Customer Reviews

Ruby

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

 

 

Aiello gives a superb performance (in a fictionalized speculation) as Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner who is willing to exploit the mob but at the same time be connected to it, and later murders President JFK's assassin. Terrific score, top-knotch supporting cast, but a little too much plot. A must if your interests include the Kennedy murder conspiracy.

There are almost as many conspiracy theories about this film as about JFK himself: locations were barred, actors dropped out and it was strongly implied that Oliver Stone and his powerful agent Michael Ovitz put unreasonable pressure on the picture to 'protect' the Kevin Costner film. On its cinema release, the film disappeared quicker than a witness in the Warren Commission - in the UK it barely lasted a week. Yet though it may lack the star power and sweep of Stone's epic, it is still a worthwhile and intriguing film.

Unlike most JFK movies, Ruby doesn't bombard you with information or alternatives, but gives a plausible account of events seen through one man's eyes - in this case Jack Ruby, the small-time burlesque club owner and former hit-man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Less visually striking (but then overt stylistics were never John MacKenzie's strongpoint) and on a smaller scale as befits its character, to its credit it is more of a character piece than a conspiracy movie, with Aiello's central performance turning what could have been a minor film into a more interesting one.

There are a couple of marvellous moments - Ruby seeking professional advice on how to hit the president of a country (Castro, not Kennedy) and set up a patsy as they pass Deeley Plaza, and the minutes leading up to the assassination when both Ruby and the stripper he has a curiously chaste relationship with suddenly realise what is happening - and a lot of very strong ones. Extremely well-crafted and building to a climax rather than constantly grabbing your attention, it has the feel of the sixties, both in the production design and the very approach of the film. A more controlled, centred film than its dazzling big-budget rival, Ruby may not be a masterpiece but it does deserve to be better known.

"Ruby" is John Mackenzie's answer to Oliver Stone's "JFK". Stone dealt with the Jim Garrison case while Mackenzie deals with Jack Ruby and his cohorts.

The movie has decent production values. I was expecting a low budget film. The movie even starts out with a film noir feel. You hear saxophone playing on a dimly lit street. A man is hanging from a hook from a gangland hit. This gives the movie a needed boost in the opening.

Danny Aiello plays that enigmatic assassin Jack Ruby. He's a simple night club owner. He has the several business arrangments with the Dallas Police Department. He's an informant for the FBI. He has ties to Cuban gun runners. If only the real Ruby would stand up...

Ruby meets "Candy Cane" played by Sherilyn Fenn. "Candy Cane" is a composite based in part on "Candy Barr", a notorious exotic dancer and adult performer. Candy Cane shows Ruby's softer side.

The movie shows the title character going to Cuba and getting mixed up with anti-Castro mobsters. An enigmatic figure named "Maxwell" (probably a composite of Maurice Bishop aka David Atlee Phillips) is on the fringes, keeping to the shadows. He seems to know everything about Ruby's business.

The movie gives some interesting meat to chew on. Who was Jack Ruby? What were his motivations? But in the final analysis, these questions go largely unanswered. The creators didn't want to stick their necks out like Oliver Stone did with his magna opus. And this is a fatal flaw.

If more time was spent developing the motivations of Jack Ruby or exploring his ties to organized crime or his ties to the CIA, the movie would garner an extra star from me. If the movie had done all these things, it would have garnered an extra star and a half. This movie is a bit of a let down because it is so close being great.

