Unternehmen Staatsgewalt (1973) watch online HD

I forgot about this movie until I saw it on tape in a cut-out bin. I don't know why it isn't a well-known film, it's very good. The cast is excellent, and the straight-forward tone is unique. There's no judgement provided by the movie makers on the plotters, who are on one hand presented as earnest men doing what they believed to be in the best interest of the country, and on the other as lunatic facists, discussing eliminating "excess population" as if it were an everyday thing.

The purpose of the movie is to educate, it seems, presenting a lot of facts or what are presented to be facts, about Oswald as a patsy. I've read enough to know that not all of what is presented as factual is true (the phone system being cut out in D.C. is a well-known canard, repeated in "JFK"), but the movie uses this approach to lay out a very logical scenario regarding how it could have been done. The political background, and the details of the lapses of the Secret Service are used to good effect.

Finally, there is the presence of JFK himself as a counterpoint throughout the movie. Films of some of his best lines combined with the haunting musical score lend an air of melancholy appropriate to the subject matter, a feeling that is shared by the plotters. There is a quote from Shakespeare given by Robert Ryan that sums it up; ". . . and nothing can we call our own but death . . . let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings." It's one fine moment of many in a well-crafted film.

With a running time of less than half of that of Oliver Stone's also excellent "JFK," this movie is more to the point. It doesn't bombard you as much with facts/theories as "JFK," leaving some to the imagination of the viewer. It was released in the fall of 1973, while the 10th anniversary of the assasination approached, and the Watergate scandal was in full swing. I was 13 when it came out, and the idea that there even could have been a conspiracy was frightening. Almost thirty years later, it still is, although with all the subsequent revelations and scandals in D. C., it does not suprise me anymore.

The movie moves along rapidly, and the acting by the late trio of Landcaster Ryan, and Will Geer (grandpa Walton as a bad guy, I love it!)is excellent. This was Robert Ryan's last film. It was an excellent final cinema performance by one of Hollywood's most under-rated actors. One can tell were Oliver Stone got his inspiration to cutting back and forth between black-and-white and color sequences. In that respect, Executive Action was ahead of its time. For almost twenty years, it was THE movie on the assassination. It is still an excellent companion piece to "JFK," and for those less interested in the subject this movie might actually be preferable, and it's theories are not dissimilar to Stone's. Unfortunately, the movie did not get it's due at the time of the release. At only ten years removed from the assasination, it was was still too painful a subject for many at the time. Finally, how Leonard Maltin finds this move "excruciatingly dull" is beyond me.

What makes the Kennedy assassination so fascinating to me is the conflicting evidence both for and against a lone assassin. This film develops one version of conspiracy theory, and a fairly plausible one if you believe the evidence weighs in a conspiratorial direction.

The version here, i.e. ruthless right-wing oligarchs, has had historically to compete with the also popular organized-crime-did-it theory. However, the two don't have to be mutually exclusive, though combining them may be too unwieldy to be plausible. Nevertheless, this version does appeal to the ruthlessness with which power is known to be wielded in our upper echelons. As some historians point out, the assassination itself marks the end of America's post-war age of innocence.

Judged strictly as a movie, the sinister intrigues come across as darkly entertaining. I can understand that lone-assassin defenders would despise the contents and the assurance with which they're served up. Nonetheless, the movie presents a fascinating narrative of deadly machinations at the highest levels. If the acting seems restrained, that's likely so as not to compete with the storyline, which of course remains uppermost. Taken strictly as entertainment, Leonard Maltin's "Bomb" and "dull" thus come across as judgments based on political opinion instead of movie-making art, and should be an embarrassment to his professional reputation.

Perhaps some background to the movie would be helpful to younger viewers. By 1973, the year of the film's release, critics, such as Mark Lane's 1966 Rush to Judgment, had shredded much of the Warren Commission Report (1964), putting the government's lone assassin theory on the strictly defensive. District Attorney Jim Garrison's independent New Orleans investigation in 1967 also lent legitimacy to critics of the Report. Just as importantly, government's credibility on matters of state had been undermined by events in Vietnam, especially as exposed in the Pentagon Papers of 1971. In short, many Americans were ready to believe in 1973 what they weren't ready to believe in 1963, namely that the official Report was an expedient cover-up, and that the true facts surrounding Kennedy's murder had yet to be revealed.

