ruby ( 1992 film )
filmmaker barak goodman discusses gaining trust and access in order to tell the story of what happened on ruby ridge in 1992 .
ruby is a peripheral player in history, and the film can' t change that .
james n. giglio, ‘oliver stone’s jfk in historical perspective’, perspectives, april 1992 .
with the headline: review / film: ruby; annals of an assassin' s assassin .
oliver stone and zachary sklar, jfk: the book of the film, applause books, 1992, includes many contemporary newspaper and magazine articles critical of the film, along with responses by stone, sklar, and others supportive of the film .
ruby trailer 1992 director: john mackenzie starring: arliss howard, danny aiello, david duchovny, joe cortese, richard c. sarafian, sherilyn fenn official content from sony pictures home entertainment fictionalized chronicle of the events leading up to the assassinations of john kennedy and lee harvey oswald, from the point of view of oswald' s killer, jack ruby. movie, ruby movie, ruby trailer, ruby 1992, john mackenzie, arliss howard, danny aiello, david duchovny, joe cortese, richard c. sarafian, sherilyn fenn
the man who shot the man who shot j. f. k. was ruby. cia. mafia. jfk. conspiracy. jack ruby .
an exploration of certain conspiracy theories surrounding the jfk assassination from jack ruby’s perspective .
marty terry as mrs. ruby burke: the local schoolteacher, who is aware of the events that occurred just a couple of days ago in the first film .
in 1992, jess walter and bill morlin worked for the spokesman - review in spokane, wa. they were among the first to report on the deadly standoff .
ray received the awards for best director and best film at the first san francisco film festival in 1957 for his debut film, '` pather panchali. '` last month he received a special oscar for lifetime achievement .
here' s a fictionalized account of jack ruby' s perspective of the events leading up to his assassination of lee harvey oswald. danny aiello appears convincingly as the nightclub - owner ruby who (according to this telling) points the finger at an fbi conspiracy as the force behind the kennedy assassination. the film includes some actual footage from ruby' s oswald shooting .
when a scene is identified in the following text, a reference is given to the page number in the version of the screenplay included in oliver stone and zachary sklar, jfk: the book of the film, applause books, 1992. because several versions of the film exist, it is not feasible to identify scenes by timings or scene numbers. stone and sklar’s book contains many examples of the criticism directed at the film .
for a history of the zapruder film and an account of time–life’s denial of access to it, as well as other issues raised by the film, see david wrone, the zapruder film: reframing jfk’s assassination, university press of kansas, 2003 .
an exploration of certain conspiracy theories surrounding the jfk assassination from jack ruby' s perspective. ruby owns a run - down strip club in dallas, and does what he can for credibility... see full summary »
for details of julia ann mercer’s evidence and credibility, see was jack ruby involved in the jfk assassination? .
urltoken, which gives details of “one hundred of the most egregious errors in stone’s film” .
` 'ruby, '` the new film about the dallas nightclub owner who shot and killed lee harvey oswald, the man named by the warren commission as the lone assassin of president john f. kennedy .
after '` ruby '` was filmed in dallas, puerto rico and los angeles, aiello made two more films .
, was identified. photographs show that the unknown man who ran up the steps was merely a spectator. in the film, jean hill identifies the man as jack ruby, for which there is no credible corroboration .
a story dealing with jack ruby, a texas nightclub owner, and the events in his life leading up to his killing of lee harvey oswald. well produced and played study of jack ruby' s persona which merely implies certain possibilities of a conspiracy
aiello divulges the plot of the film within the film with the sort of zest some people might call relish: '` the pickle '` is about a cucumber that turns into a spaceship .
this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are. see what’s now showing
we don' t have enough data to suggest any movies based on ruby. you can help by rating movies you' ve seen .
many of the events in the film are re - creations from real life. they have the same poignant reality as they do in oliver stone' s
jfk .
there are especially touching moments showing how the mood of the city changes as the word spreads that the president has been shot. and then jack ruby, a big, genial, even kind man, a man who loves his dogs and befriends stray women at the bus station, loads up his pistol and goes off to kill oswald. (the film' s chronology of the scenes in which he does so does not match the historical record; it was always said in ruby' s defense that the timing was accidental, that he did not intend to rendezvous with oswald in that dallas basement. here, the killing is deliberate .) do we know more about jack ruby because of this movie? not really, because it tells us about a fictional ruby, a ruby invested by danny aiello with a great deal more substance and humanity than perhaps the historical figure would have commanded. as a film ,
ruby
creates a convincing and memorable character, an essentially good man who confusedly tries to do good things. as history, the film is not much help .
