User reviews

As a serious researcher of the Kennedy assassination (and Lee Harvey Oswald in particular), I was intrigued by this film's title and grabbed it as soon as it became available on VHS.

The film is based on the supposition that Lee Harvey Oswald was not killed on November 24th, 1963, and lived to stand trial for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It was shot on location (that's worth the price in itself) and all of the key people are represented, although many of the names have been changed (possibly to avoid paying royalties to the real witnesses and players, but who knows). This could tend to be slightly irritating to researchers and serious students, but it doesn't detract from the drama as it unfolds.

I want to point out here that at no time during the film does it show Oswald doing anything illegal. We never see him with the rifle; we never see him in or around the "sniper's nest"; and we never see him shoot Officer Tippit. All conjecture. The film does tend to follow the findings of the Warren Commission Report, so new students to the assassination can get a good start here. Bottom line ... whether you believe in the lone nut theory or conspiracy, it is an entertaining and thought-provoking film.

although the conclusion is plausible, conceivable, it is ultimately useless: I wasn't there, but many credible sources say that there was an approx. 1.5 second interval between 2 of the shots....so if LHO shot a gun that day, he had a "partner", probably to JFK's right; there is MINUS-ZERO evidence LHO was perched at that window as JFK passed.

tempered by those rational points...I thoroughly enjoyed the layout of the film, the pacing, and esp. the great performance of Lorne Greene.

buy this movie....watch it as you would watch any "movie house" movie. the "conspiracy" resolution here might not satisfy your curiosity or investigative urges but it will make you stand up off your loveseat!

I saw this movie as a kid and then watched it from a library copy a week ago.

Since my original viewing I have intensely studies the various conspiracy theories, including the Federal Government's conspiracy theory: that a lone nut gunman who happened to be a USMC, Russian speaking defector, with US Naval Intelligence credentials, who flew back from the USSR at the height of the Cold War on a state department ticket, to repatriate in the US without a passport, who enjoyed the company of virulent right-wingers, assassinated the President with a Manlicher-Carcano (known as the Italian "humanitarian" rifle during WW2 because its barrel rifling was so bad) that he bought mail-order from Chicago, when he could have bought something better from just about anywhere in Texas back in 1962.

Yeah, these conspiracy theorists are real whack jobs.

Watch this movie to stoke the fires of your interest in discovering the truth. And don't let anyone call you a liberal or leftist just because you won't swallow the propaganda.

Think for yourself.

This movie is a good place to start.

I'm usually no conspiracy theorist, princess diana, 9/11 all i can say is yawn but this is very different, nobody no matter what they say knows for certain what happened on that day, other than president kennedy and john connolly were shot, how many shots,how many shooters, who did the firing,Did Oswald act alone,did he fire any shots, was he in fact on the 6th floor at that time,the magic bullet truth or fiction? so all these and more are questions that still have not been conclusively proved either way.

The film certainly is not the standard 'toe the official line' and treat the public like little children fair usually dished up when discussing this particular episode in American and world history, by the mainstream media, who are prepared to air the latest claptrap about princess diana, michael jackson and 9/11 CTS, but always shy away from even questioning the events leading up to nov 22 1963... the movie has some good acting and is at least occasionally prepared to move away from the WC bible although predictably it ends up coming back onside.

So to end a good movie but we are still awaiting a truly definitive movie to be made about this enduring mystery man named lee harvey oswald.

On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald gunned down the President of the United States in the most spectacular assassination in history. He was arrested in double quick time, not for the Kennedy assassination, but for the cold-blooded execution of a police officer who perhaps acting on instinct had challenged him in a routine stop.

It took no time at all for the authorities to connect Oswald to the first crime, and in due course he would have been indicted for the assassination, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. But forty-eight hours after the crime of the century, Oswald himself fell victim to an assassin's bullet.

Up to a point, this docu-drama does a reasonable job of tracing that predictable but abandoned future by airbrushing Jack Ruby out of the picture and putting Oswald on trial. There are no faults with the acting, especially that of John Pleshette who bears a more than superficial resemblance to Oswald and who mimics the mannerisms and moods of this narcissistic non-entity to a tee. Unfortunately, towards the end the film loses its way in a maze of manufactured conspiracy. While it is true that these imaginary conspiracies were extant rather than newly invented, a more straightforward approach would have had true historical legitimacy.

