted alone. Mailer suggests most Americans not only believe America is blessed by God, but that God takes an active role in shaping American destiny. So when something like the Kennedy assassination occurs, people can’t believe someone as insignificant as Lee Harvey Oswald can derail the American presidency — they have to believe larger, more powerful forces are at work.

There are also some great memories from Dan Rather, who was working as a reporter in Texas on the day of Kennedy’s murder. Rather talks about trying to cover the event and the confusion and chaos at the TV station where he worked, as reporters from around the world converged in Dallas.

There is also some wonderful archival footage of Oswald insisting he is a patsy, Oswald’s mother, Margaret, who claims her son was a government agent — while demanding payment for interviews about him, and Jim Garrison trying to establish a connection between Oswald and Oswald’s assassin Jack Ruby.

Some of the most interesting footage shows the political climate in Dallas in the days before JFK was murdered. The city was full of right-wing extremists who hated the government and loved segregation. On the day Kennedy was shot, the Dallas newspaper ran a full page advertisement “welcoming” Kennedy to Dallas and then listing dozens of reasons why he wasn’t actually welcome there. The political environment in Dallas was a powder keg ignited by Kennedy’s visit.

The biggest fault with Oswald’s Ghost isn’t the material it presents, but issues it fails to address. There is little discussion about Jack Ruby’s motivations for killing Oswald and no mention of why Ruby believed it was so important to silence the only person who could have provided a decisive reason for Kennedy’s murder. Ruby spent many years in prison before his death, why wasn’t his involvement investigated more effectively and documented more thoroughly?

Oswald’s Ghost reminds us that the Kennedy assassination changed the American political landscape and changed the way Americans feel about their government. It sparked a feeling of broken trust and fueled a cynicism that remains. JFK’s murder was the flashpoint fueling the pervasive belief that all national tragedies — from the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the 9/11 attacks — will never be sufficiently or even convincingly explained.