mr. aiello divulges the plot of the film within the film with the sort of zest some people might call relish :
the pickle
is about a cucumber that turns into a spaceship.' casablanca' returns
siskel & ebert: white men can' t jump / the cutting edge / the power of one / ruby / noises off ...
the relationship between jack ruby and candy cane is at the heart of
ruby ,
which shows how they use one another - candy, not nearly as naive as she first appears, using jack as a way to touch the lives of really powerful men, first in the mafia, and finally, it is suggested, even in the white house. since her character explains so many of the questions about jack ruby, it is a shock, at the end of the film, to learn that candy is a completely fictional creature .
the festival' s mel novikoff award, for extraordinary contributions to film by an individual or organization, is to go to jonas mekas, the critic, film maker, preservationist and nurturer of independent cinema. paul cox retrospective
the film noir genre generally refers to mystery and crime dramas produced from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. …
with the physically impressive danny aiello in the title role ,
ruby
is the story of one of american history' s most infamous fringe characters, jack ruby, the smallish man who, on national television, shot lee harvey oswald in a dallas police station two days after kennedy' s death .
he is then forced to return to the united states to make a commercial film called '` the pickle. '`
film production began at the end of spring 1992, and shooting began in summer 1992 in liberty, north carolina. most of the cast were locals, including the children. the scene involving an elderly woman flying through a store window after her wheelchair becomes controlled by micah was filmed in downtown ramseur, north carolina. the scene where micah and the children of the corn burn the town elders was filmed in a home at the corner of asheboro st. and luther ave. in liberty. the home was burned for the film and a vacant lot remains where the house once stood. the production crew used a local parsonage at the corner of fayetteville and raleigh sts. in liberty as its headquarters during shooting. brian yuzna' s son xeno appears as one of the children of the corn .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
a character named beverly (pp. 119ff; played by lolita davidovich) describes being introduced to lee harvey oswald (played by gary oldman) by jack ruby (played by brian doyle–murray) in a dallas night club. although several other people have claimed that ruby and oswald had known each other (see jim marrs, crossfire: the plot that killed kennedy, simon and schuster, 1989, pp. 402–414), there is no corroboration for the episode in the film, which is based on a remarkably implausible account by a woman named beverly oliver, who claimed that the incident occurred in ruby’s carousel club, and that ruby described oswald to her as a member of the cia. even if the incident in the night club occurred, and even if oswald was a member of the cia, and even if ruby had known this fact, it is hardly likely that he would have mentioned it to a seventeen–year–old singer in a night club .
to this end ,
ruby
mythologizes a lot of known facts, which are then mixed with fiction to speculate in ways that suggest the movie has been sniffing glue. as crazy as it is, though ,
ruby
is almost rudely entertaining. it may also indicate that we' re attending the birth of a new movie subgenre, a specific kind of film noir devoted to an event treated earlier as an occasion to prompt sorrow and conventional sentimentality .
bill morlin, journalist: ruby ridge became a huge propaganda opportunity for people like richard richard butler, aryan nations founder: who wanted to galvanize anti - government hatred .
hollywood later revisited the kennedy assassination with winter kills (1979), based on richard condon' s paranoid thriller; ruby (1992), a stumbling biopic about lee harvey oswald' s killer jack ruby; and most famously in 1991 with jfk, oliver stone' s epic mega - budget version of events. jfk is a hagiography of kennedy theorist jim garrison, a bombastic new orleans prosecutor and homophobe who tried to convict a gay cia associate, clay shaw, of the president' s murder. garrison' s case was ultimately unconvincing: a jury found shaw innocent, which undercuts stone' s telling of history. nevertheless, the film provoked a public outcry and led to the release of thousands of previously secret files by the assassination records review board .
ruby
doesn' t exactly refute
j. f. k .
it seems improbable that mr. mackenzie and his associates could have seen the stone film before making theirs. yet
ruby
pares down the size of the alleged conspiracy to somewhat more manageable proportions and never overburdens the audience with historical detail. it is an expose cast in the form of a fever dream. it takes off from truth with the freedom of a poet obsessed with mob literature .
the movie' s ruby, in his role as a fringe player, witnesses events that seem to exist just beyond the threshold of our understanding. he is summoned to las vegas, for example, for dinner with the highest members of the national mafia council (that' s when he sees jfk across the room - and when jfk sees candy cane across the room). but what is the purpose of the meeting, and what is ruby' s role? in one of the movie' s least convincing moments, ruby excuses himself awkwardly and leaves the table. i do not imagine, when you are at jack ruby' s level, that you have the nerve to leave the table .