Executive Action stepped into the breach, hoping to reach the non-book reading public and alert them to what critics on the left felt was a likely version of the true facts. Note that except for the positioning of the shooters, other details—especially the network connections beyond Ryan and Lancaster—remain unspecified. Thus, this film version provides a framework in which elements of the CIA or other rogue elements of government, or even organized crime, can be slotted. Wisely, the movie doesn't provide more than this generalized, non-specific framework.

My recollection is that the movie never got beyond a limited release, and mainly to urban centers. So the goal of reaching a broader American public was likely not realized. I also recall information sheets being passed out to ticket-buyers, detailing some points made in the movie. But, whatever the reasons, this independent production failed to reach the numbers of Oliver Stone's 1991 recounting of the Garrison investigation. However by that time, a new generation and three decades had intervened and memories had faded.

But, if films like Executive Action continue to tantalize, it's because the government has never had an interest in really pursuing the case. That's understandable in the instance of the Warren Report. Keep in mind that because of Oswald's supposed communist connections, there was a real possibility in 1964 of nuclear war breaking out if a Soviet plot were exposed. Better a cover- up investigation that might otherwise go who knows where than millions of atomized dead. Yes, indeed, that's understandable. But what about the finding of 1979's House Select Committee on Assassinations, convened because of renewed public interest in the case. The Committee concluded rather shockingly that "… on the basis of evidence available to it (meaning the Committee) that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." !! "Probably a conspiracy"-- Quite an official declaration after years of asserting otherwise.

On the other hand, it's revealing that there was never any follow-up by an agency of government following the House's nominal overturning of the Warren Report. In fact, I think few people are even aware of the government's now paradoxical position on the 20th century's leading unsolved murder. The House finding was simply shoved under the rug and forgotten. Thus the crime continues to haunt the nation's background like a wandering ghost too toxic for the government to finally track down. As a result, movies like Executive Action, for all its speculative dimension, will continue to entertain and provoke and, within limits, inform.

Interesting and effective film about the JFK assassination released ten years after the tragic event and seventeen years before the far more popular movie "JFK". With hardly any of the controversy of the Oliver Stone & Kevin Costner version.

A number of big oil-men get together in June 1963 to plan to assassinate JFK because his policies, domestic as well as foreign, are a threat to their money and power. The oil men start to put into effect the plan that eventually led to the tragic events of November 22, 1963. Good acting and directing makes this movie grab your attention and see it through it's tragic ending. Even though everyone watching the movie knows what the ending is which is anticlimactic.

What really makes the movie is the build-up and plans that lead to the events that happened in Dallas on that fateful November day. One of the most chilling scenes in the movie is when Farrington, Burt Lancaster, meets up in a diner with Operations Chief played by actor Ed Lauter. Farrington explains to him what he'll get for the "hit" in money and expenses without telling him who is to be "hit". Lauter realizes who it is without Farrington even telling him just by the money and effort involved and tells him surprisingly as well as shockingly "You've just told me who's going to get to hit!": Which is the President of the United State John Fitzgerald Kennedy without even once mentioning him!

Also very effective, besides the scene when the actual assassination takes place, is how the killers planned the "hit" and how they came to the conclusion, after hours and hours of practice shooting on a moving and difficult target, that one shooter doing it would be impossible. The killers instead opted to use at least three riflemen in different places. Unlike the version what we got from the official report by the by now totally discredited, by almost 90% of the American public, Warren Commission of a one man one gun assassin. "Executive Action" was also Robert Ryans last major role.

This movie was made almost twenty years before Oliver Stone's JFK so of course people are going to say that it is trite, inferior and dated. I really enjoyed it though because it is a good thriller. Was the Kennedy assassination planned by a group of disgruntled rich guys who didn't want him to obtain cival rights and pull out of Vietnam? Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan are both superb as the big bosses. They honestly believe they are doing the country a favor by killing Kennedy. They believe they are being true patriots. Its really suspenseful watching the plot unfold and come together. The liberal use of newsreel footage adds to the realism and the scenes leading up to the assassination are particularly good and suspenseful. You can feel your pulse raising as the president rides to his doom. Sadly, Ryan died shortly after this film came out. Also, its fun seeing Will Geer, the lovable Grandfather Walton, in a slightly sinister role.

