History is a narrative. Many historians point out that "history" is really a jumble of fragments, unfiltered facts, random events, and details that no one thinks worth explaining. In the chaos, historians impose a narrative on a multitude of materials. Napoleon observed: "History is a chosen and agreed version of past events." Historians will take away some data and emphasize others, with results paired with causes, isolated events paired with other seemingly distant ones event. Simply put, modern historians insist that the past contains many kinds of histories, not just one kind of history. Each kind of history is one person collecting, interpreting, and pruning the facts into a narrative. Stone's controversial account of President Kennedy's assassination, from the point of view of New Orleans prosecutors, does exactly what historians suggest, offering a possible explanation for the national tragedy that has haunted the American public. The film is gorgeously edited, bringing together the experiences of dozens of characters over many years and places and thousands of historical facts.
A classic case of graininess—and a classic case of photography—is Oliver Stone’s The Assassination of Kennedy (FK). Cinematographer Robert Richardson shot the film on a variety of different films, including 8mm home film, as Dallas businessman Abraham Zapruder happened to be using it. Kennedy's assassination was captured on 8mm film. The final film looks like a dizzying collage of different eras, different colors, different environments, and different materials. Stone hopes to create a "countermyth" that differs from the official interpretation, and the film's diverse photography styles reflect this kaleidoscope of views. While many critics have slammed Oliver Stone for the insane and harmful conspiracy theories in the film, Richardson's cinematography is already emphasizing, in my opinion, that The Assassination of Kennedy is not a documentary-style documentary film, but The crazy imagination in a person's brain, although wild and unruly in expression, has also been carefully constructed.
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