fact and fiction are combined in this story about jack ruby and a stripper, candy cane, and how they become involved in a conspiracy to kill j. f. k .
mr. mackenzie, who made
the long good friday ,
keeps
ruby
moving. it' s unreasonably watchable from the moment its
godfather
- like theme music is heard behind the opening credits until jack' s last defiant cry from his jail cell :
you don' t own me. i' m jack ruby !
the plot concerns hemingford, nebraska, a town near gatlin (the original film' s setting) days after the events in gaitlin .
evidence of a shot from the front. the decision to purchase all rights to the film was made by c. d. jackson ,
an exploration of certain conspiracy theories surrounding the jfk assassination from jack ruby' s perspective. ruby owns a run - down strip club in dallas, and does what he can for credibility, both by giving information to the fbi and by doing the odd favor for his mafia contacts. when hitman action jackson is hit, louie vitali asks him to help get crime boss santos out of a cuban jail. when they get back, the bosses take his headliner candy cane under their wing to develop her career in vegas. a mysterious government man named maxwell expresses his displeasure to ruby over his cuban activities. slowly all the pieces of a massive conspiracy begin to emerge to ruby, who can do nothing to stop it .
dave hunt, u. s. marshal: on the morning of the 21st of august, 1992, we approached the mountain with two teams, six people. we followed the south trail. it was a logging trail that lead to the y area and there we split, our two teams split .
the indian director satyajit ray, named to receive the festival' s akira kurosawa lifetime achievement award, is to be represented by several of his best - known films, including
the apu trilogy ,
charulata
and the west coast premiere of his 1991 film
the visitor ,
also known as
agantuk .
mr. ray received the awards for best director and best film at the first san francisco film festival in 1957 for his debut film ,
pather panchali .
last month he received a special oscar for lifetime achievement .
in the aftermath of oliver stone' s
j. f. k. ,
there is john mackenzie' s
ruby ,
the new film about the dallas nightclub owner who shot and killed lee harvey oswald, the man named by the warren commission as the lone assassin of president john f. kennedy .
bill morlin, journalist: this is north idaho, 1992. 50 miles or so from the canadian border. here’s a man with his family, armed to the teeth…who knew that a federal judge wanted him to come to court, and he was refusing to do that. and he lived with the consequences .
according to the original draft of the script, the film was going to be called
children of the corn 2: deadly harvest
.
ruby
is not always easy to follow, especially when it comes to the kennedy assassination, which seems to be a mob hit carried out with some sort of participation by the c. i. a. the film pretends to an unconvincing discretion as it hints that it knows even more than it can say in all decency .
almost every film that deals with historical subjects will contain errors of fact. few such films attract any criticism at all from newspaper or television pundits .
a two–part transcript of a panel discussion on pbs, in which oliver stone is allowed to reply to some of the criticism aimed at his film .
the movie
ruby
approaches his story in much the same way that tom stoppard approached
hamlet
in
rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead
. jack ruby is at center stage. and way over there, in the corner of the vegas hotel dining room, john f. kennedy is a supporting player; he has a bit part, and is always seen in long shot .
after eight fun - filled seasons of watching clair and cliff go through the ups and downs of raising their five kids sondra, denise, theo, vanessa, and rudy, the cosby show took its final bow and left our tv sets (and a frown in our hearts) on april, 30, 1992—20 years to the day .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
ryan bollman as micah: the leader of the new corn group, successor of isaac from the first film, who is possessed by a demonic spirit .
- '` the player, '` directed by robert altman, has been chosen to open the 35th san francisco international film festival on april 23 .
of the zapruder film for the clay shaw trial, bootleg copies began to circulate. one of these bootlegs was shown by robert groden on a national television program, and helped to generate the popular pressure that resulted in the creation of the house select committee on assassinations. the showing of the zapruder film in
describing his preparations for playing jack ruby in the film, based on a screenplay by stephen davis, mr. aiello said :
i did a lot of reading on the subject. all of us, liberal and conservative, did the same reading: stephen davis, john mackenzie. and all three of us had different ideas as to what actually happened .
in the film, one of the assistant district attorneys is a woman, ‘susie cox’ (played by laurie metcalf). in reality, garrison’s assistants were all men. criticising the film for this obvious piece of dramatic licence is rather like finding fault with hamlet because the characters are speaking english rather than danish .
jfk ’s use of jean hill’s evidence illustrates one of the ways in which the film undermined its own credibility. media commentators pointed to this episode as a specific example of the film’s lack of concern for historical accuracy. an audience without specialist knowledge of the assassination might be tempted to wonder how much else was untrustworthy .
