Salon Newsreal | New JFK death film

T A B L E+T A L K
What do you think of the Southern Baptists' mandate that wives should submit to their husbands? Sing "hallelujah" or damn them all to hell in the Social Issues area of Table Talk

D A I L Y+Q U O T E
Gloria Steinem, meet Bridget Jones

R E C E N T L Y
Author asks: When did Jones and Clinton meet?
By Lori Leibovich
Mystery at the Excelsior Hotel
(08/03/98)
A new kind of strike
By David Bacon
The first auto strike over GM's global investment strategy
(07/31/98)
The strange case of Kenneth S.
By Dr. Justin Frank
A Washington psychoanalyst analyzes "Kenneth S." and his odd fixation on the president's sex life
(07/30/98)
Starr's final act?
By David Corn
Kenneth Starr has sprung into action, but where is he headed?
(07/29/98)
Why Clinton caved in to Israel
By Jonathan Broder
The Lewinsky scandal's first big victim: The Middle East peace process
(07/28/98)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Browse the
Newsreal Archives
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

spacer

NEW JFK DEATH FILM | PAGE 1, 2
- - - - - - - - - -
The cover box is tasteless ("Includes a never-before-seen version of President Kennedy's assassination! A collector's item for all Americans!"). But it's no overstatement to say that watching the digitized version is like seeing the Zapruder film anew. The color, resolution and additional detail are unlike anything available before. And thereby hangs a tale. For if the Zapruder film left its mark on the national memory over the past 35 years, it got there most often through bootleg copies, circulated mainly by conspiracy theorists.
When Life magazine reproduced a number of stills from the Zapruder footage just after the assassination, the publisher decided that Americans should be spared the trauma of viewing its most grisly images. He purchased all rights to the film and withdrew it from public circulation for the next several years. (In 1975 the rights were returned to the Zapruder estate, which then deposited it at the Archives.) But while sequestered, the film began its underground existence. Volume 18 of the unabridged Warren Commission Report included frames from the crucial sequence, and some enterprising soul managed to put together a crude re-animation of the black-and-white reproductions. Another researcher, allowed to watch the Zapruder film in the Life archives, surreptitiously filmed the images off the screen using a hand-held camera of his own. (These details are omitted from the new video.)
In the late 1960s, the Zapruder film was subpoenaed during the trial of Clay Shaw -- a Louisiana businessman accused by Jim Garrison (the hero of Stone's docudrama) of organizing the Kennedy assassination. Garrison never proved much of anything, except, perhaps, that New Orleans is a very strange place; but his legacy to the world of assassinology was enormous. While the Zapruder film was in his possession, Garrison tended to mention its whereabouts to others involved in studying the events in Dallas. If someone decided to run off a copy when he stepped out of his office, what could he do about it? Not much! More than 100 "Garrison bootlegs" thereby got into circulation. And from them, other boots were made.
The turning point came in 1975, when the footage was shown to a national television audience for the first time. The occasion was a late-night talk show hosted by Geraldo Rivera. An excerpt from the program is included on the new video, which is in its own way a slice of broadcasting history.
The youthful Geraldo, wearing lapels as big as his head, gives off an almost electric charge of countercultural fervor. His guests include a JFK assassination researcher, who narrates as his own Zapruder bootleg runs, filling the television screen. It is not as muddy as some copies in circulation at the time, but should give today's viewer a sense of the improvements in visibility with the digitized version.
The crucial moment is what conspiracy theorists know, with a certain morbidly affectionate familiarity, as "Z-313" -- that is, frame 313, in which the president's brains get blown out, and his head snaps backwards. Thus proving (as Geraldo's guest says, and many have repeated) that there must have been a marksman firing from somewhere in front of the motorcade, probably at the "grassy knoll" in Dealey Plaza; otherwise, if the fatal bullet had come from the School Book Depository, behind Kennedy, his head would have fallen forward. That interpretation is in fact very much open to dispute. The nerves and muscles in the human body make it respond to force in ways somewhat more complex than a sack of potatoes.
But the television audience is not concerned with nuances. Everyone in the studio gasps. Geraldo says, "That was heavy." And cut to a commercial break.
In the intervening decades, the images have grown more familiar, if not less powerful. After watching those 26 seconds more times than I can count, the impact of Z-313 is still visceral. And within the milieu of JFK assassination investigators, a shift in attitude is evident. For years, the Zapruder footage was a fabled object, rare and virtually unobtainable. Studying the film closely might reveal the truth about what happened in Dallas. It was the closest thing to being there.
But now the aura has worn away. The theory has lately been argued -- at great length and in microscopic detail -- that the Zapruder film has been tampered with, somehow, during all those years in the custody of Life magazine or the National Archives. Suspicion feeds on suspicion.
As noted, the images on the new video have been passed through high-tech enhancement processes. Which is not the sort of detail to be overlooked by someone who wonders if, perhaps, "They" didn't instruct Zapruder to take his camera, that morning. (Such has been speculated by residents at alt.conspiracy.jfk.) In the early 1960s, director Jean-Luc Godard defined film as "Truth, at 24 frames per second." That, for a long time, was the implicit faith of the small audience devoted to the Zapruder film. Technically, however, it runs at about 18.5 frames per second. And even in a restored and stomach-turningly vivid edition, Truth disappears, somewhere between the sprocket holes.
SALON | Aug. 4, 1998
Scott McLemee writes regularly for Salon. He is at work on a book, "Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: Conspiracy Theory in American Culture."

