Interview with the Assassin

Starring Raymond J. Barry, Dylan Haggerty, Darrell Sandeen, Renee Faia, Jim Hiser, Christel Khalil, Jack Tate, Kate Williamson, Mike Wood
Written and Directed by Neil Burger
website: www.interviewwiththeassassin.com

IN SHORT: Gee, a second assassin shot Kennedy? moot point. [not Rated. 88 minutes]

As writer/director Neil Burger explains it, he was a year out of college and eating dinner at a bar when he struck up a conversation with a stranger. Said stranger told the youngster that "he knew people who were involved in the assassination of President Kennedy." Burger thought the man was a kook and the man left without providing any details but that was enough to spark the writer part of our creator's brain. Inspired by that random rendezvous, out pops Interview with the Assassin, in which an out of work teevee news cameraman meets the man who claims to be the second shooter.

But, as a work of flat out fiction consider: What if there was a second shooter as Kennedy conspirati have always maintained? What if a struggling news cameraman met said shooter who would soon die of cancer? What story would the dying man tell and what lengths would the former go to to prove or disprove the story?

Burger shoots in documentary style, as an out-of-work TV reporter/cameraman Ron Kobelski (Dylan Haggerty) who is approached by a neighbor, ex-Marine Walter Ohlinger (Raymond J. Barry) who says he is dying of cancer and confesses to being the second shooter (allegedly on the Grassy Knoll, according to the classic conspiracy theory). Sensing a sure fire Pulitzer and fame beyond comprehension for cracking the crime of the last century, Kobelski spends his money and time to shoot the story, which traces the trail from the streets of Dallas to those of Washington D.C.

Ohlinger is a take no crap kind of guy. Despite the confessional mode, he doesn't like to talk all that much and doesn't like stating what he thinks should be obvious. Oswald was a patsy. The kill shot was something he was trained to do as a Marine and he took the shot at the orders of his now deceased commander, Jim Seymour. Why do it? Well, consider this: Killing the most powerful person in the world makes the shooter even more powerful! It's the old warrior blood myth made real. And, as Ohlinger leaks bits and pieces of the tale, it seems that everyone involved in the plot has been forcibly silenced. Thinking he is the last, Ohlinger wants his power and his place in history.

Ohlinger has Kobelski buy a rifle similar to the one he says was used back in 1963, to demonstrate what an easy shot it was. Even Kobelski hits the target, set up in the backyard of another Marine Ohlinger hasn't seen in years -- and who is none to pleased to see him. Shortly thereafter, the phone starts ringing and suspicious warnings are left on the answering machine. Hmm. Kobelski's investigations reveal that Jim Seymour, the man who contracted the hit, is still alive. So the pair head East to confront the man.

Ah, the conspiracy deepens with each successive scene. Burger's decision to shoot with unknown actors, emphasis on the word "actor," will thrill conspirati who don't pay much attention to things like details or credits. They craft a believable pair of characters and drops a nice twist at the end of his tale. Interview with the Assassin is pleasant sit as long as you remember this particular case is closed.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Interview with the Assassin, he would have paid . . .

$3.00

Pop a Bud and rent.

Quotes in the first graph (and others not but supporting the claims) come from face to face interviews with FBI agent Francis O'Neil as well as Baden, Wecht conducted in 1992 for the book Case Closed by Gerald Posner. Before you eMail us to tell us that either Posner is a CIA stooge or that the Zapruder film clearly shows that the kill shot came from the front, know that we met Posner a good five years before Case Closed was begun and have seen the Zapruder film in both regular and enlarged versions. If you've got a copy, move frame by frame backwards to about 4 or 5 frames before the front of Kennedy's head explodes. rock back and forth, frame to frame. You'll see the hair at the back of Kennedy's head part from the bullet entry. Case Closed.

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