John Mackenzie directed one of the most ambitious gangster films of British Cinema mafia flicks, The Long Good Friday starring Bob Hoskins. Now he's back again with his american True Events based mafia flick about Jack Ruby, JFK & Santos Trafficante. In this flim Ruby is played by Danny Aiello in an Oscar worthy performance. This film made me a fan of Aiello. This is better then The Last Don, Marc Lawrence plays Santos (Allicante) Trafficante in this film. He also plays Carlo Gambino in Gotti. He gets allot more screen time in this film and is absolutely menacing. Joe Cortese (Family Enforcer, Monsignor, Rat Pack) co-stars in this great mafia flick. His part is reasonable. John Mackenzie shows once again what made him such a great underrated film. This is a good companion piece to JFK or Rat Pack. The back drop is of course the JFK assassination. John Scott also plays an Oscar worthy Score reminiscent but all in all better then the Godfathers which ads to the greatness of this mafia flick. Truly an underrated film Danny Aiello also stars in another great Mafia meets Dukes Of Hazard flick Hooch. This one's more commonly available. Hooch is grindhouse style like Family Enforcer, this film is a mini epic like Rat Pack & Lansky. The only thing missing is Joe Pesci's Oscar Worthy performance briefly scene in JFK which would've made this complete. Instead we get the Saw Creep. All In all very great film and very underrated. Fans of great Gangster flicks must pick this up soon.

Received in great condition. I was having a tough time finding thus movie and you had it. Thanks so much for your honesty and getting this product to me.

First of all let me say I loved this film. Of course as a student of the JFK assassination, I immediately recognized the film takes generous amounts of artistic license. However I still find it interesting and compelling.

Almost everyone knows the story of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald on live television. This film explores Ruby's adult life in Dallas as owner of a perpetually struggling burlesque club. The post-murder of Oswald is not explored as in-depth.

I liked how the film went into Ruby's involvement with amoral Dallas policemen and his quasi-cooperation with the FBI and CIA. And Ruby's relationship with dancer "Candy Cane" was presented as tender, sweet, and was very well done.

A few problems I have with the film: Danny Aiello's portrayal of Jack Ruby was almost too kind. Aiello played him as a sympathetic character, who was (somewhat) forced into unscrupulous dealings with Dallas police, just to keep his club afloat.

It's true that Jack Ruby was involved in those kinds of shady and illegal activities, but in real life Jack Ruby was a shrill, excitable individual. He was a fight waiting to happen, and he savagely beat up countless customers. In fits of rage, he personally threw men down flights of stairs. It's well known that he sent countless customers to the hospital for lengthy stays.

In real life Jack Ruby spoke in an odd voice, somewhat nasal and lispy. In photographs with his dancers at the time, Jack Ruby looks like a 100% effeminate gay man. He NEVER made a move on any of his dancers, never married, and had a "girlfriend" that was all for show.

Danny Ailello portrayed Ruby as masculine, dignified, pleasant, just a struggling businessman who got mixed up in the wrong crowd......which we all know wasn't the case. He was a ruffian, with a fowl temper and he was highly unscrupulous.

The character of David Ferry was portrayed by Tobin Bell, also (in my humble opinion) as excessively positive. Tobin played Ferry as an eccentric and enigmatic CIA agent. In real life David Ferry was a mess. He made his own wigs (that looked like a dog with mange), and he painted on his eyebrows with a black magic marker.

However, perhaps the film would have been too annoying to sit through, had the two men been portrayed as they were in real life-lol Can a movie goer sit through 90 minutes of lisping, bizarre murderers? I don't know.

However I still recommend the film. Just realize the producers took a large chunk of artistic license, and you should enjoy it as much as I did. I give it 5 stars because I believe the characters' real personalities were artistically and successfully manipulated to make an entertaining film.

In "Ruby", veteran actor Danny Aiello does a superb job of portraying the man who will forever be remembered for silencing the accused assassin of President Kennedy.
Aiello almost makes a better Jack Ruby than Jack Ruby himself.
Aiello gives a memorable performance and gives valuable insight as to why Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Hint: It wasnt why the Warren Commission said he did. There were much more conspiratorial and sinister reasons.
This movie will certainly add to the intrigue of the JFK Assassination conspiracy.
It paints Ruby as somewhat of a patsy himself, like Lee Oswald was.
Sherilyn Fenn does a great job as "Candy Cane" one of Ruby's strippers.
You really feel for Ruby and Cane at the end of this movie.
This movie also has a very stunning scene of the JFK Assassination, and it was filmed in Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was killed.
If you are interested in the JFK assassination, the Mafia's vendetta against Castro, or the corruption of the Dallas Police at the time of the JFK murder, you will find this movie very interesting.
I hope you enjoy it.

