Mr. X

[Roger DeLaria]

I've always thought this scene was very illuminating, where many people really stopped, took notice, and began to seriously think about the assassination.

"Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefitted? Who had the power to cover it up?"

Edited April 5, 2016 by Roger DeLaria

[David Andrews]

You're right, given that parts of this long scene were some of the key bits replayed in the TV advertising, and later offered on YouTube. Donald Sutherland was solid gold here, enacting a truly compelling narration.

Question: at 2:25 in the second clip, who is the character with the pipe and the foreign accent supposed to represent? Walt Rostow?

Edited April 6, 2016 by David Andrews

[Roger DeLaria]

I suppose it could represent Rostow, I'm not sure. It could explain the accent. In this bio of Rostow, it says his mother was the daughter of russian/jewish immigrants, and his father emigrated from Russia. He also went to Yale, and spent time at Oxford and Columbia. He joined the OSS in 1942. I can see the circle he traveled in. He wouldn't be out of place in that group scene you mentioned.

http://www.anb.org/articles/14/14-01158.html?from=../07/07-00152.html&from_nm=Kennedy%2C%20John%20Fitzgerald

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/oct/08/us-economist-walt-rostow-development

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/Biographies-and-Profiles/Walt-W-Rostow.aspx

Edited April 6, 2016 by Roger DeLaria

[David Andrews]

Looking at Rostow's picture, the character doesn't seem meant him to be him. But I've always wondered who that was intended to be.

Does anybody have a clue, such as from the screenplay?

Edited April 6, 2016 by David Andrews

[Chuck Schwartz]

Fletcher Prouty was the inspiration for the character "Mr. X" in Oliver Stone's movie JFK. He was played by Donald Sutherland, who has a son named Kiefer Sutherland, who was the star in TV Series called "24", which was about an agent who had 24 hours to get something done. Or, to protect the President against assassination (the assassins were going to assassinate the president in 24 hrs. and he had to stop them. In real life (the JFK assassination), the JFK's murderers knew they had 24 hrs. to get JFK's body out of Dallas and into their hands so they could re-do the autopsy to show JFK was murdered from behind (The Texas School Book Depository)and not from the Grass Knoll. The Doctors who did the autopsy in Dallas had the fatal shot entering the right front temple and leaving the rear (if they had had the shot entering the rear and exiting the front the conspirators would have left JFK in Dallas). If the original was published (which it would have been - within 24 hrs.), it would pointed to a different killer than LHO. So, the conspirators went into Parkland , took JFK's body and had the autopsy re-done per the script. They burned the Dallas autopsy report. All within 24 hrs. to 72 hrs of the JFK's murder.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Fletcher Prouty was a consultant to Oliver Stone on the JFK movie. At the time of assassination, he was in the Intelligence community. He, in fact, was ordered to the South Pole so he would be out of the country on the day of JFK's assassination. He was an Army retiree and knew about black ops- he knew the playbook .

[Roger DeLaria]

I poked around at scripts I found online, but couldn't really find a reference to who said that particular line. It seemed to be more secondary, the main focal point being the general environment where the talk got started. ?

http://proutypedia.com/wiki/Col._L._Fletcher_Prouty

[Brian Schmidt]

I've always wondered who the guy with the accent was supposed to be too.

In some outtakes, Mr. X references the Lansdale picture and tells Garrison something like, "He was in Dealey Plaza that day." It's on the bonus material DVD of JFK.

[Michael Walton]

I'm not doubting what Prouty has to say. But I'm wondering was Lansdale ever known to wear glasses? The guy in the photo appears to be wearing eyeglasses, not sunglasses. I looked up other photos of him online and could not find him wearing eyeglasses. See the animated GIF below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7Hr9Lrku-Cxczd5THIwOEpiY2c

So that is something to think about. Despite Prouty's army buddy telling him it was Lansdale, perhaps it really isn't.

As for the Mr. X part of the film, I think that was Oliver Stone's way of bringing a neat and tidy summary of all of the various theories together into a coherent storyline that the audience could understand.

He basically used this same technique in Platoon but instead of the young grunt Chris sitting on a bench and talking to his grandma, he did it with voiceover narration as "letters to grandma."

Edited April 7, 2016 by Michael Walton

[Al Fordiani]

Fletcher Prouty was the inspiration for the character "Mr. X" in Oliver Stone's movie JFK. He was played by Donald Sutherland, who has a son named Kiefer Sutherland, who was the star in TV Series called "24", which was about an agent who had 24 hours to get something done. Or, to protect the President against assassination (the assassins were going to assassinate the president in 24 hrs. and he had to stop them. In real life (the JFK assassination), the JFK's murderers knew they had 24 hrs. to get JFK's body out of Dallas and into their hands so they could re-do the autopsy to show JFK was murdered from behind (The Texas School Book Depository)and not from the Grass Knoll. The Doctors who did the autopsy in Dallas had the fatal shot entering the right front temple and leaving the rear (if they had had the shot entering the rear and exiting the front the conspirators would have left JFK in Dallas). If the original was published (which it would have been - within 24 hrs.), it would pointed to a different killer than LHO. So, the conspirators went into Parkland , took JFK's body and had the autopsy re-done per the script. They burned the Dallas autopsy report. All within 24 hrs. to 72 hrs of the JFK's murder.

Chuck,

Your facts are not correct here. There was no autopsy done in Dallas. The body was spirited out of Parkland before Dallas County Medical Examiner Earl Rose could perform the legally mandated Dallas autopsy, apparently in a heated confrontation, by some accounts at gunpoint, at whose orders not exactly clear.

The autopsy was of course performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital in the DC area by Humes, Boswell, and Finck, beginning officially at 8:00 PM eastern time, and was one of the most flawed and controversial in the history of forensic science; at best bungled, at worst sinisterly compromised. The first draft of the report, along with the notes, was indeed burned by Humes in his own fireplace.

[Roger DeLaria]

As far as I know Lansdale didn't wear glasses, but he certainly could have donned them for disguising or distracting. Wouldn't be unheard of.

[James DiEugenio]

The German accent guy could be either Fritz Kraemer or Kissinger. The former was in the Pentagon, the latter was in the WhIte House briefly.

BTW, Sutherland was not Stone's first choice for X. Brando was. He wanted too much money. So Sutherland got the part. He was quite good I thought.

Sutherland thought very little of Costner in this scene. Between takes, out of ear shot he said," Maybe if he understood what the heck I was talking about he would react better."

[Roger DeLaria]

I can see that, Jim, could be.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1446315/Fritz-Kraemer.html

http://www.henryakissinger.com/eulogies/100803.html

http://nixontapes.org/kraemer.html

Edited April 7, 2016 by Roger DeLaria