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Shooter Spoiler for those non-movie buffs


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The movie Shooter just opened here. It features Mark Wahlberg as a Marine Corps sniper set up as a patsy in a political assassination. A local cop is part of the plot and is assigned to shoot Wahlberg's character before he can talk. If that sounds familiar it's no accident. The movie makes several references to the JFK assassination. At one point, someone mentions that if the patsy gets caught he has to be silenced, "like Jack Ruby silenced Oswald." (approximate quote) At another point a veteran shooter tells Wahlberg that being the triggerman in an assassination attempt is a sucker's move, and that the men on the grassy knoll were killed and dumped in the desert shortly after they hit Kennedy. When Wahlberg questions this old coot, played by Levon Helm, if this is really true, he tells Wahlberg "I still got the shovel."

Some here will be interested to find that the attempt on the President in the film is a fake one, in order to disguise that the real target is someone nearby, who is killed. This is a reference to the assassination of Chicago's Mayor Cermak, who was killed (possibly by the Chicago mob) while standing near President-elect Roosevelt. Others will be interested to know that the film goes way off track in the last 20 minutes and actually ends up advocating the murder of political figures who use the American military for financial gain, and then use their position in Washington to avoid prosecution. It was thus, by implication, calling for the murder of VP Dick Cheney, and possibly President Bush himself. Laughably, in the movie this action is done with wink-wink approval from the Attorney General while the current Attorney General is, of course, one of the "boys". Even so, it seems Hollywood grew some balls. It'll be interesting to see the conservative media and red state response to this film. Perhaps they will just pretend it's entertainment and not a call to action. But I bet at least one pundit will talk of how incredibly irresponsible the film-makers are in sending such a message. And I'm not so sure I'd disagree.

P.S. I just noticed the typo in the title of this thread. Is there a way to edit the title?

Edited by Pat Speer
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The movie Shooter just opened here. It features Mark Wahlberg as a Marine Corps sniper set up as a patsy in a political assassination. A local cop is part of the plot and is assigned to shoot Wahlberg's character before he can talk. If that sounds familiar it's no accident. The movie makes several references to the JFK assassination. At one point, someone mentions that if the patsy gets caught he has to be silenced, "like Jack Ruby silenced Oswald." (approximate quote) At another point a veteran shooter tells Wahlberg that being the triggerman in an assassination attempt is a sucker's move, and that the men on the grassy knoll were killed and dumped in the desert shortly after they hit Kennedy. When Wahlberg questions this old coot, played by Levon Helm, if this is really true, he tells Wahlberg "I still got the shovel."

Some here will be interested to find that the attempt on the President in the film is a fake one, in order to disguise that the real target is someone nearby, who is killed. This is a reference to the assassination of Chicago's Mayor Cermak, who was killed (possibly by the Chicago mob) while standing near President-elect Roosevelt. Others will be interested to know that the film goes way off track in the last 20 minutes and actually ends up advocating the murder of political figures who use the American military for financial gain, and then use their position in Washington to avoid prosecution. It was thus, by implication, calling for the murder of VP Dick Cheney, and possibly President Bush himself. Laughably, in the movie this action is done with wink-wink approval from the Attorney General while the current Attorney General is, of course, one of the "boys". Even so, it seems Hollywood grew some balls. It'll be interesting to see the conservative media and red state response to this film. Perhaps they will just pretend it's entertainment and not a call to action. But I bet at least one pundit will talk of how incredibly irresponsible the film-makers are in sending such a message. And I'm not so sure I'd disagree.

Irresponsible? Sure.

A bad idea? I've heard worse.

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The movie Shooter just opened here. It features Mark Wahlberg as a Marine Corps sniper set up as a patsy in a political assassination. A local cop is part of the plot and is assigned to shoot Wahlberg's character before he can talk. If that sounds familiar it's no accident. The movie makes several references to the JFK assassination. At one point, someone mentions that if the patsy gets caught he has to be silenced, "like Jack Ruby silenced Oswald." (approximate quote) At another point a veteran shooter tells Wahlberg that being the triggerman in an assassination attempt is a sucker's move, and that the men on the grassy knoll were killed and dumped in the desert shortly after they hit Kennedy. When Wahlberg questions this old coot, played by Levon Helm, if this is really true, he tells Wahlberg "I still got the shovel."

Some here will be interested to find that the attempt on the President in the film is a fake one, in order to disguise that the real target is someone nearby, who is killed. This is a reference to the assassination of Chicago's Mayor Cermak, who was killed (possibly by the Chicago mob) while standing near President-elect Roosevelt. Others will be interested to know that the film goes way off track in the last 20 minutes and actually ends up advocating the murder of political figures who use the American military for financial gain, and then use their position in Washington to avoid prosecution. It was thus, by implication, calling for the murder of VP Dick Cheney, and possibly President Bush himself. Laughably, in the movie this action is done with wink-wink approval from the Attorney General while the current Attorney General is, of course, one of the "boys". Even so, it seems Hollywood grew some balls. It'll be interesting to see the conservative media and red state response to this film. Perhaps they will just pretend it's entertainment and not a call to action. But I bet at least one pundit will talk of how incredibly irresponsible the film-makers are in sending such a message. And I'm not so sure I'd disagree.

Irresponsible? Sure.

A bad idea? I've heard worse.

My thoughts exactly.

Thanks for the movie review Pat.

Are there more references lately to the JFK conspiracy in movies and TV shows (like the one I posted recently from the TV show Numbers)? Or am I just noticing them now since I'm newly aware of the JFK conspiracy itself?

Edited by Myra Bronstein
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Thanks for the info. I'll look out for it when it comes across the pond, although unfortunately we always seem to have to wait at least a couple of months for new films. Sounds well worth a look.

I don't think you can edit the title of posts - I've tried before when I made a mistake and could only edit the body of the text. Maybe John can change this?

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Guest Stephen Turner
P.S. I just noticed the typo in the title of this thread. Is there a way to edit the title?

Pat, done Steve.

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