time–life’s reluctance to exploit its commercial rights to the zapruder film can only plausibly be explained as an attempt to conceal from the public the evidence contained within the film, in particular the fatal shot that sent president kennedy’s head “back and to the left”, in jim garrison’s famous phrase (p. 165), which provides
several of the essays in robert brent toplin, ed. , oliver stone’s usa — film, history, and controversy, university press of kansas, 2000 .
julia ann mercer (pp. 117f; played by jo anderson) describes seeing a man who matched jack ruby ’s description helping to deliver a rifle to the grassy knoll shortly before the assassination. this is contrary to mercer’s original statements, in which she is unable to identify the man. mercer herself claimed in a later interview that those statements did not reflect her actual evidence, and that the man was indeed ruby .
early in the film, at the bidding of the mob, jack flies off to cuba to spring a mafia big - shot from prison. when his mafia connection orders him to shoot the man just freed, jack refuses on principle. he shoots the connection instead. in the fictional world of
ruby ,
this independent attitude apparently earns him even more mob respect .
garrison states that “they were refurbishing the floors in the depository that week, which allowed unknown workmen in and out of the building” (p. 162). the film includes a speculative scene in which lee harvey oswald, jack ruby and several cubans discuss getting access to the texas school book depository (pp. 134f). oswald offers to smuggle a group up to the sixth floor, and ruby suggests they disguise themselves as “a floor refurbishing group”. in fact, all the men who were replacing the boards on the sixth floor on the morning of the assassination were employees of the tsbd .
the attacks on the film, and especially the hostility of those attacks, were probably counter–productive. they appear to have dissuaded few open–minded people from watching the film, and may have encouraged waverers to go and see what all the fuss was about. many of those who did watch the film would have been made aware for the first time of the weakness of the case against lee harvey oswald, and would have realised also that the media are not disinterested spectators in matters that affect institutional power .
aiello said of ruby. '` he ran strip joints; i ran an after - hours joint. the difference between us is that he took a different road than i. he ended up shooting someone. '`
but he added, '` ruby '` takes the view that the assassination of kennedy was more of a gangland plot than the coup d 'etat engineered with central intelligence agency complicity that '` jfk '` propounds .
the 50th anniversary of the release of
casablanca
will be celebrated at film forum, 209 west houston street, manhattan, with a one - week presentation beginning today .
early in the film, ruby wanders into the dallas bus station and finds a forlorn young blond (sherilyn fenn) who says her name is candy cane. he befriends her. usually the word
befriends
is in quotes, because we know what happens to forlorn young girls who meet strip show owners in bus stations. but, yes, ruby truly does befriend her, giving her fatherly advice and letting her bed down for the night in his club. he even shows her how to lock her door from the inside. the next day, it' s candy who has to convince jack to let her try out as a stripper .
but, he added ,
ruby
takes the view that the assassination of the president was more of a gangland plot than the coup d' etat engineered with central intelligence agency complicity that
j. f. k .
propounds .
bill morlin, journalist: we published a story in early march of 1992 saying ‘feds have fugitive under our nose’. in that story, i quoted officials as saying that, “we don’t want to go up there and get in a gun battle with kids. ” but the marshals are stuck with a federal judge’s order saying, “go get this man. we’re a country of laws. bring him to justice” .
there are multiple twists and pitfalls. created at a time when hollywood still dared to challenge the
official
version of events, this is not a feel - good film. instead, it' s one of the high points of the new american cinema, that brief decade when american film was still an art form – and a challenging, subversive art form at that .
this is a continuation of the previous article, how accurate is oliver stone’s jfk? , which discusses the film’s treatment of the main issues in the jfk assassination, including the single–bullet theory .
garrison alleges that the zapruder film “has been kept locked in a vault in the time–life building in new york city for the last five years” (p. 151). critics objected, claiming that life magazine had published most of the relevant frames as still images, and had made them available for inclusion in the warren report. the reproductions, however, were of a relatively poor quality. more importantly, the film had never been viewed in public as a movie. time–life, which dealt only in magazines, refused several lucrative offers to allow the film to be shown .
mr. aiello said that when he was sent the screenplay of
ruby
about a year and a half ago ,
i fell in love with the guy as depicted in the script, complex but ordinary in the kind of life he led .
aiello said that when he was sent the screenplay of '` ruby '` about a year and a half ago, '` i fell in love with the guy as depicted in the script, complex but ordinary in the kind of life he led .
at the walter reade theater from april 24 through may 7, the film society of lincoln center will offer a retrospective devoted to the australian director paul cox. included are mr. cox' s first film ,
the journey ,
as well as
man of flowers ,
kostas ,
lonely hearts
and
vincent: the life and times of van gogh .
