18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"It's not even a single bullet theory, in my opinion, it's a single bullet fact"--Dale Myers, December 28, 2008
This review is from: ABC News Presents The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy (DVD)
I watched and taped this program when it was first broadcast in 2004 and was so impressed by it, I've kept the tape. I am glad it is still available on DVD because "Beyond Conspiracy" is a well-done and convincing documentary on the Kennedy assassination that defends the Warren Commission's findings that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only shooter and acted alone. Ironically, the simplest answer is hard to believe sometimes and many who support one conspiracy theory or another will probably not be swayed by this DVD, but the evidence shown in this report is strong and would need to be dealt with to defend any theories involving magic bullets, second gunman, Oswald's connections with the CIA or KGB, Jack Ruby's ties with the Mafia, etc.
The most eye-opening part of this program are the findings of computer animator Dale Myers. He designed a computerized 3D replica of Dealey Plaza which utilized the movements of JFK and Governor Connally in the Zapruder film to recreate the shooting. The computer imagery shows the precise positions in the limousine and how a single bullet passed straight through both men causing their simultaneous reactions. The bullet is then traced to its exact source--the sixth floor window of the Texas school book depository. I was very impressed by this footage and think anyone interested in the assassination should see it.
The program also gives a biography of Lee Harvey Oswald with interview clips of his older brother, Robert, a journalist who knew Oswald when he defected to the Soviet Union, and a woman who knew Oswald and his wife in Dallas. It covers Oswald's troubled childhood, his attraction to Marxist philosophy, in large part, (according to his brother) to stand out from the crowd. He had a flair for the dramatics (slitting his wrist in Russia so the Soviet authorities would allow him to stay in the country) and an obsessive need to be something more than he was. When the motorcade route for JFK's visit was published in the paper and was revealed to pass right by the book depository where Oswald was a clerk, he seized the opportunity. Even more important as evidence of Oswald's sole guilt is information on his plot to assassinate retired general and anti-Communist Edwin Walker. Also, there is compelling evidence in this program revealing that Oswald was a superb marksman who was more than capable of shooting off the shots in the time allotted.
The program does not ignore the conspiracy theories. It covers the Warren Commission's failure to address the issue of Cuba and Castro's possible involvement (this area is probably not covered enough to refute conspiracy theorists). The Mafia ties are examined as well and Jack Ruby is painted as a braggart and loose cannon who would make a poor candidate for a co-conspirator. The fourth shot on the grassy knoll that scientists, in a 1976 re-examination of the Warren Report, claim can be heard from an open-microphone recording on a police motorcycle is refuted by Myers' computerized time-line of the motorcade that reveals officer McLain (who had always said he was not in position to pick up such a shot) was not in position the scientists claimed (Vince Bugliosi further dispels the fourth shot theory in his book "Reclaiming History").
Finally, the program pokes many holes in Oliver Stone's motion picture "JFK." It is very unfortunate that many people get their history from Hollywood. THIS DVD is one that needs to be watched on the Kennedy assassination, not a movie with actors and a script that takes artistic license. One area that is not covered is the simulated trial of Lee Harvey Oswald in London, but, again, Bugliosi (the prosecutor in that trial) will cover this topic in his book. Again, this program won't turn around everyone's opinion, but any discussion on the subject that does not at least address the compelling evidence revealed in "Beyond Conspiracy" is insufficient.
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last an evidence-based analysis that dispells myths, October 16, 2009
This review is from: ABC News Presents The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy (DVD)
It's easy to be swayed by all the misinformation that's out there. I myself had no idea the extent to which Oliver Stone LIED in his ridiculous movie. But this documentary shows in impeccable detail Oswald's personal history leading up to the assassination (including his attempted assassination of a racist leader about 6 months before Kennedy). With interviews of his own family members, it becomes clear that Oswald did this on his own for his own reasons. Another key part of the documentary is its de-mythologizing of the so-called "magic bullet." Oliver Stone and other conspiracists must lie about that in order to make their case, but in this documentary we see the truth-- the supposed impossible pathway becomes absolutely possible when you match Kennedy's and Governor Connely's positions in the car, and the fact that Connelly's seat was 3 inches lower than Kennedy's. Thank you to the creators of this film for their excellent application of reason to the evidence.
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49 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great fact based debunking of conspiracy theories., November 26, 2005
This review is from: ABC News Presents The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy (DVD)
The negative reviews here are really eye-opening in the level hostility they exhibit. I see a lot of sneering condemnation of this documentary as "propaganda", "ridiculous", "dishonest", "junk", and "GARBAGE" (in caps no less), what I DON'T see a lot of is these negative reviewers challenging this documentary's evidence with any facts. I just see a lot of visceral, emotional reaction. It's pretty clear that these reviewers had their balloon popped and not only did not like it, they will not face up to it either. The title of every one of those reviews ought to be: "I know what I know; don't bother me with facts!" On reviewer even states that he stopped watching less than halfway through the program. Well how CAN his rebutal be an intelligent let alone informed one?
And those negative reviewers who do try to cite facts get them WRONG! One, for example, starts the shots at Zapruder frame 210, giving only 5.6 seconds for the assassination. They really began at frame 160, giving over 8 seconds. Another talks about that the Warren Commission "moving a wound up 5 to six inches" in order to "put this wound in the neck", and also talks about moving Kennedy's head wound up "not one, not two, but 4 full inches from the Eop at the base of the skull to the cowlick in the center of the head."
!?!
I've seen the Kennedy autopsy photos. You can see them for yourself at any number of websites that a google search will turn up in less than 3 seconds. The clearly show a large wound at the top of JFK's skull, not at the base, and they also show a wound at the base of the president's neck, not the middle of his upper back where the CTs claim it is. The same reviewer asks: "...now ponder for a moment, do you think a neuromuscular reaction is stronger than a speeding bullet?" As a matter of fact, yes. Yes it is. The reviewer also seems to have forgotten a basic law of physics: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If the impact of a bullet had enough force to hurl a human body about like a rag doll, the recoil of the gun firing that bullet would be equally savage, and would hurl the shooter backward with just as much force. Shoot a rifle like the one Oswald fired, and you will experience no such level of recoil. Shoot such a gun at an animal of roughly the same body mass as an average adult human male -- such as a good sized white tail deer buck, for example -- and you will very often see the animal jerk NOT AT ALL, and instead, just start running in reaction to the hit. I know this from experience. A tiny piece of lead, weighing no more than an ounce or two simply doesn't have the ability to shove over a hundred pounds around like nothing, not even when it's travelling at 2500 feet per second. It just zips through, making a hole, and the violent jerk, if there is one, is the result of a neuromuscular spasm. And this is particularly true if the head -- the bio-electric generator that sends electric impulses out to the muscles -- is the target that is zapped.
This documentary serves up a good healthy dose or reality. A lot of people need to face it. I never cease to marvel at how people believe that the CIA, the Mob, LBJ, the Castro regime, and/or some combination of any or all of the above carried off a plot to kill Kennedy without letting the cat out of the bag, and then, still more incredibly, the LBJ White House, the Supreme Court, the CIA, the FBI, the Dallas Police Department, as well as doctors, nurses, reporters, and any number of others ALL conspired after the fact to bury all evidence of this before it could reach the public, and in over 40 years, NO ONE among these hordes of people in the know EVER betrayed any part of the plot. Give me a break. Face up to reality people. Just because you want something to be true doesn't mean it is.
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