JFK Revisited Through The Looking Glass & Destiny Betrayed

 

Last November 2021 the new Oliver Stone & Jim DiEugenio documentary film JFK Revisited Through The Looking Glass was released. Oliver Stone had quite a mission getting this documentary shared to the masses as National Geographic and Netflix had passed on screening it. It was his visit and showing at the Cannes festival that got things on track and he managed find distributors. I have watched a fair bit of JFK assassination documentaries these last 20 years, but I always have an issue with all of them, they all intend to cram in as much info as possible in them. Take a detective like Jim Leavelle i/e who was there over the three day period and summarises it in two or three sentences, where is the value in that? It never seems to work, the real evidence is missing and it is only his opinion. Also due to this assassination from a subject p.o.v. being so widespread, there is simply too much information available to squeeze in the allotted time. It is a recipe for failure. These two documentaries suffer the same issue a bit, but this one also has a huge advantage over all the others, it is evidence based for almost 100%. The people you see talking on the screen are the ones that went to the archives in Washington and pulled the records out. Not opinionated lone nutters or conspiracy theorists who never hunted for the evidence ever before. Actually labelling these people in the documentaries as conspiracy theorists is a massive insult especially when it is only archival evidence that is presented. Some reviews of these two films seem to have missed that particular meeting or just have a grudge against Stone from the word go. These type of clowns were there 30 odd years ago and obviously they are present now.

For the record I watched the 2 hour version on Showtime in Nov. 2021 and Feb 2022. And the four hour version on SKY in Dec 2021 and Feb 2022. It appears that the rest of the world gets its chance early March. I will try not to spoil too much, if you cannot handle a spoiler here and there then I suggest you quit now.

The 2 hour version, by the looks of it, uses the same material as the four hour version, but it is edited in a different way and there are some bits that get more prominence in the two hour version than they have in the 4 hour one. I will start with the two hour version titled “JFK: Revisited Through The Looking Glass”. The documentary starts with the announcements of JFK, eventually being shot and next it goes to footage of Parkland hospital where the DPD is busy cordoning the entrance off. The first thing you notice is that some of the HD film scans look very lush. At the same time some of the grainier material looks even grainier. Digitising film either makes it look great or just the opposite, there is no middle ground here. But when it does look great it really does.

There is also a shot of reporters leaving the press bus and make their way towards the area above. In this shot we can see at least four Dallas P.D. detectives, wearing their distinctive hats, conferring in front of this bus in the background.

Following is a sequence of footage of Oswald in the third floor corridor inside City Hall, getting shot by Ruby and also the Warren Commission. This sequence differs with the four hour version. The issue I have with it is that there is no proper chronology factor in the footage present and everything is just mixed up and even the audio is just randomly mixed in. It is for dramatic effect, and not much else. Trying to put it in the right order is very difficult, I know as I have tried and managed to put some segments at the right time in my Anatomy of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Interrogations paper (new updated version out in April 2022), but there are also some bits where I have no exact timestamp since some of the footage is silent.

Then the bullets and especially the magic bullet are discussed. The interactive sequence showing the NARA pictures of the Magic bullet (CE 399) and also the chain of evidence is very convincingly presented. The rifle is next with Brian Edwards adding his commentary. I am just over 30 minutes in and the evidence presented up till then is already the death of the Warren Commission’s conclusion and moreover crucifies the sloppy and contradictory work of the DPD, USSS and the FBI.

Barry Ernest and his work on Victoria Adams is next and I will get back about this later as it has more in the longer documentary. The autopsy and its photographs and the people who are involved with them are next. Especially the photographic aspect of it all is lapped up by me, I simply love it.

New Orleans is next, we get to see William Gaudet of which Malcolm Blunt gathered a fair bit of documents here and here and the other usual aspects such as David Ferrie, Guy banister and Clay Shaw are featured. The James P Doyle film of Oswald handing out pamphlets of the FPCC is of good quality. Then we move to various subjects such as Oswald/CIA/Defection to Russia/Chicago Plot/Africa that are discussed in more detail in the four hour version further below. Overall the two hour version has some really good bits, there is more emphasis on specific elements like the magic bullet in this film. And if you like(d) the two hour version then you will be in hog heaven with the four hour one: JFK: Destiny Betrayed.

The intro music and footage of this one is superb, it is the same music brought to everyone back in the early 90s with Stone’s film, that tension element of it hasn’t aged one single bit. The film starts with the antics of the Warren Commission.

There is a bit of Cuba and the CIA/Anti-Castro matters entwined that were being played out in the late 50’s and early 60s. Then it is back to more WC. And then the documentary goes further afield by bringing the mess that the Belgians had left behind in Congo and the CIA is heavily involved with removing and killing Patrice Lumumba and all this is dropped in JFK’s lap and he works hard on getting things sorted. This episode by itself is very interesting to read about. There is also a very good documentary about this era called Murder in the Bush: Cold Case Hammarskjöld. I suggest you try and find it.