this is a good movie for anybody interested in the JFK assassination or for just anybody who wants to watch a good movie.
this movie has very little to do with the actual facts, for instance, the girl, Candy Cane dosen't exist, but they put her in anyway.

the actual assassination is pretty good.
only 2 shooters though, but not a bad re-enactment.
Robert Groden also got involved in this movie, Groden is the author of several books and helped recreate the Dealey Plaza scene for JFK.

the saddest part of the movie is the assassination of JFK.
you see the motorcade come down Elm Street in front of the book depository and in the background you hear Amazing Grace.
kinda sad.

i like the theme song when he's going to kill Oswald, but the actual Oswald assassination scence is pretty corny. in the movie, Oswald sees Ruby coming at him and he prepares for the shot, in reality, that never happened, but this isn't a documentry, it's a movie.

so enjoy it.

When it comes to films re-telling the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, or involving characters snared in the events of that November weekend, one is always certain to navigate between fact and fiction, speculation and interpretation, and without a doubt, opinion and controversy. Regardless of where one's interpretation of the events in Dealey Plaza stands (I'm one of those minorities that thinks Oswald did it alone), however, the bulk of the movies that build the body of their plots around this event can be enjoyed on the entertainment level despite their historical inaccuracies.

Much like Oliver Stone's "JFK" and the Mark Lane-inspired "Executive Action," the Danny Aiello vehicle herein falls into the entertainment category. However, in my opinion, "Ruby" is not filmed in a format like the other two, where an obvious agenda for swaying the mind of the viewer is in place. I would instead rank this film with the novels of James Ellroy and Don DeLillo ("American Tabloid" and "Libra," respectively), stories that take a true event and build a fictional approach to the subsequent controversies surrounding it. It is obvious, however, that the screenwriter holds a belief that Ruby was involved in a conspiracy, but I didn't feel his opinion was as prominent as Stone's was in "JFK."

And "Ruby" is decidedly more fiction than anything else, with events like Jack Ruby being a hitman for the CIA/Mob to whack Castro. However, these events are likely inspired by real people and real events, and they have just been incorporated into the film for dramatic license, and to also make Ruby seem like he knew more than we, the people, have been told.

Unfortunately, the historical record--and yes, Ruby's own testimony--indicate he was merely another nut like Oswald, a man thoroughly devastated by the murder of JFK who acted out on another prominent feeling he contained: A desire to be famous. Much has been made of Ruby's testimony before the Warren Commission, regarding his statement that he could tell the truth only in Washington, yadda yadda. However, and as shown at the end, ellipses and selective culling of what Ruby stated frequently ignore the fact that Ruby made repeated denials of being involved in a conspiracy to kill either Kennedy or Oswald. If anything, Ruby was likely showing the symptoms of paranoia he would display later on when making statements that claimed a new Holocaust of Jews was occurring in the US, with some being murdered in the floors below his prison cell. Despite this, the conspiracy believers will likely see this as mere propaganda placed in the historical record by the cover-up artists to discredit Ruby, citing his not-so-mysterious death from cancer as proof he was silenced, despite the fact that Ruby never really had much of anything to say.