Released in November 1973, near the tenth anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, EXECUTIVE ACTION is often overlooked as a film because of Oliver Stone's extraordinarily controversial 1991 film JFK. It obviously doesn't have the high-budget gloss or the montage that Stone's film does, but what it does have is a hard-hitting inside look into the individuals who might have had a direct hand in plotting this hideous crime.

Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan (in one of his final movies), and Will Geer are the conspirators, right-wing businessmen with an axe to grind. As in Stone's film, the motivations for the assassination are disgust with the way Kennedy handled Fidel Castro and the possibility that he would have stopped our involvement in Vietnam before it ever got to the ground troop stage. Based on Mark Lane's book "Rush To Judgement", scripted by former blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, and directed by David Miller (LONELY ARE THE BRAVE), EXECUTIVE ACTION is very somber and cold-blooded, but superbly constructed. It is amazing to think that three actors with ultra-liberal political credentials like Lancaster, Ryan, and Geer should be so icily convincing in their portrayals of fascists. The film makes very plausible the banality of evil. And like JFK, it also blows holes in the Warren Commission report big enough to drive a truck through and make apologists like Gerald Posner apoplectic.

Whether seen on its own terms or as a companion piece to the much better known JFK, EXECUTIVE ACTION is worth viewing--and, like Stone's film, asks us to consider the nightmarish chain of events that seem to have resulted directly or indirectly from what happened on that dark day in Dallas in 1963.

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.

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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.

"Executive Action" provides an alternate explanation for the evidence surrounding the assassination of President John Kennedy. Released only 10 years after JFK's death--too soon for the public to accept it--it was a box office flop. But its use of both dramatized scenes and archival footage provides an interesting, though controversial, story written by the talented Dalton Trumbo.

Much of the conspiracy theory is similar to Oliver Stone's "JFK", and it does a good job of integrating known evidence (such as witness reports and information we know about Lee Harvey Oswald) and nearly mythologized explanations of the assassination (like the "grassy knoll").

Starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan (in his penultimate film) and Will Geer as the three men who organize the hit, the film carries an emotional content for anyone who lived through the event in 1963. It also serves as an indictment of the Secret Service and the Dallas Police Department, criticizing their sloppy procedures and their unprofessional methods.

Though many people have accepted the Warren Commission's lone gunman explanation, conspiracy theorists abound even now, especially since some of the evidence is difficult to explain.

As we view the film today, it is nearly amusing to hear the conspirators say, in ignorant naivete, that JFK's reputation and personal life are smear proof. But the mystical spell of "Camelot" that surrounded the Kennedys and his presidency was still in place at the film's initial release in 1973.

Anyone who wants to learn from the past, not trust the present, and be hopeful for the future should see this film. It was very well put together and very informative. Even though it is suppose to be fiction, one can only feel that this is a thinking person's film. David Miller, the director, did not waste a minute of the viewers' time in giving this film great guidance to the end of the film. I felt like I had learned something and I wanted to research and learn more. If you are a lover of history and want to not make mistakes of the past, this is definitely a movie you will enjoy. Lancaster, Ryan, and Geer were completely believable. I wish they made movies like this again. This is the best political thriller I have seen in such a long time.

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

To those who have studied the assassination of JFK through the years this film is very polarizing. Almost everyone has an opinion of whether or not a conspiracy was involved, and government studies have come to differing conclusions. Opinions are like navels, we all have them. It astounds me still that a movie like this with heavyweight actors such as Lancaster, and Ryan could be made ten years after the assassination. Like many alive I recall when this movie debuted in theaters and then disappeared from theaters. I never got a chance to see it then, but was told it was very "Upsetting." Having seen it at in 2011 I would use the word disturbing. The story is told in a matter of fact, low key manner, that men of power and wealth discuss and come to feel that the 35th President must die. It is very chilling to me that it is told in such a low key, almost clinical manner. There is a cabal of power brokers, lead by Geer, who is eventually convinced of, and gives the okay to the assassination. These "Superpatriots" display an arrogant, and insular skewed view of the world and imply that "They know best." Where have we seen that attitude before? Even if you don't buy the conspiracy angle, this is a great movie, well made. The hairstyles, cars folks drove and other incidentals are, in my opinion, not at all important. The message is the thing, and the thing is to think.