shortly before dawn on august 21, 1992, six heavily armed u. s. marshals made their way up to the isolated mountaintop home of randy and vicki weaver and their children on ruby ridge in northern idaho. charged with selling two illegal sawed - off shotguns to an undercover agent, weaver had failed to appear in court and law enforcement was tasked with bringing him in. for months, the weavers had been holed up on their property with a cache of firearms, including automatic weapons. when the federal agents surveilling the property crossed paths with members of the family, a firefight broke out. the standoff that mesmerized the nation would leave weaver injured, his wife and son dead, and some convinced that the federal government was out of control. drawing upon eyewitness accounts, including interviews with weaver’s daughter, sara, and federal agents involved in the confrontation, ruby ridge is a riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern american militia movement .
parkland and other movies about jfk' s assassination show just how far to the right hollywood has shifted. alan j pakula' s classic film, however, is a high point of new american cinema
in turn helped to create the assassination records review board. robert groden, incidentally, played the projectionist who shows the zapruder film in the courtroom scene, as well as a couple of other non–speaking roles .
he also described parallels in their lives .
he ran restaurants; so did i ,
mr. aiello said of ruby .
he ran strip joints; i ran an after - hours joint. the difference between us is that he took a different road than i .
as if heeding the advice of jean - luc godard, who once said that the best way to criticize a movie is by making another, the english director john mackenzie and the english writer stephen davis have concocted
ruby ,
which they candidly describe as
speculative fiction .
this densely - packed film is based on a book by tom hart about the struggles of a young yorkshire boy trying to come to grips with squabbling parents, a doctor who wants to institutionalize... see full summary »
la cosa empieza muy bien en plan cine negro, pero se va desmantelando según entra a tratar el asunto del crimen de jfk. sigue la versión oficial en la que ruby fue un desgraciado perdedor redimido por el asesinato patriótico de oswald... suena demasiado a propaganda, no me lo trago .
the unstated assumption was that the men had been involved in the assassination, and that perhaps the dallas police were helping them to flee the scene of the crime. critics of the film pointed out that the sinister interpretation was merely supposition .
ruby is in another universe from jfk. but he is on the fringes of another center of power, the mafia (or
cosa nostra ,
as joe valachi calls it in a tv clip early in the film). he comes from chicago. keeps telling people that. has arrived in dallas to run a burlesque club which he takes great pride in. moves on the fringes of respectability, hosting
precinct night
every tuesday, so the cops can come and ogle the strippers, and leave him alone the rest of the week .
the film' s jack is a man of psychological stature, flawed, perhaps, but wise in the world' s ways and kind to hungry strippers. when he loses his temper, it is because his honor has been questioned. he mercilessly beats up a husky rodeo rider, the husband of his star performer, candy cane (sherilyn fenn), when the husband calls jack' s club carousel
a sleaze pit .
says jack with authority :
make that the last time you take out your disappointment with life on jack ruby !
after a couple of films in 1967 – the documentary rush to judgment and bruce conner' s experimental short film report – that critiqued the warren commission' s findings, in 1973 a hollywood feature called executive action arrived. it mixed documentary footage with live action, and portrayed the assassination as a conspiracy by the cia and big business interests. executive action is a decent, strangely low - key film; what' s interesting is just how mainstream it was. burt lancaster played the cia coup leader, while robert ryan and will geer played texas oil men who want kennedy dead. dalton trumbo, once blacklisted, wrote the script, and the film was directed by david miller, whose cv contains another good picture, lonely are the brave .
i watched this as im a fan of sherilyn fenn, whilst i thought she did a good job, i found the film to be pretty boring, i dont think it' d be of any interest to anyone other than people into jfk conspiracies .
jess walter, writer: bo gritz was a hero to the radical right. some people said he was the model for rambo. he was a third party candidate for president that year, and made his way to ruby ridge hoping that he could negotiate an end to the standoff. i think the fbi was desperate at this point .
that makes him wrong to play jack ruby. he invests the dallas nightclub owner with such stubborn dignity, even as he swims in the sleazy world of strip joints, drugs and crooked cops, that he takes on a certain nobility. he' s like a character from shakespeare, destined for better things, blocked by a fatal flaw .
there seems to be no secret to his existence, and yet, why did he leave chicago and come to dallas? the movie suggests he was being positioned by the mob for some purpose he was not fully aware of himself. ruby believes he is about to be drawn into higher circles of organized crime, but the film suggests it was his very lack of stature, his typecasting as an insignificant little guy, that was useful to them in their larger purposes. he is so insignificant, indeed, that there are times when the movie strains beyond any credibility in its attempts to include him in the action .