Despite it's obvious knack for speculation in lieu of historical adherence, this film is actually pretty good, though far below the entertainment standards of Stone's film (which likewise is thoroughly inaccurate and speculative, but is very impressive and quite a technological marvel). Danny Aiello, while not physically resembling Jack Ruby in many ways, gives a fine, emotionally charged performance. One can only wonder how amazing he would have been had he been playing the Ruby character that historians have come to know, as Aiello hits the mark as an emotionally high-strung man with a penchant for violence and occasional gentleness in measure. Arliss Howard is also especially fun to watch as the mysterious "spook" Maxwell, a CIA agent who snares Jack in the darkness brewing in the time period. Sherilyn Fenn is amazingly gorgeous on screen, playing a composite character who seems to be a combination of Beverly Oliver ( a claimed associate of Ruby who claimed to have filmed the Dallas motorcade, but is deemed unreliable by many researchers) and Judith Exner (a supposed liason between the Mob and Jack Kennedy). However, her role didn't give her much to work with, other than being eye candy (coincidentally enough, her act name is Candy Cane. Go figure) and eventually, the damsel in distress. Her character could have been far more interesting had it been developed further, but then again, we're watching a film called "Ruby," not "Candy Cane." The scene-stealer to me, however, was the always-mysterious Tobin Bell as David Ferrie, managing to look ten times more bizarre and frightening than Joe Pesci's take on the character in "JFK." Here, we see a Ferrie who cackles at serving up a man he has known for years as a fall guy, a man with an intense voice and a penetrating gaze. One can only wonder how Bell would have handled the part in JFK had Stone offered it to him.

The movie moves a bit slow in the start, but once Jack starts becoming caught up in the intrigue with Maxwell, things liven up a little. A solid musical score gives the film a noir-ish feel, and the set design and camerawork capture the feel of the 60's and the dirty seedy underbelly of the American Dream. This movie feels like an Ellroy novel in so many ways to me.

My kudos have to go to the filmmakers for their rendition of the assassination scene, managing to create a subtle yet shocking re-creation which looks quite good. The addition of the song "Amazing Grace" while the bullets are fired packs an emotional wallop, especially considering how good the costumes and adherence to detail from photographs looks. It's quite impressive, almost like a less glossy and underproduced version of what Stone did in his film. Thankfully, the filmmakers opted not to have a six-bullet scenario like Stone, which ranks this interpretation a little higher on the Sanity List in my opinion, this in spite of my disagreement with a shot from the Knoll. I digress, however, from my main point: It's well-achieved on screen.

The film lost a few points from me in the way it doesn't go into detail about some events of November 22, 1963, such as the death of Officer JD Tippit, but this can also be chalked up to the fact that Ruby likely had no knowledge of them. Thus, the film sticking to what he saw (or would come to learn eventually) gives the movie a feel of being the Jack Ruby portrayed herein, which gives the movie a good emotional hook to invest in.

It's not the greatest thing I've ever seen, but it's decidedly underrated and underappreciated. Give it a try!

There are spoilers in this review, but you should already know the historical details anyway.

"Ruby" isn't a good movie, but it *almost* was, and long stretches of the movie show us glimpses of the great movie it could have been. These portions of the movie are good enough to be worth owning the DVD for (especially if you enjoyed Oliver Stone's "JFK" for the look and feel of it rather than factual analysis).

The story takes what little is known about Ruby's shady life - that he was a burlesque club owner who had connections to organized crime and the CIA - and riffs on this entertainingly. However, the idea that Ruby's motive for shooting Oswald was "to expose the whole thing" makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, especially knowing that he made no great revelations about the conspiracy after he thrust himself into the public eye. How do you expose a conspiracy by silencing a key conspirator?

For some reason, the director chose to portray the mobster Santos Trafficante under the transparent guise of a character named Alicante. The fictional character of Candy Cane is rather pointless, especially since she seems to be a total fabrication and not based on any of Ruby's actual strippers. The infamous Jada is nowhere to be seen in the film, which is one of the biggest disappointments for me.

The look and feel of the film is great, though. It's an enjoyable immersion in gangsters, burlesque, spies, and politics, in late-50s-early-60s surroundings. Their period portrayal of Cuba is extremely well done, but rather than recreate Las Vegas, they simply pillaged stock footage from Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas". This perfectly illustrates the film's uneven level of quality.