Although as I recall, this film did not do well in theatres, but it is every bit as good as Oliver Stone's JFK. Obviously, the producers did not have Stone's clout. A strong cast makes this a very believable account of how JFK was set up. Executive Action did not have JFK's budget, nor was it as fancy, but the message was very clear. Conspiracy at the highest levels of government, business and the intelligence community coupled with a believable cast. Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan are very effective and the principle planners. If I remember correctly, this was Ryan's last film. Under-rated, this movie is a must see for all.

Entertaining and interesting film which puts forward a seemingly plausible theory as to why JFK was assassinated.

The main thought seems to be that President Kennedy's ideas in regard to nuclear disarmament, racial equality and ensuring a square deal for America's most lowly paid workers were just too radical as far as the country's hard line conservatives were concerned.

Appears to have been generally well researched and non sensationalist.

However, it's a fair criticism to note that some of the finer points of period detail are slightly shaky. For example, some of the hairstyles and fashions definitely belong to the '70s rather than the early '60s. We have a '61 Chevy coupe with a tattered rear back seat which has obviously been parched by a decade of sun exposure. But these are minor points.

Don't worry too much about nit picking as this movie is most certainly well worth a look.

As a film this may not be very gripping to an audience who only knows about the assassination of JFK through history. I have read many theories about the assassination and have dismissed most but I don't believe in the lone gunman theory. I also was 19 when it happened, was in fact on board a U.S. naval ship tied up to a dock in VA and was on deck watch at the time. I discovered shockingly that many of the crew on board was actually pleased when it happened while the other half were of course stunned and dismayed. In any case, I found the most compelling parts of the film to be the original footage that is spliced into it. To this day it is the first time that I have seen some of it. I found of course that with two terrific actors like Lancaster and Ryan (at the end of his career) could make the conspiracy more believable than not. Yes the pacing is slower than even I would like. But I would say don't watch this film for entertainment. Watch it because it provides a slant on history that you won't read about in high school and perhaps may wet your appetite to look into this further. Spending our time being merely entertained is just wasting time. And history is always written by the victors.

It was hard back then to cut out Lee Harvey Oswald's face, paste it on a body holding a gun, and then copy it so it looked like a real photo. Made conspiracy challenging.

"Executive Action" from 1973 is another film that theorizes how the assassination of JFK went down - this time, it's a bunch of rogue intelligence agents, conservative politicians, greedy businessmen who were worried about President Kennedy's policies on race relations, ending the Vietnam War, and ending the oil depletion allowance.

This film's conspiracy is a lot more straightforward than what was posited in JFK, and it really could have gone down this way - with fake Oswalds, three gunmen, and a lot of people getting out of Dodge as soon as it was over. Unfortunately we don't know what happened. This could be close though. Much of the film has actual footage mixed in with film footage. Although the assassination was a re- enactment, it was mixed with actual footage and is still devastating to watch.

One thing I've never doubted for one minute is that Ruby was allowed to kill Oswald. Take a look at that scenario. This man supposedly just killed the President and Ruby saunters into the garage, Oswald comes up with a man at either side, walking somewhat slowly - where? Why wasn't the transport right at the door? Never could get over that.

"Executive Action" is handled in a very naturalistic style; the actors speak conversationally, and it makes what they're planning scarier.

The most impressive part of the film is showing that 18 material witnesses to the assassination were dead by 1967. Sobering.

Good film, makes you think. Depressing too.