the film shows jim garrison questioning dr pierre finck (played by peter maloney), one of the pathologists who had participated in president kennedy’s autopsy, during the clay shaw trial in new orleans (pp. 158f). the questioning was actually done by alvin oser .
thirty years ago today, steven spielberg released his sci - fi, tearjerker adventure flick, e. t. the extra - terrestrial, which became the highest grossing film for the next decade and catapulted its cast into cinematic and pop culture history. to ...
the film shows lee bowers (played by pruitt taylor vince) testifying before the warren commission that he saw “a flash of light or smoke” close to the fence on the grassy knoll (p. 30). he actually said this in a filmed interview with mark lane .
after
ruby
was filmed, in dallas, puerto rico and los angeles, mr. aiello appeared in two forthcoming films. in
the mistress ,
with robert de niro, robert wuhl and martin landau, he plays a wealthy manic - depressive businessman in a story about hollywood and the sorts of people who want their mistresses to star in movies .
the film takes just two sentences to deal with the question of the paraffin tests carried out on oswald by the dallas police: “maybe oswald didn’t even pull the trigger, bill. the nitrate tests indicate he didn’t even fire a rifle on november 22nd” (p. 57) .
two accusations are that the film suggests that earle cabell, the mayor of dallas and brother of the deputy director of the cia, changed the route of the motorcade in order to enable the conspiracy to take place, and that the route was changed at the last minute. the film does claim that “they changed the route” (p. 128), but does not claim that the change was done at the last minute. earle cabell is mentioned in passing, along with the secret service, the organisation which did in fact play the largest part in deciding the route .
beginning next friday, film forum 2 is to present jean cocteau' s 1946 classic
beauty and the beast
in a new 35 - millimeter print. the weeklong run will be accompanied by a showing of the 1929 luis bunuel - salvador dali surrealist classic
un chien andalou .
unlike
j. f. k. ,
oliver stone' s kaleidoscopic consideration of the various conspiracy theories surrounding president john f. kennedy' s assassination ,
ruby
looks at the events in dallas on nov. 22, 1963, from a rather more modest point of view, which is not to say that its imagination doesn' t run amok, sometimes deliriously .
the enigma of jack ruby continues to fascinate us. who was he, where did he come from, what was his real story, why did he shoot lee harvey oswald - and, most crucially, why did he never really speak for himself and explain his motives in the years before he finally died in prison? unlike oswald, a shadowy figure who still refuses to come into focus, ruby was a man who seemingly led a comprehensible life until his rendezvous with history. he existed in history, not outside it. his brother was in the papers not very long ago, auctioning the pistol he used on that day in dallas. people knew him. he could have spoken for himself. yet he died and we are still not sure what his motivation was .
the final scene of the film shows lyndon johnson (played by tom howard) signing what is presumably national security action memorandum no. 273 in the company of assorted dignitaries. he tells them: “you just get me elected, and i’ll give you your damned war” (p. 183) .
the film claims that “oswald appears on a local tv debate” in new orleans with an anti–castro activist, carlos bringuier (p. 36; played by tony plana). critics point out correctly that the debate was actually on the radio, not the television. the debate is noteworthy for two reasons :
bill morlin, journalist: and so the marshals intensified it and decided to have motion - activated cameras placed near the weaver cabin so they could figure out how many people are there, who’s carrying guns, and what are our options in terms of effecting an arrest? the tapes showed that randy weaver was there with his wife, and his children, and a man named kevin harris, and that they frequently were armed. they have to have been shaking their heads. what are we going to do? and then, in may of 1992, randy did an interview, and he said, “i don’t care what you do, i’m not coming off my mountaintop. ”
stuart wright, writer: i don’t know that randy weaver knew at the time that they moved to ruby ridge…that they would be so close to the aryan nations compound, which was just 60 miles south. but they started showing up. at first it was purely social, they attended family picnics, those kinds of things. but as randy began to interact more with them, he started to buy into the message .
for more about the media, the jfk assassination and the garrison investigation, see jim garrison: interview with playboy magazine, october 1967. for a description of jfk ’s place in the assassination narrative, and of the media’s attacks on the film, see fiction, propaganda and the media and the media and the jfk assassination .
although the film raises the possibility that shaw had played a significant role in the assassination, it does also quote the foreman (played by loys bergoron) of the jury that acquitted shaw: “we believe there was a conspiracy, but whether clay shaw was a part of it is another kettle of fish” (p. 179) .
