Customer Reviews

Executive Action

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When this movie was released in 1973, there was a fierce backlash against it, due to it being only 10 years after the assassination of JFK. It would not get released on home video for another 10 years. It would take Oliver Stone's JFK in 1991 before the subject would be opened again. But this film did get the conspiracies started. Using historical footage, we see the reasons why Kennedy would be assassinated, from the withdrawal of advisers from Vietnam to the Nuclear Treaty agreement with Russia. We're also to believe that it was 5 rich old white men who called the shots on the assassination. Whether this is all true or not, we'll never know. But the way the story is told leaves us to make our own decisions. What would have made this story more believable was if they would have delved into the people who actually witnessed the assassination, as they mentioned this fact at the end of the film. Because this was low budget, that probably would not have been feasible. The result is that I kind of felt cheated by its message. Despite that, it is still interesting and thought provoking speculation.

The first film to challenge the Warren Commission's "lone gunman" theory about the Kennedy assassination, EXECUTIVE ACTION, although overlooked and overshadowed by Oliver Stone's later 1991 epic JFK, is an equally substantive film about how people in high places can destroy a man of peace and help to wreck a nation with their obsessions with war and murder.

Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Will Geer portray a cabal of right-wing businessmen clearly concerned about what Kennedy might do with respect to the Cold War and our involvement in Vietnam if he is re-elected in 1964. The film concerns itself with the assassination teams that these men manage to assemble that will end up being at that appointed place of destiny, Dealey Plaza in Dallas at 12:30 PM Central Time on November 22, 1963.

Though much less flashy than Stone's film, EXECUTIVE ACTION, directed by David Miller (LONELY ARE THE BRAVE), and scripted by former blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo from Mark Lane's book "Rush To Judgement", has its own style of credibility. Lancaster and Ryan (the latter in one of his final films), known for their liberal politics, give extremely convincing and low-key portrayals of the right-wing businessmen at the center of this film's conspiracy theory. Talk about the chilling banality of evil.

EXECUTIVE ACTION is not a very easy film to find; and like JFK, it blows holes big enough into the Warren Commission report to drive a truck through and make apologists like Gerald Posner absolutely apoplectic. If you can find it, however, it makes for an extremely worthy film, both on its own and in tandem with JFK.

Although plenty hefty and made years before the general public even heard of Oliver Stone, this highly plausible assassination plot scenario seems comparatively easier to follow and spares us any unecessary histrionics such that one is left with the impression that it could very well have happened just the way this story tells, even if they never specify exactly who was responsible but rather still give a good general idea what kind of people might have been motivated to carry out a world shaking agenda from somewhere behind the scenes.

Executive Action is a stark, low budget docudrama about the assasination of John F. Kennedy. We watch as a cabal of old, rich white man plot the death of JFK and, in a starkly matter-of-fact way, the film details how they pulled it off. As opposed to Oliver Stone's later JFK, Executive Action goes to great pains to remain a rather cold recreation. Though this makes the film far more somber than Stone's, it also makes for a far more persuasive case. By not sensationalizing or resorting to emotional trickey, Executive Action forces you to consider the evidence for a conspiracy and, even if you're a skeptic like me, by the end of this film, you have to admit that there is a great deal of credible, if circumstancial, evidence to support the idea of a conspiracy. The conspirators, themselves, are deliberately kept obscure. We learn little about their backgrounds or individual personalities and, while some might complain that Executive Action doesn't contain any performances as crazed as say Joe Pesci in Stone's film, it actually works to help Executive Action avoid the hysterically paranoid feeling that Stone wallowed in. Whereas I think JFK ultimately caused more people to dismiss the idea of a conspiracy than accept it, Executive Action is powerfully persuasive. Every effort has been made to maintain a sense of realism. As well, Executive Action features the final performance of the great Robert Ryan. Though, unlike co-star Burt Lancaster, Ryan's become somewhat forgotten today, he was one of the braver movie actors working in the Hollywood of the '40s and '50s. He was a committed activist who was willing to take chances with his films if he believed in the message. Its obvious that this was a project that both he and Lancaster felt very deeply about and there's something gratifying in the fact that both of these very missed actors managed to create a message movie that actually manages to persuasively argue for its message. Lancaster and Ryan were represenatives of a courage that doesn't seem to have survived in today's Hollywood and, whether you agree with them or not, its hard not to respect the body of work they fought so hard to create.

I have to admit that I've never been a big believer in conspiracy theories. I've never believed there were aliens hidden away in government hangars, never feared the Trialateral Commission, and I've always thought that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Call me a skeptic but I've always felt that conspiracy theories draw their strength from people being too frightened to accept that on the whole, we're all at the mercy of random fate. That being said, let me also admit that if any film could convince me to reexamine my disbelief, it would have to be Executive Action.

