SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Steineded How sad is this?

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

furoredidio I saw Executive Action (E.A.) when it came out. My impression was that I was viewing a first rate dramatic documentary and not "entertainment", not in the common sense of the word. This is an important point since you associate Hollywood with entertainment, and certainly not with the refutation of the official Warren Commission explanation that the assassination of JFK was the work of a lone assassin, and furthermore hypothesizing about a conspiracy converging upon Texas to assassinate the President of the United States, all the while keeping a straight face. There are exceptions of course and you do run into fine films such as "The quiet American" (1958), "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), "Seven days in May" (1964) and a few others that, even though possessing a particularly strong factual base, in the end are softened with a good dose of the dramatic, typical of the familiar fiction, based on true events. We usually end up assuring ourselves: it's all really fiction in the end. It's only a movie...But E.A. was a different sort of critter. It belongs to a special period in Hollywood, known as the New Hollywood. A period greatly influenced by the counterculture of the 60's, the civil rights struggle, the anti- Vietnam War protests, the baby boomers and rock and roll, and much more. So while Hollywood remained true to its bottom-dollar dogma, many of their more adventurous and creative artists and technicians, young and old, often worked at the fringes of the studios fueling the development of the growing independent film movement. E.A.'s screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo, the most famous of the Blacklist veterans, inspired by attorney Mark Lane's well researched work "Rush to Judgment" and backed by a twelve member research team. This was an explosive project and studios kept their distance away from it. Press releases at the time claimed that threats were being made to the crew and stated that they had had to resort to filming in secrecy. It is a wonder its short-lived distribution ever materialized at all. Soon, this curious, lone, courageous and eloquent narrative illustrating the conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States disappeared from sight.From 1979 through the 1990s many official documents were declassified and made public generally strengthening the conspiracy thesis. In 1992 Oliver Stone collected a handful of the most likely of those conspiracy theories in his very popular "JFK". The 1990s were a particularly revealing decade with many well researched documentaries -with limited distribution- being produced. The Assassination Records Collection Act, the National Archives and the Assassination Records Review Board collectively made public thousands of classified documents. And by the first decade of the new millennium a host of local and foreign researchers were publishing well documented books detailing possible scenarios that pointed to specific conspirators. (In 2007 the DVD version of "Executive Action" was released). To this day some remaining classified documents are still expected to appear. The point is that, today the more informed consensus appears to agree with E.A., that president Kennedy's assassination was a well orchestrated coup d'état but without formal legal proof as to the identity of participants. There likely never will be.As I watch E.A. again, I am still amazed by how a film, made in the early 70s, managed such a clear and unambiguous reconstruction of events, and have yet to see a more plausible or convincing explanation of what happened in 1963 in any other dramatic film. Executive Action lives on as the curiosity it always has been, an explosive film, well ahead of its time.Find it on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video or Microsoft Store.

Spikeopath Executive Action is directed by David Miller and written by Dalton Trumbo, Donald Freed and Mark Lane. It stars Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, Gilbert Green and John Anderson. Music is by Randy Edelman and cinematography by Robert Steadman.In essence it's a film that is offering up a different theory to the Warren Commission's report that ruled Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating John F. Kennedy. Plot has Lancaster and Ryan as shady conspirators who plot the downfall of JFK on that fateful day November 22nd 1963. There's lots of talking, with the actors chewing into the dialogue whilst brooding considerably, their motives explained clearly, the framing of Oswald brought to life, and it rounds up to a triple gunmen scenario. We then get a startling revelation about what befell a number of eyewitnesses from that infamous day.It's engrossing without being truly riveting, but the cast make it worth time spent. While if you like to buy into the conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination? Then it carries some extra entertainment value. 7/10

tomgillespie2002 David Miller's conspiracy-theory 're-enactment' shows the plotting by several oil-barons and intelligence officers to murder the then- President of the United States John F. Kennedy. Kennedy's pushing of the Civil Rights movement and plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam proves a threat to these emotionless rich folk, and the removal of Kennedy will benefit their business and, to them, their country. Farrington (Burt Lancaster), a black ops specialist, plans out the assassination in minute detail, with the backing of Foster (Robert Ryan), an oil baron. The action cuts between meetings between these men, the preparations of the gunmen and their target practice, and the recruitment and actions of a Lee Harvey Oswald lookalike.While not being a fact-based and detailed account like the portrayal of Jim Garrison's investigation in Oliver Stone's excellent JFK (1991), Executive Action makes no claims to be historical fact, but instead a theory of how Kennedy's assassination could have been planned. How much is based on fact I don't know, as I had trouble finding much information about it. While it is certainly very interesting from a conspiracy- theorists point-of-view, the film works far better as a straightforward thriller, and certainly manages to build up plenty of tension regardless of the fact that we know what is going to happen, and that what is being played out in front of us is unlikely to be true.It's a cold and emotionless film, which made me like it more. Lancaster's Farrington prepares the assassination as if he is preparing a holiday - matter-of-factly, routinely. The terrifying thing is that these men believe that what they are doing is patriotic and for the good of the country. Because of this, the film can be seen as a damning commentary of American values - the pursuit of money and desire for security is held in higher regard than doing the right thing, or equality. The film's low budget is certainly noticeable, and some of the supporting acting is often questionable, but this is a riveting thriller that contains many qualities that made the 70's the greatest era for American cinema.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

mark.waltz This is the direct to the point account of a group of wealthy businessmen who brought together their brains and bucks to plot one of the greatest crimes of the past 100 years. They want to assassinate the President because of his extremist views. The motives are clear-racial relations, Vietnam, Cuba, general liberalism. The men involved? Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Will Geer, among others. What makes this scary? This is America less than 20 years after the fall of Nazi Germany and what is happening? Money and power are threatening freedom for all. These men truly believe that the Blacks and Hispanics should be given the same fate as the Jews of World War II. No lesson learned from those despicable crimes. Lancaster, ironically resembling Ronald Reagan, is the head of the organization, and dressed in every day casual clothes shows up at a greasy spoon to discuss the actual assassination. Robert Ryan, who sadly passed away in 1973, was very busy, appearing in four theatrical movies and one TV movie. Will Geer (Grandpa Walton!) is very memorable as the most sympathetic of the men, presenting reasonable doubts and expressing moral concerns for their plot. He also has rational reasons for going along with the group. The events building up to that November day in Dallas are presented directly, unapologetically, and seemingly historically accurate. Actual footage was interspersed with the filmed. Ironically, many of the on-lookers at the parade look very nefarious in their close-ups and it makes you wonder, how many thousands there actually knew this was going to take place? It is scary and still potent today. Stone made his film as an epic; This film is simply done to present an idea to the public to get them thinking. All this with the Watergate scandal on the front page. Considering it was Warner Brothers, the veteran studio of exposing crime to the public, producing this film, it's also a historically important film in our cinema past.