Strange Bedfellows - Kevin Costner and JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theories

Yesterday I was thinking about the Kennedy assassination and the ways it has been dealt with in popular culture. It occurred to me that Kevin Costner has mentioned the JFK assassination in two different films. In 1988’s Bull Durham, Kevin Costner’s character gives a speech about things he believes in. At one point in the speech he says, “I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.”

In 1991, Kevin Costner starred in Oliver Stone’s JFK as New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, a man who became obsessed with discrediting the Warren Commission’s findings. The first time I watched this movie it was hard for me to get past Kevin Costner’s strange attempts at a Southern/Cajun/God knows what kind of accent. The movie also throws a lot of information at the viewer about the assassination and the events that followed. That, along with recreated footage made to look like documentary footage from the assassination, can make the film confusing and worthy of a second viewing. Keeping that in mind, Kevin Costner plays a man who does not believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone (unlike his Bull Durham character). Take a look at one of the tense courtroom scenes from JFK in which Jim Garrison attempts to discredit the “magic bullet” theory and other findings of the Warren Commission.

What does Kevin Costner believe happened? Does anyone care? Is Kevin Costner obsessed with this topic? Will he ever try a southern accent again? Will he ever live down Waterworld? I can’t say. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer to Oliver Stone’s 1991 epic JFK.

[Images via Interview]