Zapruder

Watching BBC Four's season on TV Arts programmes last night, they repeated an old edition of The Late Show, which dealt with the fascination and the aura that surrounds the brief 21 seconds of 8mm film shot by Abraham Zapruder along Deeley Plaza in Dallas on 22nd November 1963.

Various dramatic reconstructions have been made of Lincoln's assassination or the sinking of the Titanic, because of the public's demand (one might say insatiable need) to see such a momentous historical event for themselves. But in the case of John F. Kennedy's assassination, the unfortunate Mr. Zapruder had the dubious honour to have his camera pointed in the right place at the wrong time. He therefore gave the world a grandstand view of the moment when the President was blown apart by an assassin's (or should that be assassins?) bullet.

Oliver Stone and others have made great headwork in saying that this piece of film evidence points toward the fatal bullet being fired from the grassy knoll (and not the Texas Schoolbook Depository) as is popularly conjectured.

Before and after I'd seen the film JFK I felt there was credence to this assertion, especially in view of the Warren Commission's farcical "magic bullet" theory. A documentary shown on the BBC more recently however, re-examined the original evidence (using the dubious method of computer analysis) and took the establishment view that Lee Harvey Oswald's gun pinpointed Kennedy's head at such an angle that it would scientifically allow for Kennedy falling "back and to the left" as shown in Zapruder's film.

I don't buy it really. The whole affair has tried to fit debatable theories round the facts. A key phrase mentioned by Zapruder during the assassination was "they're shooting him". Who were "they" one wonders? The system? The mob? The Communists? I least suspect the latter.

But when I reflect on recent nonsensical conspiracy theories about the September 11th terrorist attacks being the work of the US Government, I have to remind myself that, not being around in November 1963, I don't have the emotional perspective to be able to form my own opinion. That therefore might make me more gullible to the various wild conspiracy theories behind JFK's assassination.