Review: ‘JFK: What the Doctors Saw’ contradicts the Warren Commission with eyewitness accounts

Ten years ago, to mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, a flood of documentaries were released that did nothing but parrot the conclusion of the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman and there was no conspiracy.

In some of those documentaries — and I must admit I’ve seen them all but remember none in particular — a certain attitude pervaded. If you doubt the Warren Commission, you must, of course, be an idiot. Some documentaries even ventured into dime-store psychology, saying that doubters just couldn’t accept the randomness of life that made it possible for a wormy malcontent to murder the most powerful man on the planet.

Now the 60th anniversary of the assassination is upon us, and there’s a new, illuminating documentary, “JFK: What the Doctors Saw,” which concentrates on what the doctors at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital witnessed on Nov. 22, 1963.  

The film brings together seven surviving doctors who were present in the emergency room with Kennedy. Some physically tried to revive him, and all had a clear view of the president’s wounds. All agree on what they saw, and none of it comports with the idea of a single gunman shooting from behind.

The Zapruder film, the only video record of the assassination, shows that Kennedy was first struck in the neck. In the Parkland emergency room, the doctors said they saw a small entry wound in the president’s neck, which would indicate someone shooting from the front. The autopsy photos show a large slit at the president’s neck, but the doctors say that the wound was enlarged when someone inserted a trachea tube to assist Kennedy’s breathing.

Even without the doctors’ testimony, the Warren Commission’s account always seemed dubious on this score. How can a bullet, shot from above, enter Kennedy’s back and then, miraculously, make a U-turn and go out his neck?

The doctors’ most startling observation was that the back of Kennedy’s skull was missing, indicating an exit wound and proving beyond doubt that there was a gunman shooting from the front. Yet the autopsy photos show the back of Kennedy’s head fairly intact. The doctors claim that the body must have been tampered with — perhaps part of the head was sewn back on to make it consistent with the lone gunman thesis.

Most of the documentary was filmed 10 years ago at a reunion of the Parkland doctors, and their agreement on the crucial particulars make them persuasive witnesses. These are men in their 70s and 80s, with serious medical careers behind them, who seem neither deluded nor mendacious. Not that this proves anything — people can always lie for no reason — but certainly they have nothing to gain by lying. And here, individual viewers can judge their veracity for themselves.

In case it’s less than glaringly obvious, I do believe these doctors, largely because what they say is consistent with what anyone can see if they watch the Zapruder film. Just go on YouTube for 33 seconds and ask yourself if it really looks as though Kennedy was shot from behind.

And “JFK: What the Doctors Saw” is not the only Kennedy-related documentary timed for the 60th anniversary. Also worthy of a look is “Four Died Trying,” a documentary series streaming on Apple TV+, Prime Video and Google Play beginning Nov. 22, which focuses on the JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy assassinations. 

I saw the first two episodes, the only ones made available to the press, and at the very least, the series offers an interesting immersion into midcentury history. The publicity materials for it claim something more, that the series will present new information suggesting that all four men were killed as the result of conspiracies. 

In any case, “Four Died Trying” is an indication — and “JFK: What the Doctors Saw” is flat-out reassurance — that documentarians and streaming platforms are once again willing to break from the lone gunman orthodoxy. It’s about time. 

Reach Mick LaSalle: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com