Just when you have settled in with a subject matter things change into a different direction. I understand there is only that much time for putting a case forward, but why present it this fragmented? And some of these subjects do return in following chapters. I am reasonably well read on the entire subject matter, but the majority of viewers are not and may be getting confused by this scattered approach. While the Africa segment is good, it deserves some more time. It then switches to the committees such as Church, Schweiker and the HSCA. There are still many documents from these three commissions redacted, classified or simply gone without a trace. My time with Malcolm Blunt’s huge personal archive has given me some good insights about what was going on, but even with what I was able to digitise it still is largely incomplete. Richard Schweiker’s remark on Jack Ruby and the Warren Commission is simply priceless. I will not spoil it any further.

Next is Robert Groden, a person I am not too comfortable with due to his truth economics. I have seen and read a couple myself and I have issues with that. I also find his Zapruder film copy not that good now shown in 2K, that is if it actually has been scanned recently and is not the same copy of what was used in Stone’s movie 30 years ago. I am looking forward seeing this all in 4K. For someone who does not own one iota of copyright on all these films and photos he has submitted for usage he sure has turned it into a lucrative business over the last 40 years. He is credited as a photographic consultant. It seems that the Sixth Floor Museum would not assist Stone with their cache of film and photo materials and this does get brought up somewhat, i/e with the Zapruder film. The Sixth Floor Museum should have cooperated with the Stone crew since they have a goldmine of great quality material. This likewise deserves a frown….it tends to point as to what side they are still on.  I reckon Groden, who was part responsible for the HSCA creation and Stone whose film got the ARRB erected have something in common and in part can credit themselves for what they did in retrospect.

Robert Groden, Dealey Plaza. Click to enlarge.

Next thing the first episode of the documentary brings up is Oswald’s alibi and I can only conclude that the makers make a whopper of a mistake by solely relying on the research of Barry Ernest and that is just not good enough. Perhaps ten years ago it may have carried some weight, but not any more. Plus if you can go all guns blazing on the autopsy related matters and bring a set of researchers forward then why not on Oswald’s last 46 hours. In the last ten years there has been a wagon load of new evidence brought up. This website digs a lot deeper than what Ernest wrote and a huge opportunity to set the record straight was missed. I am not sure whether this is because certain politics are being played in the background and only put forward a theory which many older conspiracy theorists have subscribed and cemented themselves to. This is something an uber liar like Will Fritz and fellow law enforcement personnel have put forward and has been a ‘belief’ of these conspiracy theorists ever since. There is a ton of evidence which disputes this lunchroom encounter ever happening. Furthermore there is nothing put forward with regards Oswald’s interrogations and the reports thereof and where and what he was doing during these crucial moments of the JFK Assassination. The job done on this segment of the documentary is a letdown, to say the least. I wish to make clear that I am not putting myself forward as someone that should have been part of this documentary. I will be doing my own thing later this year. The case I have to present will be multi faceted and would not stand a chance, due to time constraints, on a platform as this docu.

Episode two and it’s autopsy time, quite a few heavy hitters are there and it is fact after fact that gets presented to the viewer and I have to say that it is great to see them doing this, for the 2 hour version this was my fave section. The medical & autopsy sections, could fill more than a solid hour by itself. Again the facts obliterate the official version. What does deserve a separate mention is Malcolm Perry who stated during a press conference, of which all audio has been suppressed/confiscated/stolen fill in by yourself, but a transcript 1327 C still exists, and I suggest to check out page 5. The throat wound is an entrance wound and ‘people’ called Dr Perry that same evening and wanted him to change that. That amounts to two frontal shots…….

Then it is back to foreign policy; Vietnam, Algeria, Iran, Guatemala, Indonesia and so on. Followed by more Warren Commission and the shooting sequence, the rifle and the bullets.

