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Parents' Guide to

Killing Kennedy

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

By-the-numbers biopic traces last months of Oswald, JFK.

Movie NR 2014 92 minutes
Killing Kennedy Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 15+

Based on 1 parent review

johnnypipes75
johnnypipes75 Adult
January 15, 2016
age 15+

Poor history

This film was extremely disappointing... it left out so many facts and details, the movie would actually have you believe Oswald really killed JFJ by himself, which is impossible unless you believe in "magic bullets"... the security changes to his Dallas route were never mentioned, the actually route changes with his non regular security team were also left out... hardly anything about the mob or Vietnam were included... Warning to anyone doing a school paper or a factual report on JFK, Do NOT use this movie as fact based history , as it is extremely bias and not even close to the truth... this movie is based on the "official story/fable" and not based on the actual evidence.... I was very disappointed... I'd rather a movie leave open questions to keep you guessing at the unknowns than to just fill it in with tainted versions of history that simply aren't the truth... The much older Kevin Costner film "JFK" was a much better movie when it comes to the evidence behind this tragic event, although in the movie JFK, it's more about the conspiracy and the wide range of evidence that just doesn't add up than the day of the assassination itself...
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What's the Story?

When John F. Kennedy was inaugurated in 1961, his idealistic fans thought he would usher in a new era of peace and love. Instead, he spent a bumpy couple of years as president and then was killed in cold blood while touring through Dallas. In KILLING KENNEDY, we get to know Kennedy as well as his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, a peculiar man with a burning hatred for American imperialist politics. Oswald can't hold down a job, abuses his wife, and harbors paranoid fantasies that he's being watched by the FBI. For his part, JFK's no saint either: He cheats on his wife and blusters his way through domestic crises, using the fate of the entire world as a bluff. The destinies of these two men collide in November 1963, and we watch helplessly.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (1 ):

Killing Kennedy's strength is in helping us know Oswald better (whether the viewer agrees that he was JFK's acting-alone assassin or not). By now, the beats of the Kennedy story are familiar to even the most casual student of history: The Bay of Pigs. The Cuban Missile Crisis. Floozies giggling their way through the corridors of the White House. And then the terrible shots that rang out over the plaza and ended Camelot's reign forever.

We are with Oswald when he meets his wife and idealistically defects to the USSR, renouncing his U.S. citizenship. We are with him, too, as he returns to the U.S. and starts his downward spiral: playing with guns in the garage, scissoring out ominous newspaper clippings, belting his wife in the face. It's creepy stuff and plenty disturbing even while the rest of the film is rather pedestrian. The movie is straightforward, though, and would be a fine one for teens to watch if they're doing a report or school project on Kennedy.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the real JFK assassination. Does everyone agree that Oswald was his assassin and that he worked alone? What do you think? Does watching Killing Kennedy make you want to know more?

  • Have you seen another depiction of Kennedy's life and death, such as JFK or Parkland? How does Killing Kennedy jibe with other films you've seen?

  • Is the viewer supposed to like and identify with JFK? What about Oswald? What about Jackie Kennedy? What about the ways in which they're presented bring you to your conclusions?

Movie Details

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