T A B L E+T A L K What do you think of the Southern Baptists' mandate that wives should submit to their husbands? Sing "hallelujah" or damn them all to hell in the Social Issues area of Table Talk D A I L Y+Q U O T E Gloria Steinem, meet Bridget Jones R E C E N T L Y Author asks: When did Jones and Clinton meet? By Lori Leibovich Mystery at the Excelsior Hotel (08/03/98) A new kind of strike By David Bacon The first auto strike over GM's global investment strategy (07/31/98) The strange case of Kenneth S. By Dr. Justin Frank A Washington psychoanalyst analyzes "Kenneth S." and his odd fixation on the president's sex life (07/30/98) Starr's final act? By David Corn Kenneth Starr has sprung into action, but where is he headed? (07/29/98) Why Clinton caved in to Israel By Jonathan Broder The Lewinsky scandal's first big victim: The Middle East peace process (07/28/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		NEW JFK DEATH FILM \| PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - The cover box is tasteless ("Includes a never-before-seen version of President Kennedy's assassination! A collector's item for all Americans!"). But it's no overstatement to say that watching the digitized version is like seeing the Zapruder film anew. The color, resolution and additional detail are unlike anything available before. And thereby hangs a tale. For if the Zapruder film left its mark on the national memory over the past 35 years, it got there most often through bootleg copies, circulated mainly by conspiracy theorists. When Life magazine reproduced a number of stills from the Zapruder footage just after the assassination, the publisher decided that Americans should be spared the trauma of viewing its most grisly images. He purchased all rights to the film and withdrew it from public circulation for the next several years. (In 1975 the rights were returned to the Zapruder estate, which then deposited it at the Archives.) But while sequestered, the film began its underground existence. Volume 18 of the unabridged Warren Commission Report included frames from the crucial sequence, and some enterprising soul managed to put together a crude re-animation of the black-and-white reproductions. Another researcher, allowed to watch the Zapruder film in the Life archives, surreptitiously filmed the images off the screen using a hand-held camera of his own. (These details are omitted from the new video.) In the late 1960s, the Zapruder film was subpoenaed during the trial of Clay Shaw -- a Louisiana businessman accused by Jim Garrison (the hero of Stone's docudrama) of organizing the Kennedy assassination. Garrison never proved much of anything, except, perhaps, that New Orleans is a very strange place; but his legacy to the world of assassinology was enormous. While the Zapruder film was in his possession, Garrison tended to mention its whereabouts to others involved in studying the events in Dallas. If someone decided to run off a copy when he stepped out of his office, what could he do about it? Not much! More than 100 "Garrison bootlegs" thereby got into circulation. And from them, other boots were made. The turning point came in 1975, when the footage was shown to a national television audience for the first time. The occasion was a late-night talk show hosted by Geraldo Rivera. An excerpt from the program is included on the new video, which is in its own way a slice of broadcasting history. The youthful Geraldo, wearing lapels as big as his head, gives off an almost electric charge of countercultural fervor. His guests include a JFK assassination researcher, who narrates as his own Zapruder bootleg runs, filling the television screen. It is not as muddy as some copies in circulation at the time, but should give today's viewer a sense of the improvements in visibility with the digitized version. The crucial moment is what conspiracy theorists know, with a certain morbidly affectionate familiarity, as "Z-313" -- that is, frame 313, in which the president's brains get blown out, and his head snaps backwards. Thus proving (as Geraldo's guest says, and many have repeated) that there must have been a marksman firing from somewhere in front of the motorcade, probably at the "grassy knoll" in Dealey Plaza; otherwise, if the fatal bullet had come from the School Book Depository, behind Kennedy, his head would have fallen forward. That interpretation is in fact very much open to dispute. The nerves and muscles in the human body make it respond to force in ways somewhat more complex than a sack of potatoes. But the television audience is not concerned with nuances. Everyone in the studio gasps. Geraldo says, "That was heavy." And cut to a commercial break. In the intervening decades, the images have grown more familiar, if not less powerful. After watching those 26 seconds more times than I can count, the impact of Z-313 is still visceral. And within the milieu of JFK assassination investigators, a shift in attitude is evident. For years, the Zapruder footage was a fabled object, rare and virtually unobtainable. Studying the film closely might reveal the truth about what happened in Dallas. It was the closest thing to being there. But now the aura has worn away. The theory has lately been argued -- at great length and in microscopic detail -- that the Zapruder film has been tampered with, somehow, during all those years in the custody of Life magazine or the National Archives. Suspicion feeds on suspicion. As noted, the images on the new video have been passed through high-tech enhancement processes. Which is not the sort of detail to be overlooked by someone who wonders if, perhaps, "They" didn't instruct Zapruder to take his camera, that morning. (Such has been speculated by residents at alt.conspiracy.jfk.) In the early 1960s, director Jean-Luc Godard defined film as "Truth, at 24 frames per second." That, for a long time, was the implicit faith of the small audience devoted to the Zapruder film. Technically, however, it runs at about 18.5 frames per second. And even in a restored and stomach-turningly vivid edition, Truth disappears, somewhere between the sprocket holes. SALON \| Aug. 4, 1998 Scott McLemee writes regularly for Salon. He is at work on a book, "Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: Conspiracy Theory in American Culture."