This landmark movie--the first to tackle this controversial issue--integrates authentic black & white newsreel footage of John F. Kennedy with a dramatized conspiracy to kill the President. The film unfolds with the following prologue:"Before his death, former President Lyndon B. Johnson gave a three hour interview to a well-known television commentator. On May 2, 1970, when the interview was shown on a national television network, it included the message that certain material had been deleted at President Johnson's insistence. It has been revealed that in the censored section, Johnson had expressed misgivings about the finding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone, and that in fact, he (LBJ)suspected that a conspiracy had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy." The fascinating thing about this modest little picture is that the protagonists are all villains. Typically, a hero arises to defeat the adversaries, but no hero emerges in "Executive Action." Indeed, it is interesting to speculate whether this film could not have been produced before 1973 under the inflexible Production Code Administration simply because the villains win and nobody punishes them for their horrendous crime.

Director David Miller of "Lonely Are the Brave," "The Flying Tigers," and "Billy the Kid" helmed this provocative film that consists ostensibly of distinguished gentlemen--Washington power brokers acting as intermediaries--who assemble behind closed doors and discuss the plan. The first meeting convenes on June 5, 1963. Affluent businessmen James Farrington (Burt Lancaster of "Elmer Gantry")and Foster (Robert Ryan of "The Proud Ones")spend a third of the time trying to convince Southern politician Harold Ferguson (Will Greer of CBS-TV's "The Waltons") that Kennedy had put America on the wrong course. A professor warns them about the enormous power that the Kennedy dynasty controls, and they have laid out a time table that has JFK serving two terms as President and his two brothers Robert and Teddy serving two terms. "And in each administration, the brothers who are not president will take over the most powerful cabinet posts. They have several hundred million dollars and the best brains on earth to carry them through. They have put together a powerful coalition of big city machines, labor, Negroes, Jews, and that press that will make him unbeatable in 1964." Initially Ferguson shows skepticism and observes that Kennedy's father Joseph "is farther to the right than I am."

Before Farrington and Foster win Ferguson over to their cause, they explain that Europeans kill heads of state with conspiracies, but in America, lone mad assassins have consistently either killed or tried to kill Presidents. First, they design an elaborate scenario to incriminate a fall guy--Lee Harvey Oswald--as the assassin. Second, they decide to kill Kennedy while he is riding in a motorcade. Foster explains that "motorcades are scheduled well in advance and they give you a chance to fire from cover and getaway in the confusion." Farrington states that they will use "trained, reliable professionals." He elaborates: "They only possible scenario is three rifles with triangulated gunfire. Two firing at the retreating target. The third firing as the target advances." Interspersed among these exposition heavy conference scenes are scenes of two sniper teams practicing on dummies in a car drawn through remote locations. Ed Lauter of "The Longest Yard" plays the Operations Chief of Team A, and veteran character actor Dick Miller of "The Terminator" plays one of the snipers on the B Team. Indeed, this semi-documentary approach creates some question about the findings of the Warren Report that concluded beyond a doubt that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, gunned down the President on November 22, 1963.

The top-notch cast, headed by Academy Award winner Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan,and Will Greer as the conspirators, is seasoned with many familiar character actors populating the supporting roles. Producer Edward Lewis was no slouch either, having produced the volatile political thriller "Seven Days in May" with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, but the clincher is that former blacklisted Hollywood 10 scenarist Dalton Trumbo penned the script. Initially, Trumbo said that he did not believe in a conspiracy, but after he read several books on the assassination as well as the Warren Commission Report, he changed his opinion. No, "Executive Action" is not a conventional assassination thriller. Everything about it is pretty straightforward and suspense is lacking, but the audacious subject matter compensates for these departures from the norm. After all, we know that the assassins didn't miss and Kennedy died.Nevertheless, "Executive Action" did not stir up the controversy that the sensational Oliver Stone movie "JFK" with Kevin Costner generated many years later. Nonetheless, in light of everything, "Executive Action" constituted a bold move and there hasn't been a film like it. This was actor Robert Ryan's final film appearance. Randy Edelman wrote the haunting theme music. The film ends with the observation that an inordinate number of eye witnesses to the assassination died afterward of unusual causes. I remember seeing this movie when it came out originally in theaters.

Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan lending their talents to this film are statements of integrity for each. The movie takes a pragmatic approach to the event and unlike the later film, JFK, does not set up the counter-conspiracy protagonists nor the after-assassination cover-up as a dramatic foil. It simply tells us how it could have been done and leaves it to the viewer to determine what is reasonable. In 1973 this was a wise move in that the Shaw case had been resolved a mere four years earlier. It is similar to the revelatory Ned Beatty scenes in the film, Network, in the scene where the Kennedy killers assure each other that the public will, "want to believe what they are told." That is the full extent of the American public's "role" in the movie, showing just the conception, practicing for and execution of President Kennedy. My only criticism is that the fleshing out of Jack Ruby's motives for eliminating Oswald seemed incomplete. We never get to see who Lancaster's character is connected to within the government, so we have to assume that he is capable of pulling off the elimination of Oswald without worrying that the plot will be uncovered. By today's standards this seems just a little bit loose but it also enhances the spookiness and horror of it all.

A tense, well-acted little film, co-written by McCarthy-era blacklistee Dalton Trumbo. Presents an entirely plausible scenario around the 1963 assassination of JFK, complete with unsavory CIA types and villainous Right-Wing millionaires. Burt Lancaster plays the veteran government spook, who puts it all together under the circumspect but watchful eye of Robert Ryan. There is an excellent (and chilling) scene in which Ryan lays out the "future" of US government covert actions. "There'll be 20 billion people on the planet by the Year 2000," he intones: "Pouring out of Asia and Africa, all hungry, all determined to love. We have ways of reducing that population to less than 500,000; I've seen the figures." When his companion (Lancaster) demurs ("We sound like God reading from the Doomsday Book"), Ryan shrugs. "Well, someone's got to do it. And the methods and techniques we develop now will help us control our own troublesome populations - blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, poverty-prone Whites." It is a terrifying sequence, filmed nearly a decade before the scourge of the AIDS virus, which many believe was ultimately created to target "troublesome populations". An all-around compelling movie.

David Miller was not what you call an auteur director, but a very qualified and professional filmmaker, and that is good enough in my book ,due to the fact that I write from Ingmar Bergman land. Miller was the man behind for example: Lonely Are the Brave, Sudden Fear, Billy The Kid(1941) and many other films. In Executive Action Miller made a professional job about a probably professional "job", the killing of a president. There are so many theories about what really happened that fateful Novemberday down in Dallas in The Lone Star State. Take your pick ! Dalton Trumbo wrote a good script based on some of them, of course with the bottom line: Oswald was not alone. It is no secret that a president has many and often powerful enemies, that goes with the job. You can speculate about Cubans, oil magnates, the Mob and so on, but the crucial point in the film and maybe in real life is that the official story, outlining Lee H. Oswald as the only one who took executive action that day is not easy to believe. If so, he fired three shots in six seconds,and made the last one good. But documentary pictures show that the presidents head is thrown back when the last shot hits, which tells us that the third shot probably came in front. Executive action is a tight and well made thriller based on this hypotheses, about a conspiracy.You might even say that the more famous JFK(D: Oliver Stone) is based on Miller's film. JFK is longer and more visually vibrant and on the whole a more flamboyant production, but Miller's film deserve a better reputation. Maltins for example calls it a "bomb", and that is poor judgement from someone who should know better.

The cast is also superb, Burt Lancaster especially is good as the mastermind planning it all. And it is of course always a pleasure to watch Robert Ryan, an old pro and a no nonsense actor, always with integrity and a "know how" in his roles.If you want to see a real good thriller, regardless of your own thoughts about a president's death, you are on with Executive Action.

Nearly twenty years before Oliver Stone shocked audiences with JFK, Executive Action brought a conspiracy to kill JFK to life. But instead of presenting a stylish and flashy presentation that shows an ever evolving conspiracy as JFK did, Executive Action is a low-budget documentary style presentation that shows not an evolving conspiracy theory, but how such a conspiracy might have happened. The end result might not be a cinematic masterpiece but it is an all-too plausible conspiracy theory.

Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan play the men behind the plot. Admittedly this is not the best film of their respective careers, they both give strong performances. Their characters don't have much depth but as the men responsible for plotting the murder of the President, it seems rightly that they aren't overly emotional but rather amoral men with a singular purpose in mind. The only one of the conspirators who shows any real emotion about killing the President is William Greer whose character is the man financing the attempt. For much of the film he debates whether to kill JFK or not and part of the film's tension is whether he'll do it or not.

The star of the film isn't the actors of course. The real star of Executive Action is its script and documentary style of the filming. From the very beginning when we see shooters in the desert practicing the assassination to the framing of Lee Harvey Oswald with a double and altered pictures, to the meetings of the plotters and right down to the assassination and its aftermath the film never loses its documentary style. The filmmakers choose not to be sensational with the material (as Oliver Stone did with JFK) and by showing it "as it might have happened" (to quote the film itself) the filmmakers make a good case for a conspiracy in the assassination. The fault of the documentary style is in the large amount of use of documentary footage. This serves to throw the viewer out of the film but constantly shifting from 35mm film to hand-held footage of the assassination and motorcade during the assassination sequence and a chilling practice run. But outside of the fault of overusing the documentary footage the style works well.

Executive Action is not a cinematic masterpiece by any means. But it is an intriguing, thought provoking, documentary approach to the conspiracy angle of the JFK assassination. More persuasive then Oliver Stone's JFK, Executive Action is the most realistic fictional depiction of the assassination of JFK made to date. Not to be missed by anyone interested in the assassination, no matter which side of the issue you might be on.

I have finally seen Executive Action, a film I have been aware of and been wanting to see for decades. First off, I give it an 8.5 out of 10 for simply being the first motion picture to deal with the subject matter, aside from documentaries, long before Oliver Stone wrote his magnum opus. Is it a perfect film...no. The long hair and bushier sideburns on most of the actors betrays the early 70's filming dates and I spotted many post 1963 vehicles in at least half the shots where a street scene was filmed, but I can forgive it because of it's bold subject matter. The main cast give nice, restrained performances, unlike some of the supporting cast. Some scenes, example when Ruby is talking to one of his strippers in his night club borders on high school drama level acting. What surpassed my expectations was the amount of detail/facts when it came to the post-Warren Commission evidence that has since been put forth and in some cases been proven by ordinary citizens who were not as gullible to believe the Commission's 1964 findings. What is amazing are the scenes filmed in Dealy Plaza only 10 years after the real event. Unlike the rapid fire editing in JFK, these scenes give a real sense of the location and how all the areas relate to each other within the plaza. If you love JFK then this film is a must. Yes, it is not on as an epic scale as the 1991 watershed film, but it contains a majority of the now well known contradictions that make the Warren Report, as Cyril H. Wecht has once stated, well written fiction like Huckleberry Fin as opposed to non-fiction, which it is suppose to be.

Oliver Stone's JFK was gripping and you wanted to believe the conspiracy theory in the film. Executive Action is kind of like the prequel, and really makes you think can there be such a vast conspiracy out there that wanted JFK dead? Sure, the acting didn't earn any Oscar nominations, but still it's a movie to watch if you're interested in the Grassy Knoll genre.

I watched this film recently with my 14 year old son. That he chose this film out a group of films that we had around the house was interesting in itself as it showed his interest in the subject. I was able to recount to him where I was at the time of the assassination of JFK. I was 17 years old in high school. We were writing a math exam and at the conclusion of the exam the teacher told us that JFK had been assassinated. We were of course quite shocked because JFK had been a hero to many of us.

Over the next few days we were transfixed by the television watching the events of the funeral and Lee Harvey Oswald the accused assassin. When Lee Harvey Oswald was himself assassinated on television right before us it was second shock. The assassination of JFK and LHO set the tone for the turbulent 1960's that was to follow. And it included the assassinations of two other giants of the period Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.

I confess I barely recalled this picture when it came out as it seemed to come and go with barely a murmur. Certainly if one were to base this picture purely on its production values (it came off more like some cheap B thriller and Leonard Maitlin rated it as BOMB) and its wooden staid acting you would probably have wanted to avoid it. BOth Lancaster and Ryan were at best subdued in their roles while Will Geer was a delight to watch. Hard to believe he was later Grandpa Walton. Ryan and Lancaster were two of my favourite actors at the time and even today I will look for old Ryan or Lancaster films especially their early edgy noir films.

