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

The screen reads “In creating the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, we have relied on
documented fact. We have assumed the roles of Prosecutor and Defense Attorney. We
do not assume the role of jury. The final judgment is yours.” 683 However, the case as
portrayed in the made-for-television movie appears stacked against the advocates of
conspiracy.
The movies JFK and Ruby, from the early 1990’s, both contain portraits of
Oswald. A trial is also at the heart of JFK, but it is Jim Garrison’s prosecution of Clay
Shaw and not an imagined trial of Oswald. Stone and Zachary Sklar, the co-author of the
JFK screenplay, based their script primarily on Garrison’s On the Trail of the Assassins
and Jim Marr’s Crossfire. They also had a character in the film, known simply as “X,”
voice the ideas of L. Fletcher Prouty, the retired Air Force Colonel who alleged that a
“Secret Team” of invisible power-brokers had Kennedy killed because of his plans to
withdraw from Vietnam. In this way, Stone advanced his version of the “peace thesis” as
the motive for the assassination. Stone was less concerned about who pulled the trigger
and more interested in why Kennedy was killed. For Stone, the answer is the Vietnam
War: JFK was killed to reverse his intention to pull out of Southeast Asia. This reflected
the director’s own artistic attempts in several movies, including Platoon, to come to
terms with his own experiences in combat during the war.
Stone adopted the Garrison thesis of a massive government plot to assassinate
Kennedy and cover up the crime is shown on screen. The Garrison character played by
683 Thompson, 183.
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