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

The film begins with archival footage of Eisenhower’s farewell speech in which
he coined the phrase “military-industrial complex” and warned of the potential for it to
exert “unwarranted influence” on the U.S. government. 685 A narrator – in documentary
style – outlines the events of the Kennedy administration, including the Bay of Pigs, the
Cuban Missile Crisis, and the conflict in Indochina. The narrator describes how Kennedy
has brought a new, invigorating style to the White House and had been moving in the
months leading up to the assassination of reaching an understanding with Fidel Castro
and the Soviets, and ending the war in Vietnam. But, the narrator ominously notes that
“Suspicions abound that Kennedy is ‘soft on Communism’” – setting up the apparent
motive for the assassination. The audience hears the Kennedy’s famous peace speech at
the American University in Washington in which he called on Americans to “examine
our own attitudes towards the Soviet Union…For, in the final analysis, our most basic
link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish
our children’s future. And we are all mortal.” 686 Such an appeal to common humanity
would face opposition from those devoted to a black-and-white view of the Cold War.
Family photographs of Kennedy, his wife, and young children are interspersed
throughout to evoke an emotional response to the late president. But this ends with
ominously as Kennedy’s plane lands in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
685
Zachary Sklar and Oliver Stone, “JFK: the Documented Screenplay,” JFK: The Book
of the Films, (New York: Applause Books, 1992). The screenplay was revised somewhat
in putting JFK on the screen, but all the scenes discussed in this paper occur in the video
of the film, Oliver Stone, dir. JFK: Special Director’s Cut, 206 min., (Warner Home
Video, 1991). The director’s cut includes some scenes that were not shown in the version
shown in theaters.
686
Sklar and Stone, 5.
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