Killing Oswald

Fifty years after JFK’s death, and we’re no closer to knowing the full story. This British-made indie doc puts the focus on supposed ‘lone gunman’ Lee Harvey Oswald and his curious pre-Dallas history as a way into the morass of conspiracy theorising. The film suggests that his trips to Russia and his pro-Castro links made Oswald suspicious: the only reason the CIA didn’t collar him was that he was one of theirs. Authors David Kaiser and Dick Russell, who’ve pored through the material declassified in the years since Oliver Stone’s ‘JFK’, paint a murky picture, backed up by some unconvincing reconstructions and much fascinating TV and radio archive. The vintage footage (including the shocking Zapruder film of the fateful moment) keeps us watching, but the slack editing often loses track of the whos, whys and wherefores. Conspiracy specialists are probably the intended audience, since this doesn’t make a case for its presence on the big screen. Come back Oliver Stone, all is forgiven!