[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

country changed, when it went from being a nation of promise, good intentions, and
youthful optimism to one of cynicism, violence, and pessimism.” 20 Similarly, Robert
Burgoyne, in Film Nation, contended that the fragmented, “collagelike narrative
structure” of Oliver Stone’s JFK, which mixes documentary film, recreations, and
suppositions, is a reflection of a “national narrative in disorder and disarray” and “a
disruption of the …historical narrative that gives continuity to national identity.” 21
Robert Rosenstone also defended the film as a serious movie that engaged historical
“issues, ideas, data, and arguments.” 22 Instead of just being a recreation or a costume
drama, JFK, according to Rosenstone, provoked the audience to think anew about the
assassination.
Despite its alleged flaws, JFK was a significant and important film given its effect
on public attitudes about the assassination, the enormous controversy it generated, and its
impact on public policy. Congress subsequently established a review board to release
public documents about the assassination. As Sturken and Burgoyne argue, the
assassination is a significant cultural watershed, ending a presidency seen – rightly or
wrongly -- as embodying youthful vigor and optimism and beginning a period of social
upheaval, marked by controversy over the Vietnam War, further political assassinations,
20
Sturken, 28.
21
Robert Burgoyne, Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History, (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 88.
22
Robert Rosenstone, Visions of the Past: the Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History,
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), 128.
15