While everyone may be familiar with the events surrounding the death of John F. Kennedy, they may not know much about the life of the man who shot and killed our 35th president. Killing Kennedy doesn’t set out to prove or disprove any conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Instead, it tries to answer the question of “Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?”. The telefilm opens four years earlier and lays out two parallel stories about two very different men, which ultimate intersect in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

One track follows the life of John F. Kennedy (Rob Lowe) and his wife Jaqueline (Ginnifer Goodwin). The film opens wth Kennedy’s election, and follows the couple through the highs and lows of their marriage—including Kennedy’s womanizing ways and the unfortunate loss of a child. It also takes a look at Kennedy’s struggle on how to handle Castro and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Meanwhile, another track follows the life of Lee Harvey Oswald (Will Rothhaar), a Marine who is fed up with American democracy and wants to defect to Russia and its Marxist ways. He sells out his country, falls in love with Marina (Michelle Trachtenberg) and the two start a family. But he soon finds he can’t take Russia anymore and brings his bride back to the United States, where he throws himself into the pro-Castro movement. Oswald finds himself harassed by the FBI, which only fuels his anger toward the government even more.

The film does not try to portray Kennedy as a hero nor Oswald as a 2-dimensional villain. Instead, we get to see the personal struggles and journeys faced by both men. I found the parallel storytelling approach to the material quite refreshing. It was quite interesting how similar these two men’s lives were, despite them having completely different ideologies and economical backgrounds. I liked how the film juxtaposed these two stories in parallel—for example, in one scene we see the different conditions in which both wives deliver their babies, and in other we see the funerals for Kennedy and Oswald taking place on the same day.

I thought the performances were really good. Rob Lowe really captures the look, sound and personality of JFK, and Goodwin gives an emotional performance as his loving and devoted wife. But the real surprises for me were on the Oswald side of the film. Who knew Michelle Trachtenberg could speak Russian?! Had I not known her from her work on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I would have believed she was really a Russian actress. And Will Rothhaar was excellent as Oswald, making the viewer care about this man, showing that he wasn’t this cartoon villain, but rather a man who was doing what he believed to be the right thing.

The presentation on this Blu-ray is a mixed bag. While the new footage and recreations look crisp and clear, the stock footage wasn’t of the same quality and kind of took you out of the moment for a few seconds. Also, the film originally aired on television, and there were several spots where you could tell there was a big build-up to lead into a commercial break. Instead of seamlessly editing these commercial breaks for the Blu-ray, there would sometime be repeated scenes. The Blu-ray offers both the Broadcast Version and a 2-minute longer Extended Version. I’m not sure what the differences are (I only watched the Extended Version), but I wish they had taken a little more time in the editing of the revised version.

As for bonus features, the disc contains about a half-hour of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and creators, which provide a nice discussion of the events portrayed in the film, as well as glimpse into what went into recreating everything for the movie.

Overall, I found this to be an interesting perspective on the men involved in one of the tragic events in United States history.

What’s Included:

Film:

Blu-ray:
• Broadcast Version (1:27:40)
• Extended Version (1:29:56)
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital Copy (Redemption Deadline 2/11/2017):

• UltraViolet DigitalHD Copy of Broadcast Version redeemable via Flixster, Google Play or Vudu

Extras:

• Camelot’s End: The Making Of Killing Kennedy (19:34)
  The cast and creators talk about the story, the characters, shooting the film in Richmond, and trying to keep everything authentic. Features behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with writer/producer Kelly Masterson, executive producer Ridley Scott, director Nelson McCormick, production designer Richard Blakenship, makeup designer Ahley Fetterman, costume designer Amy Andrews Harrell, property master R. Mark Hughes and stars Rob Lowe (“John F. Kennedy”), Ginnifer Goodwin (“Jaqueline Kennedy”), Will Rothhaar (“Lee Harvey Oswald”), Michelle Trachtenberg (“Marina Oswald”), Jack Noseworthy (“Robert F. Kennedy”) and Casey Siemaszko (“Jack Ruby”).
• Killing Kennedy: An Interview With Author Bill O’Reilly (6:06)
  Author/Executive Producer Bill O’Reilly talks about the presidency of JFK, his thoughts on the cast and adaptation of his book, and his memories of the assassination. Includes behind-the-scenes footage from the set.
• The Kennedy Mystique (6:38)
  The cast and creators talk about the lives of John, Jackie and Bobby Kennedy and the fresh new spirit and perspective they brought to the White House. Includes interviews with executive producer Ridley Scott, writer/producer Kelly Masterson, director Nelson McCormick, and stars Rob Lowe (“John F. Kennedy”), Ginnifer Goodwin (“Jaqueline Kennedy”) and Jack Noseworthy (“Robert F. Kennedy”).
• Virginia Is For Lovers: Tourism Commercial (:16)
  Short tourism promo showing off various Virginia landmarks.

Final Thoughts:

Killing Kennedy provides an interesting look at the lives of Lee Harvey Oswald and John F. Kennedy, and what ultimately led their paths to cross on that fateful day of November 22, 1963. The film features some great performances by the cast, and the disc contains some interesting behind-the-scenes supplemental material. This film is worth checking out.