Errol Morris and Persisting Questions about the JFK Assassination

Almost a half century has passed since John F. Kennedy died one sunny day in Dallas, Texas. His assassination was a national trauma and left many people with lingering questions.

Distinguished filmmaker Errol Morris, whose The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara won an Academy Award, recently wrote about a new project in which he looks at the Kennedy assassination. In a New York Times piece entitled ‘The Umbrella Man’ (which includes a link to a short film), he explained his interest in the subject this way:

"I believe that by looking at the assassination, we can learn a lot about the nature of investigation and evidence. Why, after 48 years, are people still quarreling and quibbling about this case? What is it about this case that has led not to a solution, but to the endless proliferation of possible solutions?"

Widespread traumas have a way of not only persisting in cultural memory, but of morphing over time. Layers of intervening experience and shifting recollection can cloud our understanding of an event. This is best countered by going back to the source to understand not only the exact details of an event, but also the context in which the event occurred.

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Image (above): Public domain photograph, WikiCommons