As a student of the lone assassin theory(I have read Garrison's memoirs, Marr's book, Posner's, Lambert's, Epstein's, and Lane's Rush to Judgement)I watch movies like this and JFK purely for entertainment purposes. This is a good solid piece of cinema that does generate a sense of what could be a plausible theory with regard to the assassination, but offers no facts so the gullibility of mankind(especially among the teen set) should be forewarned that, like Stone's masterpiece of cinema, this IS NOT A DOCUMENTARY. I used to be a believer in a conspiracy in the JFK assassination, but over time with great study and thought(especially after reading False Witness), I have discounted the theories of the crackpots like the late Jim Garrison. There are so many people that act as if it was just impossible for Oswald to have carried out this murder.I don't see what is so hard to believe about the fact that a human zero could have orchestrated this terrible act. Believe me, Oswald without help from Clay Shaw or David Ferrie killed Kennedy. The assassination involved no powerful elite organization(such as the FICTIONAL one presented in EXECUTIVE ACTION) in some type of oligarchy or hierarchy of power structure that carried out the crime of the century. In conclusion, from a cinematic standpoint this is a good film which will keep the viewer's attention, and it will make you "think". The American public must be warned, however, that from a factual standpoint, EXECUTIVE ACTION and JFK are fairy tales that reflect a cold war paranoia of the times within the United States....

You can go into any public library and check out the 26 volumes of the Warren Report!

This was the first commercial film to present a "parallax view" of the assassination of JFK just a decade after the event. It is the "anti-Warren Report".

It tells an interesting story about the killing, altho it is not a big budget film; it seems all the more real for that. There were other films that deal with the subject in a metaphorical, fictional way.

Like "Suddenly" or "The Manchurian Candidate" you won't see it often on broadcast TV.

This film drama about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy takes you into the grip of a low level intensity that burns throughout the picture. When the white power structure of finance-capital senses too many changes coming on they decide they must take action, executive action. Burt Lancaster as the calm, murderous assassination advance man who plots the details with a banal evil and Will Geer as the somewhat reluctant conspirator who must be convinced of the danger JFK poses are both excellent. Robert Ryan is even better, especially when he gives a chilling speech about how the people of the third world will soon be 'swarming out of their breeding grounds'. Sadly, amatuer acting in the extreme in some small roles, including the part of Jack Ruby, mar the film. Good use is made of newsreel footage of events taking place in the days and weeks prior to the assassiantion and many of the confusing facts regarding the event and the people surrounding it are brought to light. Viewed for insight, or enterainment, this film is worth it. It also has what may be the best opening title sequence ever. Stands up to the test of time, and repeated viewings.

Never mind Maltin's comments above, this is a skillfully crafted film, with fine understated performances and a brilliant, haunting score.

Compared with ``JFK'', this is a far more plausible and chilling presentation. These are not whackos, but ordinary business people and professionals, ``trained and reliable'', as Burt Lancaster says; not New Orleans right wing homosexual looneys. Everyone here acts in what they believe is the best interest of the country; granted, a very whacked out fascist vision, in which killing off our excess population of ``poverty-prone whites'' is rational. But everyone involved is efficient and intelligent.

Aside from a political drama, the movie excels at working in the facts of the case as well, particularly the relationship of the government with Oswald and the unbelievable, but true, mis-handling of the protection of the president (not that any improvements have apparently been made, unless someone can explain how a hooded Manson family member managed to stick a 45 into Jerry Ford's gut). Yes, some of the ``facts'' are false, particularly the time-worn legend of the D.C. phone system being out of order, but in the main the movie sucessfully blends fiction and reality.

The overall tone of the movie is very respectful of the weight of the matter, on both sides. Even the conspirators view the assasination solemnly, and the score and film clips work together to leave a feeling of sadness and waste. If this fictional world was really true, then we know the conspirators failed to fulfill their vision of the world as much as Kennedy failed in his.

I almost didn't watch this movie when I saw Leonard Maltin had rated it a "Bomb," but I'm glad I did. I agree that the pace early on could have been quicker, but overall the movie presented its theory pretty well.

While JFK was a mystery investigating a murder, this is a step-by-step recreation of how the crime might have happened. I'm not a conspiracy buff, and I felt this film presented some of the theories more clearly than did JFK, and seemed to make a better attempt at staying historically accurate.

"Executive Action" is about the conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. The title refers to covert organizations' euphemism for selected killings. Distinctions are important because EA does not try to prove that a deadly plot existed. EA is ABOUT the conspiracy itself! The pace is slow and chillingly deliberate. The film is totally free of excess and editorial. The conspirators are so calm, the dialog so matter of fact that the viewer could almost be eavesdropping on casual conversation between friends. Their motivation lay in Kennedy's failure to fully support the Bay of Pigs invasion, a nuclear treaty with Russia and his support of Civil Rights. Then there is Topic # 1-J.F.K.s apparent (!) intention to begin withdrawing troops from Vietnam in 1965. Profits decline in peacetime! Two veteran actors, Robert Ryan and Burt Lancaster are the right wing fanatics who decide to take "executive action" against the President. Both are excellent, especially the cynical Ryan. It is their calm "everyone is expendable" iciness that bites to the bone. They have "Done this Before". To them there is no difference between eliminating JFK or dispatching a troublesome Third World dictator. These string-pullers calmly put together a hit team as casually as forming a new finance department. There are two significant details: 1) there were not 1 but 3 shooters in Dallas that day and 2) the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald is treated as an unplanned afterthought. A strong point is the intermingling of historical documentary form the early 60s, which gives EA body and context. A weak point is the supporting cast. The supposedly professional assassins look liked they were drafted from the company softball team. The role of strip club owner Jack Ruby would be laughable if he had not been so important in real life. EA is a first rate low key film that failed to win recognition when it was first released. Conspiracy fans and conspiracy haters alike are encouraged to watch EA. Those who can't learn anything will at least be entertained. A final thought. EA would have been ideal for a black and white format. It's curious the producers chose to colorize such a somber film.