the program will also include mr. cox' s latest film ,
a woman' s tale ,
about the last days of a garrulous old woman, played by sheila florance. mr. cox is to introduce the screenings of
a woman' s tale
at 8 p. m. on april 24 and 25 .
the film includes an implausible piece of speculation about the ‘umbrella man’. jim garrison explains that “the umbrella man is signalling ‘he’s not dead. keep shooting’” (p. 165). waving an umbrella in the air would be an unnecessary and impractical way to communicate with a gunman who is presumably looking at his target through a telescopic sight .
this film is pretty to watch, but it adds nothing new to the genre; the plot is silly as there is almost no logic in what we are watching. from the opening scenes we know this film is something by the numbers because there is no real suspense; it fails to make sense about what we are watching. the only thing this movie has going is the different locales in which the director, and his crew, decided to take us: veracruz, berlin, athens, cairo. all in pursuit of the illusive johnny faro, the two timing man without scruples. the stars are wasted. let' s hope they had a good time while they were in location .
and mr. aiello has just finished starring in
the pickle
for paul mazursky. in it, mr. aiello plays a once famous american director who moves to paris to become an auteur after making three bombs in a row and divorcing two wives. he is then forced to return to the united states to make a commercial film called
the pickle .
the film attracted a remarkable amount of criticism in the media. some of the criticism was valid, and pointed to factual errors of one type or another. some criticism dealt with evidence that could reasonably be interpreted in more than one way, and some criticism was unfounded. in several cases, what were alleged to be factual errors were merely examples of dramatic licence .
the indian director satyajit ray, named to receive the festival 's akira kurosawa lifetime achievement award, is to be represented by several of his best - known films, including '` the apu trilogy, '` '` charulata '` and the west coast premiere of his 1991 film '` the visitor, '` also known as '` agantuk. '`
in the dvd commentary, director david f. price said during the shoot there was a local christian group who held a few (low - key) protests during filming, and he received a dead rodent on his door step as a warning. as a result, the production constructed their own church for a few scenes in the film. despite this, no actual incidents occurred .
the player ,
directed by robert altman, has been chosen to open the 35th san francisco international film festival on april 23. the festival, which runs until may 7, is to include a centennial tribute to ernst lubitsch (1892 to 1947) that will feature two of his rarest silent comedies ,
the oyster princess
( 1919) and
so this is paris
( 1926) .
mr. mackenzie, mr. davis and mr. aiello attempt to impose a kind of anti - heroism on the dallas nightclub operator who, in life, was always an outsider, in part because he was jewish and in part because he was so emotionally unreliable. history' s ruby was known as a groupie to both the mob and the dallas police, and as a hopelessly self - serving paid informant to the federal bureau of investigation. his tips to the f. b. i. were usually intended to discredit competing club operators .
it was correctly alleged that the character willie o’keefe (played by kevin bacon) did not exist. he is a composite of four witnesses to clay shaw’s life in new orleans: raymond broshears, david logan, william morris and perry russo. like several others whose characters appear in jfk, russo played a minor role in the film, in his case as an angry man in a bar (p. 14) .
it was obvious to most readers and viewers that the allegations against oliver stone’s jfk were not the result of the media’s devotion to the cause of historical truth, even though some of those allegations were justified. none of the film’s most vociferous opponents showed any interest in applying the same critical attitude to any of the official reports, even to the warren report, a far more error–strewn, speculative and misleading work than jfk .
the film also dramatises her allegation that she was threatened both by unidentified agents immediately after the assassination and by the attorney who interviewed her on behalf of the warren commission. she was not the only witness who claimed that official investigators were unsympathetic to evidence that contradicted the lone–nut hypothesis. perhaps jean hill’s account was utilised to represent such experiences. the specific incidents she described do provide entertaining cinema, but they have no independent corroboration .
it' s during the las vegas sequences that
ruby
really goes into orbit. as the movie pictures it, jack sits at a table in a glitzy hotel ballroom, surrounded by more mob chieftains than have come together since government agents made their memorable 1957 raid on the mafia meeting in apalachin, n. y. performing onstage is a singer who is meant to recall frank sinatra. purely by coincidence, president kennedy enters and sits with his party on the other side of the room. almost immediately candy cane is invited to join the kennedy table .
the film uses the words of dr paul peters (played by i. d. brickman) and dr robert mcclelland (played by joseph nadell) from interviews by david lifton and robert groden, respectively. the words attributed to the doctors appear to be genuine, and are consistent with their written statements on the afternoon of the assassination, which can be found at warren commission hearings, vol. 17, pp. 1–22 (commission exhibit 392) .
