The Oliver Stone of 1991 is well and far removed from the man of 2008. Some of the thunder is gone, but he’s still a man to respect, keep an eye on. But it also feels like his time has past. With His run from Platoon up until about Nixon (as flawed as that is), he was one of the great filmmakers to keep an eye on, and with Platoon and JFK was able to direct a national discussion on topics that changed our world. With JFK, he also gave a voice to the loonies. No offense.

What happened in Dealy Plaza exactly when John F. Kennedy was assassinated is something that could arguably still be deconstructed, though not much new evidence can hoped to be gleaned. What Oliver Stone did was put together a number of different conspiracy theories and the lone man who attempted to put a trial together on at least the one person he can find with some connections still live. That person was New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) and his suspect Clay Bertrand (Tommy Lee Jones).

But the film is about the paranoia and hype surrounding the event, and so you get all sorts of tie-in stories. Guy Bannister (Edward Asner) was running some stuff with David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) and that had some tenuous connections to Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman). A stripper (Lolita Davidovitch) says that Jack Ruby (Brian Doyle-Murray) knew Oswald and much of that gang well before the fact. A convict named Willie O’Keefe (Kevin Bacon) used to have parties with Ferrie and Bertrand, and knows that Bertrand uses the alias Shaw whilst engaging in his homosexual liaisons in the Latin Quarter. Witnesses who died, the men on the grassy knoll, the people who may or may not have been Lee Harvey talking shit about the president before he died, the rumors and inuendoes that were tracked down, and the idea that Oswald – a fair marksmen while in the service – took three shots in six seconds, with the final bullet the best and most fatal, the one that was later labeled a magic bullet.

The film is a chaos of ideas with advisor X (Donald Sutherland) one who comes up with the theory that Kennedy was assassinated to keep the war machine going forward. But Stone knows his cinema, and so he cages the whole debate on the lone crusader, the Jimmy Stewart-type, frustrated on all ends by unsympathetic people – including his wife (Sissy Spacek).

What makes the film work is that inside a very complex and contradictory compendium of theories is an all star Hollywood cast (also included: Walter Matthau, Michael Rooker, Frank Whaley, Laurie Metcalf, John Candy, Sally Kirkland, and Vincent D’Onofrio among others), and that Capra-esque narrative. What is most interesting is how what Stone was railing against in 1991 is even more topical today. What he wanted was the files to be opened so the air could be cleared. As we’ve moved into one of the most secretive American governments, this idea of letting the people have access to the work and the raw data grows even more powerful.

Alas, JFK also gave voice to those with theories about this, they that were always there, and JFK is awkward because – though I don’t know all of exactly what happened, and have a healthy mistrust for the government – echoes of those conspiracy theories can also be found in those who think that the World Trade Center falling was an inside job, among many other conspiracy theories. The question of trust is always a valid one, and the film is excellent at riling an audience up. What exactly Stone believes is not necessarily the text itself.

Warner Brother’s Blu-ray is gorgeous and nearly perfect. There’s just one caveat. This is only the Director’s Cut of the film, and I much prefer the original theatrical cut. Now the difference between is seventeen minutes, but those additional scenes are not all that great, and the disc already contains one hour of excised footage. It will be years if ever then that the theatrical cut will then be preserved, which annoys me. Because otherwise this is a pretty definitive release. The film is widescreen (2.35:1) and in both 5.1 Dolby Digital and TrueHD. The film also comes with a commentary by Stone, and 12 deleted/extended scenes (55 min.), also with additional commentary. Stone is very thoughtful and engaging in these talks. There’s also the documentary “Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy (90 min.) which talks of the film and the theories. Then there’s the multi-media essays “Assassination Update – The New Documents” (30 min.), and “Meet Mr. X: The personality & thoughts of Fletcher Pouty” – the real voice of X. Also included is the theatrical trailer, and the Blu-ray version comes with a booklet.