Jfk: Assassination Files [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Each of these more than one dozen films has been "optically enhanced" for the best possible video quality. I've seen these films presented on other videos -- but, I must admit, many of these sequences look better than ever before thanks to the clean-up and enhancement effort done for this program.

Each film appears to be *complete* in each case, as well. With nothing trimmed off the beginning or the end, which is valuable from a "completist" (and historical) standpoint. Two good examples of this come in the chapters for the "Zapruder" film and the "Mark Bell" sequence -- with each of these films containing footage on this DVD that is not normally shown on JFK documentaries or assassination videos.

The very beginning of Abraham Zapruder's film is shown here, which includes a couple seconds of footage taken a few minutes before the Presidential motorcade arrived in Dealey Plaza that November afternoon. These very first frames show two people sitting on one of the park benches located on the "Grassy Knoll", as well as Mr. Zapruder's assistant, Marilyn Sitzman, standing in front of this bench. Sitzman turns to face Zapruder's camera just before this segment ends. The film then goes directly to the famous footage of the motorcade motorcycles turning onto Elm Street.

The version of the Mark Bell film on this DVD is also of interest for its "complete" length. After the motorcade is seen leaving Dealey Plaza, Bell filmed some additional footage from an elevated position, across the street from the Elm Street activity. This footage is not usually shown when Mr. Bell's film is utilized for a video, etc.

The Zapruder Film, which is the most famous of any of the motion pictures taken on 11/22/1963 (and the only one to show the entire assassination from beginning to its gruesome end), is given the most detailed examination in this program (and rightly so). A variety of different copies of the "Z-Film" are shown here, and it's quite interesting to see how lousy some of the original copies are. But, along with a bad-looking copy or two, Groden also shows us some "enhanced" copies as well; plus an original "unspliced" copy of the famous home movie, which Groden had in his possession before the film was accidentally damaged by the Life Magazine people shortly after that company purchased the original film from Zapruder.

Other films shown on this DVD (in additional to Zapruder's and Bell's) include the footage taken by: Orville Nix, Marie Muchmore, Robert Hughes, Tina Towner, Elsie Dorman, Charles Bronson, Tom Alyea, Jack Daniel, Ernest Mentesana, John Martin, Mal Couch, and NBC cameraman Dave Wiegman.

Wiegman's original film is one of the most chilling taken in Dealey Plaza that day. Wiegman was riding in one of the "Press" cars (just a few car-lengths behind JFK's limousine). Just as the shots rang out, Wiegman jumped from his car, camera rolling, and ran toward the action taking place in front of him. His film is a total blur in many places, because he's running as he's filming. But it's a fascinating piece of film, nonetheless.

Elsie Dorman's film is quite interesting as well, mainly because of Dorman's location at the time she filmed the motorcade -- the location in question being the very same building from which the fatal shots were fired -- the Texas School Book Depository. Dorman was filming from the 4th Floor of the Depository, two floors below Lee Harvey Oswald's 6th-Floor sniper's perch. Dorman's film, therefore, gives us a similar view of the limousine to that of what Oswald would have been seeing at the exact same moments.

Thankfully (in my opinion anyway), Groden's narration focuses primarily on just the content of the various films themselves. He just briefly interjects his beliefs that some of the images we are seeing within these amateur films "proves a conspiracy existed to kill President Kennedy".

I, for one, do not subscribe to any of the many conspiracy scenarios that have been formulated since JFK's murder. In my view, Lee Oswald was the one and only killer located in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd. Of course, many people (most, actually) will vehemently disagree. But, so be it.

But, even for a person who advocates the "Lone Nut Assassin" scenario, this DVD is still a very worthwhile addition to the ol' Digital collection, for one very good reason -- this program collects ALL of the available assassination-related films and puts them all onto a single DVD. Plus, it's nice to be able to have this complete filmed record of November 22nd on the higher-quality DVD format. And being able to go directly to any of the various films via the disc's "Chapter" selection is also a handy and time-saving advantage over a VHS taped version.