Customer Reviews

Image of an Assassination: A New Look at the Zapruder Film (Full Screen)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Although the subject matter is horrific, this DVD is a great addition to my library. You get 4 different looks at the awful event itself, but the big difference in this DVD vs. the VHS copy is the bonus material! There's an excellent-quality segment on "the WFAA-TV interview" with Mr. Zapruder, made just hours after he filmed the assassination. I have several JFK videos, but I have never seen a lot of this material before! You even get to see about 2 minutes of the program that was interrupted before you get into the "live bulletin" news coverage. And the interview is shown in its entirety, and very clear. Quite chilling. Other extras on the DVD are nice too, including the 1975 "Good Night America" program with Geraldo Rivera, where America first was shown Zapruder's famous film, to the horrified gasps of the live audience members. This "Good Night" segment is quite complete also, with most of the late-night broadcast shown on the DVD. I'm not trying to minimize the actual Zapruder footage shown here (which is indeed quite crisp and clear, albeit with still a lot of dust and artifacts present that were obviously simply impossible to remove), but for me the prize in the package is the bonus material offered, and it makes this DVD a MUST for those like myself who collect about every Kennedy video out there. Because I guarantee you, you won't find lots of this footage anywhere else!

It is important that you know exactly what Image of an Assassination is before you decide to spend your money on it. The entire focus of the DVD is Abraham Zapruder's 26-second, 8 mm film showing the assassination of John F. Kennedy from start to finish. This is not a "who shot JFK?" documentary - there's no place for conspiracy theories or defenses of the Warren Commission conclusions to be found here. This is a new and much improved look at the single most important piece of evidence in the assassination of President Kennedy, complemented by a look at the process behind the digitalization of the film. There is no real analysis of the film, and no allusion to the criticisms some have made about the integrity of the film. Any conclusions to be made are left up to the viewer, and this video gives the viewer the ultimate look at this most famous, most important home video ever made.

The documentary does provide a timeline for the original film's travel across the decades, beginning on the morning of November 22, 1963, when the meek and mild Abraham Zapruder was encouraged to go home and get his camera so that he could film the passing of the Presidential motorcade. You get a brief personal look at Zapruder himself, a most reluctant of celebrities, including footage of the interview he gave to TV station WFAA hours after the assassination. There are interviews with several individuals associated with Zapruder and Time Life, the company which bought the rights to the film in the days after the assassination. You will follow the trail of the original film to the possession of Time Life (oddly, there is no mention of the mysteriously reversed frames that were printed in Life magazine shortly after the assassination) and, in 1975, back to the Zapruder family (it was sold back for $1). Time Life was feeling a little heat from the public for supposedly suppressing the original film itself after an obviously second-generation copy was unveiled to the American television public by ABC on Geraldo Rivera's talk show Good Night America in March of that year. The Zapruder family asked the National Archives to take possession of the film so that it could be stored under optimal conditions, and that is where the original 26-second film remains.

At this point, we get into the recent project to make a digital copy of the original film, one that could be made available to researchers and the public at large. Every time the original film is taken out of cold storage and viewed, deterioration is possible, and indeed some problems have been caused by the copying of the film way back in 1963. It is an impressive, laborious, strictly controlled process of a highly technical, ruthlessly documented nature, but it is much more than that. The digitalization process allowed for the vast improvement of the original film's quality. Each frame was scanned at resolutions up to 1500 dpi so that the footage could be blown up larger, dust and scratches were removed (except for those around the splices, which were just too damaged), and the sequencing is well nigh perfectly done. Best of all, though, we can now view the each frame from one film edge to the other, including all of the sprocket holes. Thus, some details can now be seen for the very first time.

The video is only 45 minutes long, culminating in several normal speed and slow-motion versions of the new and improved Zapruder film. The detail and color is amazing, but is this ultimate version of the 26-second film worth the money to you? If you are a casual JFK assassination nut, perhaps not. If you are serious about your armchair JFK assassination sleuthing, however, Image of an Assassination is a bargain at any price. Hordes of researchers over the years would have given their right arms for a version of the film half as clear as this one. The Zapruder film is the most crucial piece of evidence we have from November 22, 1963; Image of an Assassination gives you access to the Holy Grail of JFK assassination evidence.

You may not agree with all the wild conspiracy ideas, and you may believe in the lone assassin like myself. However, I really think in order to take a stand, you need to read the Warren Report, and have A DVD of the Zapruder film - these are the essentials. Then I would suggest to buy an early period conspiracy book like Six Seconds In Dallas and a book that shows the flaws in the Warren Report like Accessories After The Fact, only then would I suggest getting into the deep conspiracy ideas.