But this film not only stands the test of time it still resonates today. The interspersing of archive footage of Kennedy and Oswald was eerie and added to the tension. The long scene where they are putting together a deliberate doctored photo of Oswald is a grim reminder that it was later shown that the photo was doctored. And the ending where the TV announcer tells us that over the next few years 18 material witnesses were dead from being murdered or a gruesome accident. The odds of course being one hundred thousand trillion to one that an event such as that could take place.

That John F. Kennedy was assassinated by one man Lee Harvey Oswald is today for many of us a grim joke. It was too big for one man just like the assassination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy was too big for one man as well. That after the assassination of JFK his major planks of the test ban treaty was stopped and the Vietnam war that he wanted to wind down was instead escalated reminds us of the words of former President Dwight Eisenhower warning us about the military industrial complex (especially in the opening scenes of "Why We FIght - 2005". Kennedy quite simply was a threat to the military industrial complex so he had to be taken down. The same for King and Bobby Kennedy.

Given the events since the assassination of JFK the warnings are prescient as are the other assassinations. Today we have George W. Bush an endless war for oil and global domination by the American Empire and a threat to WW3 with this time America as the bad guys. Of course equally there are millions of Americans who still remember and admire JFK and remember what he wanted to do. Sadly they are out of power but we are there and we shall never forget and it will be passed on to our sons and daughters.

As I said his assassination still resonates today and this film is a reminder. A film everyone should see.

David Chapman Toronto, Canada

Executive Action was released 10 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and thus is a film by those who remember the day and its aftermath so vividly. Executive Action blends fiction and historical fact into creating one possible scenario to who was responsible for the assassination of JFK, but one which the movie makes feel convincing. The film is a great companion piece to Oliver Stone's JFK; Stone has stated Executive Action was a basis on inspiration for JFK and it's not hard to see aspects of JFK within Executive Action. Like in JFK, there is much intercutting of archive footage and black & white flashbacks, while the military like score by Randy Edelman feels reminiscent of John William's score to JFK.

Much of the film is comprised of engrossing documentary like discussions and presentations, making it like an adaptation of a stage play. Those behind the assassination in Executive Action are a small group of businessmen, political figures and former US Intelligence personnel. They spend much of the movie alone in a mansion and come off as people who are out of touch with common society, nor are they keen on civil rights or minorities. They're like a secret society and are interested in their own agenda - an elite who believe it's their duty to pull off an action such as assassinating individuals to preserve their interests; in fact it's even stated this isn't the first time any of them have taken part in an assassination; these are businessmen controlling the world. Will Geer plays a stereotypical looking southern businessman who looks a bit like Colonel Sanders, while Burt Lancaster's menacing performance reminds me of his role of the evil business mogul J.J. Hunsecker in Sweet Smell of Success. These are cold-blooded, emotionless men and the entire film is deliberately acted in low key performances. Whereas JFK is a film driven by emotion, Executive Action is the opposite in this respect.

The film does an effective job at recreating 1963 with the fashions and cars on show and despite the low budget, there are aerial shots of Dealey Plaza with the appropriate cars on the road and a recreation the billboard sign on top of the book depository as it looked in 1963. My only downside to Executive Action is the film's inconsistent pacing. The middle portion of the film drags as the story becomes less eventful, but the suspense builds up once the day of the assassination has arrived.

Executive Action was made during a period when paranoia/conspiracy thrillers where at their height and right during the Watergate scandal; yet has been swept under the rug of history as it is the type of film which would be easily dismissed by critics for being speculative and other such dirty words. Thus there is a taboo like joy which comes from watching a provocative, somewhat trashy film like this.

I also recommend watching the vintage featurette on the Executive Action DVD. During it the film's screenwriter Dalton Trumbo states he didn't believe in any conspiracy theories until he read the Warren Report and a dozen books on the subject and became convinced the president had been killed by bullets from two different angles. Likewise, Burt Lancaster tells of how he became increasingly convinced of a probable conspiracy when doing his research. It goes to show how easy it is to be swayed into believing the JFK conspiracy.