On This Day in History

November 22, 1963. It was a day that shattered America’s innocence and continues to have an impact on a generation more than 50 years later. Since the murder of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on that fateful day (as well as the murder of his alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald the same weekend), conspiracy theorists have had a field day for the past half-century. And Hollywood has weighed in on the tragedy in a variety of ways. Here are four such examples from the Warner Bros. Library.

Executive Action

This 1973 film was one of the first movies to present an alternative to the John F. Kennedy assassination from the Warren Report version of events. Mixing narrative segments with newsreel footage, Executive Action tells the story of a group of powerful men who plot the assasination. First they must recruit and train a shooter, then frame Lee Harvey Oswald. Screen legend Burt Lancaster heads a strong cast of stars as the conspirators who object to Kennedy's foreign and domestic policies as a threat to their control of the economy.

JFK

In 1991, Oliver Stone ripped the scab off America's lingering wound with this epic and controversial film that, aside from its box-office success and critical acclaim, played a major role in the national debate leading to passage of the 1992 Assassination Materials Disclosure Act. Nominated for eight Academy Awards and winner of two, JFK explores a wide array of assassination theories that have raised the nation's persistent questions, doubts and suspicions.

Fatal Deception:
Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald

Helena Bonham Carter gives a Golden Globe® -nominated performance as the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald in this compelling story about conspiracies and cover-ups, co-starring Frank Whaley as President John F. Kennedy's accused assassin. Thrust into the national consciousness on November 22, 1963, Marina Oswald (Bonham Carter) was a 22-year-old Russian mother of two who could barely speak English. Beginning with their courtship in Minsk, Marina’s story is told for the first time: her husband’s secretive life, the move to Dallas-Fort Worth, the pain and horror of the assassination, the raising of her children, and how she gradually came to side with conspiracy theorists that the truth still remains hidden.

11.22.63

Based on Stephen King's riveting bestseller of the same name, this compelling nine-hour television miniseries from last year is a time-traveling roller coaster in which a high school teacher (played by James Franco) goes back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination. But if the past doesn't want to be changed, it will push back—often violently.