JFK Assassination Documents Are About to Be Released — Is Oliver Stone Responsible?

Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Other than that line, the most enduring legacy of Oliver Stones’ “JFK” is its part in the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act — a promise made by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1992 to release all documents pertaining to the event by this month.

Stone, who was recently accused of sexual harassment after speaking up in Harvey Weinstein’s defense, told the New York Times before his drama starring Kevin Costner was released that the film “is not a true story per se. It explores all the possible scenarios of why Kennedy was killed, who killed him and why.”

“If and when the last remaining government documents about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination are made public next week,” points out the Washington Post, “historians may have to hold their noses and thank ‘JFK’ — a 1991 blockbuster that conflated the historical record with conspiratorial fantasies.” Indeed, the movie’s “most compelling scenes are totally made up.”

The release of these documents is unlikely to reduce the number of conspiracy theories — quite the opposite, in fact — but truth has always been stranger than fiction anyway.