``JFK'' orchestrated bashing, Oliver Stone's challenge to the Kennedy assassination, Part 2

A series of pre-release bashings

However, before he had time to be thankful for his good fortune, Penn's violence attacked ``JFK.'' It was also the worst case, as a story that had not yet been made public was exposed. It was not an entertainment gossip magazine that took the lead, but the Washington Post.

It all started when Harold Weisberg, a researcher on the JFK assassination, sent a critical letter to Stone just as the production of the movie ``JFK'' was announced.

Weisberg, who had once been harshly criticized by Jim Garrison himself, was reluctant to have a movie made with Garrison as the main character, but he thought that he might also be featured in the movie. I was afraid. After receiving no response, Weisberg sent the first draft of the script for JFK, which he had secretly obtained, to George Lardner, Jr., a defense correspondent for the Washington Post. This was published in the same newspaper on May 19, 1991, as the article that started the bashing (all articles below are excerpted from the reprint of `` In Search of the Truth Behind the Assassination of JFK Kennedy '').

Lardner maliciously introduces the protagonist as ``Jim Garrison, a former New Orleans district attorney who in the late 1960s investigated a foolish case that has now almost disappeared from memory.'' He enumerated the points and asked, ``How can we explain the above and then paint a picture of Garrison's heroic struggle against federal officials?''

Furthermore, while explaining the contents of the script he had obtained, he went into great detail, going into great detail, including the dialogue in the climactic courtroom scene. "It's not worth it. Vietnam, of course. In an impassioned closing argument that may have been written by Garrison himself, District Attorney Costner claims the assassination was a 'coup.' Involved in this conspiracy were the Dallas Police Department, the Secret Service, the FBI, parts of the White House, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who would succeed Kennedy. Stone, who makes the claims in the play, was criticized as a false conspiracy theorist.

When Stone saw the article, he immediately wrote a rebuttal, which was published in the June 2 issue of the Washington Post. First, ``This is not a ``Jim Garrison story,'' as Lardner suggests; it uses the Garrison investigation as a means to explore a wide variety of credible assassination theories, and in the two decades since his struggle... It incorporates everything discovered in the He also criticized the fact that the contents of the movie that was being filmed were revealed as follows:

"He admitted in the article that he had obtained a confidential first draft of the script through an unofficial process, and then quoted it without context (the first draft was significantly different from the sixth draft we are currently using). In fact, I have never been so shocked and uncomfortable. (Omitted) In the film industry, there is a practice of waiting until the film is completed before criticizing the work (not the script). Second, regarding the content. It seems that the Post is intent on changing that standard.''

Stone was alarmed by how similar the situation was to a certain movie. That movie was `` Citizen Kane '' (1941), directed by and starring Orson Welles. This movie, one of the most famous in movie history, begins with the death of media mogul Kane, leaving behind a mysterious message.The film was based on the founder of the Hearst Corporation, who became furious and decided to shut down the affiliated newspaper. This led to fierce bashing. The intensity of the incident was such that a big name in the movie industry, fearing the consequences, seriously recommended that the film be destroyed.

"Should we be surprised that history is repeating itself so long after 'Citizen Kane'?" Stone wrote in a rebuttal that provided further fuel for the fire. .