What a bold film!
I watched Winter Kills last night on Amazon Prime and you marvel at how daring the producers were. The production may been troubled due to financial reasons, but you still have an entertaining and thought provoking film. Long before Oliver Stone's JFK, Winter Kills was attacking the official version of John Kennedy's assassination in 1963. The President in this film is called Timothy Keegan, but we all know who they are referring to. Jeff Bridges, as the late President's brother, is our guide taking us down a very grubby rabbit hole. We discover the following:
1. A rich and powerful patriarch who buys the election for his son, using money from organised crime.
2. A President who refuses to adhere to his father's wishes and turns his back on the people who helped put him in power.
3. A fake assassin called Willy Arnold is blamed for the murder. There are other gunmen, part of a wider conspiracy.
4.The official investigation concludes that the assassin was solely responsible -The Lone Gunman. Their report is called The Pickering Commission.
5. A President is well a known womaniser on an Olympic scale before and during his time as President.
6. The President's assassin is shot in a police station in front of the media and the police. It helps if the shooter knows the Police and has ties to organised crime.
7. The President's family accepts the official version of the assassination even though there are serious flaws in it.
Does any of the above sound vaguely familiar?