‘Truth Is The Only Client’ Brings No Closure

“Truth is the Only Client” (138 min., Unrated, but contains some mature material on the Kennedy Assassination). Rating: 8 out of 10.

The circumstances surrounding John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, has been vivisected and dissected umpteen times, over-and-over, and yet, many people are still divided on what “really” happened that day…and how the planning for it was apparently — emphasis on “apparently” — pulled off by one man…Lee Harvey Oswald. It seems inconceivable that someone like Oswald could have meticulously prearranged and pulled off the murder of the century…and almost get away with it. The best Hollywood scriptwriters couldn’t have ever conceived of such an ingeniously, fiendish plot as this, with so many moving parts covering so many different scenarios, it boggles the mind.

There have been countless documentaries about what happened that fateful day at Dealey Plaza and the events leading up to it that became marred and forever left for speculation when two days after the presumptive shooter, Oswald, was gunned down on live TV by Jack Ruby. With Oswald’s premature death went the truth, for surely at some point he would have revealed whether he truly acted alone, or was part of a conspiracy. His shout-out before cameras that he was being used as a patsy, implying someone was pulling his strings, and claiming he didn’t shoot the president so openly only fuels doubt that Oswald was the sole person here. It just makes you think and rethink what occurred that day.

Well, fear not, another documentary has just been released on VOD, Nov. 17, titled “Truth is the Only Client: The Official Investigation into the Murder of John F. Kennedy.” When I heard that this documentary was coming out, my first thought was that there must be something new to make public in brining a new understanding, or possible revelations in contention to the findings of The Warren Commission. Or, perhaps there was something found in digging through documents that were sealed for 50 years that would make light of some new find. Featuring a plethora of notable officials, two judges who served on the Warren Commission, members of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, historians, eye-witness accounts and sifting through thousands of pages of The Warren Commission findings — and revisiting all of the circumstances that indicated more than just one person had to have been involved in Kennedy’s murder…you’d think something new and fresh was about to be revealed.

Well, I hate to disappoint you conspiracy theory advocates, but this documentary, which seems to blend interviews going back a few years with more recent material, to come up with the same conclusions that have stood the test of time alleging that Oswald acted alone. Here is an official description of what the filmmakers of this documentary presents. It explores the unvarnished facts of the Kennedy Assassination, as told by Warren Commission investigators, credible experts and by first person accounts of people close to the events of the day. Without relying on conjecture or speculation, this film lays out the actual evidence discovered in the case, and in so doing, dispels the myths and conspiracy theories that have perpetuated though the decades.

It goes on to say: This film explores what these men thought at the time of the investigation and what their views are today. It offers a thorough examination of the hard evidence of the case, updated with the benefit of the passage of time. It is a unique view into the workings of history, and perhaps, one of the only remaining opportunities for people to judge for themselves, the effectiveness and conclusions of The Warren Commission. It goes on to say that this film may be the last chance to probe those individuals who conducted a long and exhaustive investigation.

For those of you who remember that day or have made a study of it, and watched with interest the material presented in Oliver Stone’s film “JFK” (1991), it is impossible to conjure up the infinite number of scenarios by which Oswald and his aberrant behavior, his love for Russia and involvement with anti-government factions, a former Marine, as well, could have led him to pull off such a vile action…alone? The fact he was able to pull off three shots from the rifle, one striking Kennedy in the neck, the other in the head, at such a distance — and a moving target through tree branches — in less than 6 seconds defies logic. It makes you turn your head with incredible disbelief that he, or whomever, could have shot with such precision.

Not to dispel or refute the newest of these findings as portrayed in this documentary that the findings of The Warren Commission, and subsequent follow-up to everything that could possibly be explored, to come up with the same conclusions seems shortsighted, frustratingly so. There has never been any connection between Oswald and Jack Ruby, his murderer, anti-Kennedy factions, pro-Russian groups, Fidel Castro sympathizers, government cover-up schemers, or mob involvement to tip the scales that Oswald was part of a conspiracy…or let on to anyone that he had been planning it. You talk about a lucky shot…not meant to be disrespectful or a pun, but it literally blows your mind with doubt. It does with me. So much for the magic bullet theory.

If this documentary is meant to bring closure to the notion that Lee Harvey Oswald did indeed act alone, I think not.

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