Product Details

• Actors: Peter Dean, James 'Ike' Altgens, Joseph Barabe, Glen A. Bennett, Hugh Betzner
• Writers: H.D. Motyl
• Producers: H.D. Motyl, Malik B. Ali, Waleed B. Ali
• Format: Black & White, Color, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Mpi Home Video
• VHS Release Date: August 4, 1998
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0788600222
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #268,347 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This first commercially available video version of the legendary 26-second "Zapruder Film"--the 8mm record of John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination, which was filmed by Abraham Zapruder--provoked a storm of controversy when it first appeared on video shelves. Added to the National Film Registry in 1994, this historical document remains a significant record of one of the nation's most devastating events and is still cited as a key piece of evidence in the debate over the truth of Kennedy's murder. This unprecedented release has been digitally mastered with the approval of the Zapruder family. An accompanying documentary, which explores the mastering process in detail, features a short portrait of Zapruder and a fascinating history of the film's official and unofficial showings up to the present. The tape also includes a frame-by-frame analysis of the film, a chronology of events, and additional historical video. This short film is still too gruesome and upsetting for many to watch, but Abraham Zapruder's famous home movie remains to this day one of the most controversial pieces of filmed history. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

127 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Holy Grail of JFK assassination evidence, August 27, 2004

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Image of an Assassination - A New Look at the Zapruder Film (DVD)

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.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great DVD Of A Very Sad Day, July 21, 2001

By 

David Von Pein (Mooresville, Indiana; USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Image of an Assassination - A New Look at the Zapruder Film (DVD)

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!

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have for Researchers, June 2, 2000

By 

William T. Parnell (Sherman, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Image of an Assassination - A New Look at the Zapruder Film (DVD)

The DVD version of this product is something that should be in the library of every JFK assassination researcher.

The Zapruder film itself is presented in four different versions including a "widescreen" presentation never before seen.

The documentary section of the disc is excellent and using historical video and interviews tells the story of the Zapruder film from the chance filming up to the process used to make the digital transfer. Also included are the video sources the documentary draws from including the complete "Good Night America" segment in which the film was shown on national TV for the first time. It is interesting to see how dated the theories of Robert Groden and the other guests are when viewed today. Other segments include Richard Stolley of Life discussing the negotiations for rights to the film and a WFAA-TV interview with Zapruder taped shortly after the assassination.

If you are at all interested in the JFK assassination this DVD shold be in your collection. Be sure to get the DVD instead of the VHS version though-for a couple of bucks more it is really worth it.