JFK: what are the additional scenes in the extended version? (Pictures)

Oliver Stone’s classic will return this evening on France 5, with 17 minutes more than when it was released in the cinema. That’s 3h05 of film.

On November 22, 1963, American President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Less than two hours later, the alleged culprit, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested. Twenty-four hours later, he himself was murdered by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner. From his arrest until his death, Oswald never ceased to proclaim his innocence. To avoid arousing the suspicion of his compatriots, President Lyndon Johnson hastened to form a commission chaired by Earl Warren to investigate. The commission quickly concluded that there was only one assassin: Oswald.

Three years later, Jim Garrison, District Attorney of New Orleans, reopened the case and conducted his own investigation. He gradually comes to the following conclusion: John Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy led by the FBI, the mafia and President Johnson, vice-president at the time. Oswald was just one of their agents who served to cover their tracks. Jim Garrison succeeds in prosecuting Clay Shaw, an important businessman whom he considers to be the leader of the conspiracy.

In 1992, JFK enjoyed great success, both critically and publicly. With 200 million dollars in revenue – including 2.5 million spectators moved to France – and an Oscar for best photography and best editing, Oliver Stone’s film, retracing the investigation which followed the assassination of the American president on November 22, 1963, was not, however, quite what he had in mind. So much so that in 2001, the director of Platoon and of Wall Street decided to release it in a long version.

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It is now this montage which has become the reference. Within its 17 additional minutes, what more can we find than in the original version? Mainly flashback scenes devoted to Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged killer played by Gary Oldmanwhose past is much more fleshed out than in the 1992 film. Here are some details, precisely illustrated by the site movie-censorship.comwho devoted a very precise analysis of this new version in 2001.

Oswald is visible at greater length in Dallas, with his wife (Beata Pozniak), we better understand his relationship with his contacts, he appears more with Clay Shaw (played by Tommy Lee Jones) during the preparation of a campaign for the civil rights, he meets Sylvia Odio, at the head of an anti-Fidel Castro movement, he details his life in Russia…

Elements also support the theory surrounding him: to show that he was only a pawn in the assassination of the president, a photomontage is more clearly visible than in the original version, with his head added to the photo. of another body, and we also see a fake Oswald (played by Frank Whaley) testing a car.

Kevin Costner, who plays Jim Garrison, the prosecutor who carries the film, logically also has more space in this 3h05 version, even if this involves a new edit rather than a multitude of reintegrated cut scenes. Some of his dialogue is longer, for example when he questions Jack Martin (Jack Lemmon) about the meeting between Oswald and Guy Bannister (played by Edward Asner).

Only a few scenes are really added: the moment where he discusses with his assistant the modification of the route of the JFK motorcade, in particular. He is also seen being a guest on the show The Jerry Johnson Show, unable to explain his theories in the face of the presenter who cuts him off. The tension around the character of Bill Broussard (Michael Rooker), who says he is the target of death threats, is further illustrated: we find him in particular at the airport in the middle of a paranoia attack, then Garrison visits his apartment following his disappearance .

The trial scenes undergo tiny variations: addition of bits of dialogue, modifications in the order of shots to emphasize the audience’s reactions or a revelation… There is an additional witness who has been added, Mr. Goldberg (Ron Rifkin), who came to claim that Shaw had discussed killing JFK with him and David Ferrie (Joe Pesci), but who turns out to be unreliable.

The end credits are also a bit different, since documents about the case were declassified between JFK’s initial release in 1992 and its director’s cut released nearly 20 years later. A card clearly speaks of this declassification, and new names of personalities cited in the investigation have been added.

Finally, note that due to the significant amount of time separating these two versions, a dubbing had to be re-recorded in French. Although almost all of the actors returned to lend their voices during these additional scenes, one of them, Claude Joseph, who died in 1995, had to be replaced by Michael Fortin for the role of Guy Banister.

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