Remembering JFK at The Texas Theatre

The Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff will present a special day of movie screenings in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. All descriptions below provided courtesy of the theatre.

War is Hell. 1:20 p.m.
We will present a partial screening of War is Hell, the film that was playing the day that Lee Harvey Oswald sneaked into the Texas Theatre following the JFK assassination.

“During the Korean War, a glory-hunting sergeant leads his platoon on a mission against the enemy–not telling them that a cease-fire has just been declared–so that he can win medals. Trouble arises when some members of platoon begin to suspect that something is fishy.”

Cry of Battle. 2:45 p.m.
Cry of Battle was one of two films showing at the Texas Theatre on November 22, 1963.

“During World War II, the spoiled son of a wealthy businessman finds himself involved in the guerrilla movement fighting against the Japanese, and finds romance and adventure.”

JFK

At 6:30pm, the ticketed evening program begins with an on-stage theatrical re-creation of the Warren Commission interviews with the Texas Theatre’s employees, Julia Postal and Butch Burroughs, as well as John Brewer, the man who noticed Lee Harvey Oswald enter the Texas Theatre. Following the performance, the stage will be reset for an 8:00pm 35mm archival print presentation of Oliver Stone’s JFK.

A special preview to the film will be a short screening of archival footage from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI): “Texas Responds to the Assassination.” Included is TAMI-exclusive footage of Texas Governor John Connally giving his own, very personal account of November 22, 1963, as well as home movies made in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, and interview footage from the filming of JFK.

The November 22, 1963, assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. The brisk investigation of that murder conducted under the guidance of Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren distressed many observers, even though subsequent careful investigations have been unable to find much fault with the conclusions his commission drew, the central one of which was that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone. Instead of satisfying the public, one result of the Warren Commission Report was that an unimaginable number of plausible conspiracy theories were bruited about, and these have supported a sizable publishing mini-industry ever since. In making this movie, director Oliver Stone had his pick of supposed or real investigative flaws to draw from and has constructed what some reviewers felt was one of the most compelling (and controversial) political detective thrillers ever to emerge from American cinema.