IMAGE OF AN ASSASSINATION - A NEW LOOK AT THE ZAPRUDER FILM (MPI,) is an alleged film record of Kennedy's murder. Alleged because this infamous home movie has been examined by optical experts and seems filled with puzzling anomalies that can't be reproduced using identical film, optics and allignments in Dealey Plaza and the infamous Grassy Knoll (see James Fetzer's book "Assassination Science"). The images of Kennedy's head exploding are still jolting. Four different views are included as is historical material surrounding the film. Whether tampered with or not, this film is a piece of history that defines the moment when America's social, political and psychological paradigm shifted.

In 1963, decades before there were video camcorders for public use, there were hand-held wide-up, push button movie cameras that used 8 millimeter, 16mm, or Super 8 Kodakrome film. You would thread the film in a partially dark room without sunlight through two spools inside, close the case and you were ready to film outside. On the tragic day of November 22, 1963, Abraham Zapruder had such a camera. What a wonderful day to make your own personal film of the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy parading down your own hometown street in Dallas, Texas. Zapruder of course had no idea what his film was about to capture that would end up being the most valuable, historic and greatest piece of film and evidence ever recorded. His film had to be given to the Secret Service. The piece of film captured the public assassination of President John F. Kennedy. You will notice the shot in his throat and then the fatal shot in his head. Kennedy's wife, Jackie, Nellie Connally and John Connally (who was also shot, but survived) were in the open car too. The film on this DVD has been totally restored in four different versions for you to see in full, brilliant color. Now you can see all of the film for the first time beyond the sprocket holes and the film replaced within the sprocket holes. All very painstakenly restored by the state-of-the-art digital equipment and computer by the professionals. Not for young children to see. Mature teenagers may watch this for educational purposes. Adults will be horrified. (Note: As you will realize, it was Lee Harvey Oswald who expertly shot President Kennedy from the Book Depository. Captured and arrested, Oswald was suddenly shot two days later by Jack Ruby while being escorted by policemen. Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner was convicted of murdering Oswald. Ruby died in 1967.

It is very educational and rewarding to gain insights into modern film restoration and preservation techniques. This item is a treasure for the keeping, but even with the great care and masterful rendering of the Z-film as presented it remains, sadly, incomplete. There are many frames still missing from what was the pristine original film negative, which will only serve to buttress arguments of tampering and cover-up; other than this, the DVD is a superb addition to any home collection!

Here it is in all it's gory glory. The most important record from that fateful day in Dealey Plaza - the Zapruder film. I bought a copy of this film on VHS when it first came out in 1998. I don't recall whether it had all the extras that this version has but it's nice to finally own it on DVD. I just finished reading Robert J. Groden's The Killing Of A President (an excellent collection of photographic evidence) and wanted to view the Zapruder film one more time. This DVD contains 4 different versions of the assassination as well as the entire interview of Abraham Zapruder from later that day and the entire Goodnight America segment (featuring Groden) . We owe Abraham Zapruder a debt of thanks for being in the right place at the wrong time to record this historic footage. Thank you Abraham.

If you are interested in the Kennedy Assassination, then you must get this DVD. It is much clearer than any version I have seen on TV. The original film was transfered frame-by-frame to large format film, then digitized for the DVD. You can view it frame by frame too, using the pause command of your DVD player. It doesn't get any better than this. There's also a very nice history of the film included.

This film is for the true Kennedy assasination history buff. Told initially from Abraham Zapruder's perspective, the viewer gets a whole new angle on the assasination that's well told and quite informative in that much of this information (Zapruder's actions following his historic filming of the assasination) has rarely been seen/told before. We see the "trail of the tape" as it's gone from Zapruder's camera to it's current location in the National Archives, along with many interviews with key players along the way (...even one televised interview with Zapruder himself only hours after the assasination is shown). Then we follow along as the original film is painstaikingly re-photographed frame-by-frame by experts to allow it to be renovated using today's current computer technology...the result is an unbelievably clear and at the same time gruesome re-playing of that fateful day (this really makes one re-think the conspiracy theories when you see the "head-shot" as it seems almost impossible for that bullet to come from behind...). Four different presentations, some in slow motion, of the renovated film are shown along with a detailed discussion of how this was done supplement the historical "feel" of this tape to give the viewer a truly magnificent visit back to November 22, 1963 in a whole new context.

With the Zapruder film no longer publicly available, many will purchase this DVD as one of the few current sources to view 22 seconds of the 1960's September 11th. However, the added features of old television show interviews and the narration providing the background story to this singular home movie are moving to the point of tears. The quality of the film as preserved in this DVD is spectacular. This is an irreplacable companion to any serious assassination research or interest.