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

of a massive government plot. However, the focus on Garrison came at the cost of
dealing with the New Orleans DA’s questionable tactics and suspect witnesses. In an
ironical bit of casting, Stone had the real life Garrison portray Earl Warren on the screen.
Stone’s film, which opened in December 1991, was a great success both at the
box office and in the arena of public affairs. It sparked intense debate about the
assassination. The film also led to the creation of a congressional-mandated panel to
oversee the release of government documents about the assassination. The debate about
JFK often involved the question, “who should speak about history and matters of public
concern – journalists, historians, officials, or creative artists like Stone?” Some critics
deplored the use of a popular medium to advance theories about a high-level government
conspiracy. In the end, though, Stone presented a historical argument that many
Americans found more believable than the lone assassin theory. JFK played a role in
shaping public opinion – but it also reflected long-standing public skepticism about the
Warren Commission report and its version of Oswald’s life.
The debate over JFK began even before the film was finished and reached the
theaters. Washington Post reporter George Lardner Jr. excoriated Stone based on a script
of the film he obtained from assassination researcher Harold Weisberg. Weisberg, of
course, had helped Garrison with his assassination investigation, but the two later parted
ways over the way the DA was handling the case. Lardner deplored the “errors and
absurdities, large and small” in the script. Lardner in particular criticized the way
Ferrie’s death was depicted, and the elimination of witness Perry Russo with the
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