one of the earliest conspiracy theories had claimed that the man who is seen raising and lowering an open umbrella during the shooting was in fact using the device to fire a missile of some kind at president kennedy. as implausible as it sounds, such a device had been developed by the cia for use against fidel castro, and in the film jfk it is mentioned in that context by david ferrie (p. 69; played by joe pesci) .
after re - joining cosby to play his tv wife for a second time on his eponymous show cosby, which ran from 1996 to 2000, phylicia went on to appear in tv shows like everybody hates chris, as well as a raisin in the sun, in which she won a tony for from her broadway performance in 2004. most recently, she starred in tyler perry ’s 2010 film, for colored girls, for her role as gilda and garnered multiple awards .
at the beginning of the film, she' s just a cheerful, sassy, well - proportioned stripper from rising star, tex. a little later she' s playing the mistress of the president. still later she could be marilyn monroe. the character' s apotheosis is complete when, at the end, she visits jack, a broken man, sentenced to death, in his jail cell. grieving but dressed in haute couture, carrying herself with dignity, candy suddenly looks like a very blond jacqueline kennedy .
classy, mysterious and compelling entry into the jfk conspiracy canon. it' s aged handsomely and serves as another reminder of the strong independent film scene of the nineties. quite the cast of sordid characters turn up. tobin bell offers his creepy take on david ferrie, the slimeball that joe pesci played equally well in jfk. sherilyn fenn is at her finest as a platinum blonde, closer to her look from two moon junction. fascinating in every regard. so glad i gave it another look. 9. 3 / 10
children of the corn ii: the final sacrifice is the sequel to the 1984 movie children of the corn. this sequel, directed by david f. price, stars terence knox, ryan bollman, ned romero, and paul scherrer. the film was released in theatres by dimension films in january 1993, with the video release handled by paramount pictures. several sequels followed this movie, all but one of which were released directly to video. the series is based on the short story children of the corn by stephen king .
the main plot device in the film is the investigation and trial of the new orleans businessman, clay shaw (played by tommy lee jones). shaw had a relatively minor connection to the cia (see this cia document [ nara rif no. 1993. 08. 20. 14: 24: 25: 620028 ]), and may have known individuals such as guy banister (played by ed asner), with whom oswald appears to have worked in new orleans. jfk was criticised for repeating garrison’s charges against a man who was found not guilty .
not so much a remake of joseph h. lewis' s 1949 film noir classic as a variation on its themes, guncrazy stars drew barrymore as anita, a teenage girl who was born in a trailer park on the wrong side of the tracks and has been fighting a losing battle with respectability ever since. anita was abused sexually by her mother' s boyfriend (played by onetime warhol
superstar
joe dallesandro), is the subject of lewd advances by the school bullies, and is looked on as a slut and a loser by her peers. when anita has to find a pen pal for a class assignment, she ends up corresponding with a prisoner named howard (james legros), who' s serving time for manslaughter. howard is one of the first people to address anita with tenderness and respect, so when he gets parole, howard moves in with her. howard' s obsessive love of guns, however, once again leads to violence, and the couple hits the road hoping to escape their fates. the debut film from director tamra davis, guncrazy was originally shown on cable television, but received enough critical acclaim to merit a later theatrical release.
ruby is a feature film , released in the united states on march 27 , 1992 , about jack ruby , the dallas , texas nightclub owner who shot and killed lee harvey oswald in the basement garage of a dallas city police station in 1963 . the film was directed by john mackenzie and stars danny aiello ( as ruby ) , sherilyn fenn ( as sheryl ann dujean a.k.a. candy cane ) , and arliss howard . it is based on a play written by british screenwriter stephen davis . ruby was released three months after oliver stone 's movie jfk . 
ruby is a feature film, released in the united states on march 27, 1992, about jack ruby, the dallas, texas nightclub owner who shot and killed lee harvey oswald in the basement garage of a dallas city police station in 1963. the film was directed by john mackenzie and stars danny aiello (as ruby), sherilyn fenn (as sheryl ann dujean a.k.a. candy cane), and arliss howard. it is based on a play written by british screenwriter stephen davis. ruby was released three months after oliver stone's movie jfk.
ruby is a feature film, released in the united states on march 27, 1992, about jack ruby, the dallas, texas nightclub owner who shot and killed lee harvey oswald in the basement garage of a dallas city police station in 1963. the film was directed by john mackenzie and stars danny aiello (as ruby), sherilyn fenn (as sheryl ann dujean a.k.a. candy cane), and arliss howard. it is based on a play written by british screenwriter stephen davis. ruby was released three months after oliver stone's movie jfk.