Image of an Assassination - A New Look at the Zapruder Film

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Starring: Charles Brehm
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Abraham Zapruder
Studio: Mpi Home Video
Release Date: 1998-07-28
This first commercially available video version of the legendary 26-second "Zapruder Film"--the 8mm record of John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination, which was filmed by Abraham Zapruder--provoked a storm of controversy when it first appeared on video shelves. Added to the National Film Registry in 1994, this historical document remains a significant record of one of the nation's most devastating events and is still cited as a key piece of evidence in the debate over the truth of Kennedy's murder. This unprecedented release has been digitally mastered with the approval of the Zapruder family. An accompanying documentary, which explores the mastering process in detail, features a short portrait of Zapruder and a fascinating history of the film's official and unofficial showings up to the present. The tape also includes a frame-by-frame analysis of the film, a chronology of events, and additional historical video. This short film is still too gruesome and upsetting for many to watch, but Abraham Zapruder's famous home movie remains to this day one of the most controversial pieces of filmed history. --Sean Axmaker

Excellent DVD about the history of the Zapruder film.
This is an excellent DVD about the restoration of the Zapruder film. The film itself runs almost 45 minutes and there are four different versions of the 26 second Zapruder film (close-up frame in slow motion/full frame/medium frame in slow motion/wide frame with sprocket holes). The bonus material itself is just as good and includes the WFAA TV interview of Abraham Zapruder by Jay Watson that runs almost 7 minutes. The "Good Night America" segment from 1975 with Geraldo Rivera and Robert Groden that runs 20 minutes. The rights negotiations with LIFE magazine with Richard Stolley that runs 14 minutes. And finally a short video of Kennedy's arrival in Dallas that runs almost 2 minutes. Be sure to buy this DVD along with Richard Trask's excellent book on the Zapruder film "National Nightmare on Six Feet of Film."

And?....
A confession: I'm a former conspiracy buff. I gave speeches years ago on how the Warren Commission covered up, on Lee Oswald's being a patsy, you name it. Then I saw Stone's "JFK." Then I got to know a REAL conspiracy buff--did you know that the CIA killed Bob Marley??

In short, I'm not much of a buff any more.

But this film interested me. Yes, there ARE questions about the JFK assasination. Who did it? Why? The Zapruder film, the subject of this DVD, offers pretty solid evidence that Kennedy was hit from the front, not from the Texas Schoolbook Depository (the back).

But I guess what turned me off the the conspiracy theories is that the theorists made Kennedy into a saint. "The world would be a much better place if Saint John FK has not been murdered." And that's a pretty dubious proposition.

In short, the film documents how at Archives II, spittin' distance from my house, they put together the Zapruder film frame by frame--inch by inch, row by row. So now you can see more cleary, and in slow motion from a variety of angles, that Kennedy got his head blown off.

Frankly, I knew that before they made the film clearer. (I hope my tax dollars didn't cover that project!)

And, yes, there are still questions, no more or fewer than there were before the film was rebuilt. I learned more about HOW the film was redone, the technical means, than I did learn anything new from the film. But, again, I've come to no new conclusions, and I'm not again an assasination buff.

If you're really interested in--or obsessed--with JFK's murder, this film may interest you. If you're interested in the history of the film, it may interest you. But if you have anything better to do than watch the film, you might seriously consider that alternate activity.

Zapruder Film
It was 90 minutes of looking at the same thing regular speed, slow motion, edited regular speed, edited slow motion, good quality regular speed, good quality slow motion, etc.......

just a minor correction
Mrs. Kennedy was not trying to help the Secret Service Agent when she crawled out onto the trunk. She was trying to recover part of her husband's skull that had blown back onto the trunk. Which by the way indicates that he was shot not from the school book depository behind him but from the front right.

History as you may never see again
Eyewitnesses are given too much credibility and are notoriously inaccurate. Conspiracy buffs have fashioned an industry out of events told and retold but this footage is the best witness. It is also horrific to watch. I had heard the Parkland surgeons all talk about a head wound behind the President's right ear. They should know, they were there right? The film shows otherwise. If there is a conspiracy it is a well kept secret, show me someone who can keep a secret. If the US government is hiding evidence why is this footage available? No one can tell where a shot came from by the target's movement. The answer to where JFK's missing brain is here, the third shot pulverized it, turning it into a red mist. Had this film never existed the conspiracy people would have made millions more but the answers to their questions are in this footage. This is history which cannot be retold by bad historians or knuckleheads. See for yourself.