Nevertheless, some people will have liked it, and the ending is certainly novel, like everything else about the life and death of Lee Harvey Oswald.

When my dad told me that there was a movie he saw about what may of happen if Oswald had been Trailed for the murder of President John Kennedy, i told him i had to see this movie. So we went and looked every where for it and finally we found it on the internet. When i watch the movie i couldn't believe how the actor who played Oswald looked so much like him. One of the main reasons i enjoyed this movie is because I'm a big Kennedy conspiracy nut. This movie really made me think, It would have been interesting to hear what Oswald had to say, what did he know, and if he did kill the President, why? Was he part a group who were mad at Kennedy because of his way of handling communism, or was he just crazy? "The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald" is a wonderful "what if" movie, and if you like conspiracy's this is a movie for you. And as you are watch think, did Lee Harvey Oswald really kill The President of the United States or was he in fact a patsy?

This picture has only one thing going for it: Pleshette. The portrayal of Oswald here is the only item worthy of mention. Made for TV, on the threshold of the publishing of the House Select Committee on Assassination's Report, this is yet another apology for the Warren Commission. As with Gerald Posner's book "Case Closed" there was by necessity a myriad of omissions and errors committed to make this story believable. The subject is better covered in Walt Brown's novel "The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald." As a piece of fiction, this movie moves at a good pace and the acting is fine, as fact, it is only for those that have a yearning to buy the Brooklyn Bridge, or occasionally peer out the window searching for flying pigs.

With all due respect to the previous viewer, what makes this speculative TV movie so effective is *because* it ends up coming down on the side of the Warren Commission conclusions for the most part, which have been vindicated by all subsequent investigations and serious historical analyses, particularly Gerald Posner in "Case Closed." A priceless moment is when the judge berates Oswald's defense attorney (Lorne Greene) for deliberately injecting a grassy knoll gunman during a shooting demonstration.

Skip "JFK", which is all about making things up out of thin air to fit a biased theory. Watch this instead if you can, along with the 1992 Quantum Leap episode "The Oswald Conspiracy".

The film goes completely off the rails by choosing to focus on wild conspiracy theories instead of the actual criminal trial of Oswald. What really destroyed the value of the film for me was the fictionalized version of Harold Norman's eyewitness account (he was called "Melvin Johnson" in the film.) Norman was on the fifth floor of the Depository at the time of the shooting. He clearly heard shells falling above him (he referred to them as "hulls") as they were being ejected AND THE BOLT ACTION OF THE RIFLE. The sound of the bolt action was completely omitted from the fictional "testimony". Also omitted was the fact that Norman was quite familiar with rifles and the sound they make during such actions. His use of the word "hulls" ( a common description of ejected shells by those familiar with rifles) shows that he was hardly the ignorant "golly gee, they sounded like shells" buffoon he was made out to be in the film. Also, the film claims that supposed conspirators knew about the motorcade route weeks in advance. This is nonsensical, because the Secret Service decided on the route just days in advance, and it was announced just three days beforehand. Another example of the film's distortion of facts is the idea that the bag that the Carcano rifle was in should have had oil on it, because the rifle was "well oiled". What the FBI was referring to was the firing pin and spring. They did NOT say that the rifle was slathered in oil.

As I stated in my comment regarding JFK(1991), I'm not willing to dismiss any conspiracy theory regarding the Kennedy assassination, unless it's completely devoid of facts, such as in Oliver Stone's propaganda piece. Somebody criticized it for echoing the Warren Commission report, but I don't think this movie supports the Warren Commission's line at all, in fact it offers the possibility of other groups who might've wanted Kennedy dead, including the Ku Klux Klan, who is rarely considered despite the fact that they were so determined to kill in order to resist an integrated south.



What we all have to remember that this is pure fiction, since Oswald never lived to go to trial, and Robert Thompson never implied that it was the truth, unlike Oliver Stone who firmly believes his left-wing rhetoric, and expects us to do the same. This TV-Movie and the play it was based on offers all kinds of speculation of who else may or may have not worked with Oswald. Even die-hard believers in the Warren Commission have to accept the fact that Oswald SAID he was a patsy. Was he telling the truth, or was he just trying to throw the spotlight off of himself? Just what would've happened if Jack Ruby never killed him on live television, can only be speculated by all sides. At least Thompson tried to give us something to consider.