Then Oswald gets his chance to appear and there is a fair bit of hallway footage of which most is already available on YouTube, this is just better quality, but there is too much cutting for my liking. Nor is there any chronology in this segment. Pivotal bits are left out. BUT! The biggest faux pas is the horn honking in the basement sequence just before Ruby kills Oswald and is presented as some sort of ‘go’ signal for the killing to be happening. Nothing could be further removed from the truth. If you watch the entire sequence of film taken way before the shooting you would understand that several times horns are honking as the armored truck which was supposed to be taking Oswald to prison was replaced for Fritz’s car. In the video you can see a car coming in and going out and the horn is being used to alert the gathered cops and press of their movements. The first double honk is at 11:10, the next one at 11:44, then 11:48, at 12:25 a car is coming through and the press needs to break up at roughly the spot where Ruby was positioned before he leaped out, 12:51 another honk, at 13:21 Will Fritz becomes visible and the horn honks again and finally at 13:25 just while Ruby is leaping out the final honk. Nothing funny nor conspiratorial about it. The car is actually coming down the ramp while Oswald is being shot. As you can see Ruby’s jacket is being lit up by the front head light and the car rolled down the ramp while Ruby had jumped in. The car slightly touches Ruby and makes him lose his balance a tad, and is enough for the cops to jump on him and wrestle the gun away from him. This is a blemish on otherwise a very strong documentary. And that is because it did not check the evidence properly.

That this whole transfer was as amateurish as a local village cabaret show is beyond any reasonable doubt. Will Fritz walked way too far ahead of Oswald and his escort and created a gap for Ruby to jump in to kill him.  Fritz’s response to this ‘thing’ was even more laughable and can be seen in the shot above when Ruby has shot Oswald already.

Episode three starts of with Rear Admiral George G Burkley and more of the autopsy, and he does not care to be quoted on how many bullets entered Kennedy’s body. Well if that isn’t telling then what is. Then over the next 30 or so minutes more facts are coming forward related to the autopsy itself, the photos, the brain and so on, all this has a significant meaning. I will not spoil it any further, see it for yourself while you are machine gunned with documentation and statements. Then it goes into the bullets and the limo. And then it changes direction with Washington politics and the rest of the world. Latin America, Middle East, Cuba and Vietnam are for obvious reasons part of it. All of it is very interesting. John Newman, Doug Horne, James K Galbraith are the select few to add their knowledge to it. Lastly we get to the Air Force One tapes and General Curtis LeMay and the Bethesda autopsy where he was present and smoking a cigar.

The fourth and final episode begins with the intelligence angle(s) related to this case. Oswald being at the centre of it all while in Russia and the intelligence games surrounding it. Tennent ” Pete” Bagley is part of this segment, Bagley is someone Malcolm Blunt has been researching deeply and has been in contact with several times while he visited him in Brussels.

Then it moves to whether the CIA was fully briefed and had records on Oswald and as Jefferson Morley points out that they had him on their radar once he defected to Russia in 1959. Up to a week before the assassination reports were being sent, a find by the ARRB. This is followed by the New Orleans chapter and of course the usual suspects pass by Guy Banister, David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, George Joannides and of course the DRE . The New Orleans chapter by itself would need at least an hour to do it some justice as the material that is around is vast (I should know as I scanned loads of it in).

Then the destruction of the Secret Service records is next, they did this after the ARRB had requested them. They were held in complete disregard and the USSS went along with the destruction anyway. This is then followed by the FBI’s cancellation (by Marvin Gheesling) of the Oswald FLASH only a few weeks before the assassination of JFK. It would mean that Lee Harvey Oswald was not on the security index and the Secret Service would not deem him to be a person of interest. If he had been then they would make sure he would not be in close vicinity of The President’s motorcade. The Chicago and Tampa plots are brought up as well, and it is especially the Chicago one that has some very disturbing facts to present. Jim Gochenaur talked to Elmer Moore and I suggest you check out some of these YouTube interviews after watching his part in this documentary. It is a pity Abraham Bolden is missing from this documentary.

Next are the Civil Rights issues that were a huge thing in the south of the US at that time. The funny thing is that this is very much overlooked when it comes to discussing the JFK Assassination. I myself find elements protruding into the investigation of the TSBD and the DPD in general. People rather avoid talking about it, yet it was quite a big part of Southern society at that time when the after effects of the horrific Jim Crow laws were still in play.

Finally it is back to foreign policy, better yet the change thereof after the assassination of JFK. John Newman shines a strong light on NSAM 273 of which some of the lingo is being deleted and re-written which is ordered by LBJ. Then the final moments are of MLK and RFK, as they were assassinated too. All three in a 5 year timespan.

Overall and taken both works into consideration my end verdict is 8.5/10. Of course there are bits that could have been done better, but take all of it into account and you are looking at a very solid documentary. It baffles me how some people review this documentary and try to nitpick through the wealth of evidence presented and then try to sow doubt or just hammer on about a small dispute without providing one iota of evidence against it. These losers deserve nothing but scorn for their agenda driven rubbish.

I say go watch them both, maybe not all in one go, but there is nothing else of this calibre around. I am upping the ante a tad more by stating that most other JFK assassination documentaries look like dog shit in comparison to the Stone & DiEugenio attempt.

It’s on SKY in the UK.

The links to some of the documents are from Malcolm Blunt’s archive. With thanks.