The Spirit Haunting American History: A Review of "Oswald's Ghost" DVD

There are few events in American history that bring about more controversy and passion than the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It seems that most of the world, let alone most Americans, firmly believe that the young and handsome President was gunned down as part of a vast conspiracy that may have involved people within his own government. Why? Because he wanted to change things, is the most often cited reason. He wanted to bring about an end to the military actions that would soon explode into the Vietnam War.

Personally, I am a reformed conspiracy theorist. There was a time when I believed firmly that Kennedy was killed in some kind of conspiracy involving the Cubans and the CIA and possibly the mafia. These days, my feelings on that have changed. I once saw a documentary where scientists and forensic experts looked at all of the photographs and film that was taken during the moments on Dealey Plaza when the President's life ended. They were even able to reconstruct the moment of the shooting and actually get a bullet to fly the trajectory of the so-called "magic bullet." I also now know that a high-speed, high-caliber bullet fired at the front of a person'e head will NOT cause their head to move back and to the left. In fact, when you shoot someone like that, they actually tend to jerk TOWARD the gun and not away from it.

At the same time, PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, has a great and powerful series of documentaries entitled the "American Experience" collection. Their most recent documentary is called "Oswald's Ghost" and it's a fascinating look a the assassination, but it also an attempt to flesh-out this character of a man accused of one of the most shocking moments in American history. Does it answer all of the questions? No, not at all, in fact, it rehashes some of the same questions that people have been asking for years now. Does it provide a full and accurate picture of who Lee Harvey Oswald was? No, it does not, but it attempts to go further into showing us who he was than any other documentary I have seen about the assassination so far

This is not a great documentary. Far from it, actually. In fact, I would venture to say that this documentary spends far too much time going over the same conspiracy theories and ideas that others have been suggesting for years. At the same time, this documentary manages to pull togther some compelling and interesting people. I have not seen Dan Rather speaking before about the reporting he did during that amazing time when the President was killed and then his accused assassin was killed right there on television.

I feel this documentary spends far too much time going over the theories and the conspiracies. It, perhaps, could have spent more time dealing with the character at he center of this maelstrom - Lee Harvey Oswald. It does manage to show footage of Oswald's mother and it talks to people who actually met, talked to and interviewed Oswald.

There are those who do firmly believe that Oswald acted alone. They feel that he was a man who was convinced of his impending greatness. He believed that he was a small man who was destined to claw and scrape his way to the top of the world and that he could change the world. He had deeply held Marxist beliefs and he felt that some kind of great act and the subsequent trial might allow him to bring those ideas and ideals to the public. He even fancied himself being martyred in the electric chair for his crimes.

Oswald had also managed to accomplish some amazing things and he had done so on his own. He had joined the Marines. He had learned to fight. He had learned to shoot. He had defected to the Soviet Union, married, and then moved back to the States while also getting his wife out of the USSR. All of these things he reportedly did on his own. So, the people in this documentary who knew him suggest it would not be out of the question for him to plan and then commit this crime, all on his own.

His downfall, it is suggested, was when he gunned down and killed the police officer shortly after the President had been killed. He knew then that his chance of being great was over, because now he was just cop killer and a murderer. It is suggested that, at this point, he decided to declare himself a patsy and protest his innocence.

The documentary is fascinating. It doesn't present anything new as far as the conspiracy stuff goes, but it does show aspects of Oswald's personality that I had not seen before. I am firm believer that we often turn people into demons who are actually just humans just as much as we want to turn others into saints when they are not. Understanding Lee Harvey Oswald is something worthwhile, fascinating, and intriguing. We can learn from the bad as much as the good, and too often who this man was gets lost in the rhetoric and the rantings of the conspiracy theorists.

The DVD comes with other documentaries the help flesh out who Abrahm Zapruder was and how he got his famous film. There is another documentary that looks at Dealey Plaza as it is today. All in all, I enjoyed this documentary and recommend it as viewing for anyone who is fascinated with modern history and, especially, the assassination of John F. Kennedy.