Eagle Eye is on the horizon with its conspiracy-like plots and high-tech paranoia. It got me thinking about one of my very favorite conspiracy films and, in fact, one of my very favorite films in general. I've seen Oliver Stone's JFK about twenty or thirty times (at least) and it never seems to lose its edge with me. Remember, Cougar in Top Gun? He lost his edge after one too many flight missions. Now he's directing movies like Turistas (yeesh). But old reliable hasn't lost its edge. Not Stone's JFK. It keeps ticking.

A couple years ago we did a Halloween piece where the Film.com writers made a list of the scariest movies they've ever seen. I submitted JFK. and not just because of Joe Pesci's toupee. And it wasn't to be cute either. It is quite literally the movie that scares me more than any other movie ever has. It used to be The Exorcist when I was a wee lad. Now I laugh in the face of pea soup.

I have never been able to shake off the creepy power of JFK. It isn't just Kevin Costner's accent that keeps me up nights. No. It's the paranoia Stone injects into the viewer within every frame (and there are many). I remember walking home from the movie theater with my sister, when we took the back alleyway shortcut behind the AMC. I kept looking around. Behind the dumpster. Beyond the grassy knoll. I kept seeing old men in fedoras, scratchy and grainy in black-and-white stock. I was startled at my own paranoia and though my imagination played games with me, I somehow felt wiser and more grown up. This movie was as important to me growing up as E.T., Jaws and Star Wars.

Watching it in the theater for the first time was like attending my first film school. The visual assault that is this movie glued me to my seat. I was, quite literally, in awe. I had seen nothing like this at the time (I was barely thirteen). I fell deep into the story and the alternative "truth" Stone set out to tell. The amazing cast comes at you like fireworks, especially when you're a kid and star ensembles are a big deal. I used to have discussions with my friends when I was a young'un around questions like, "Wouldn't it be cool if... [this actor or that actor appeared in the same movie together]?" Here was a movie loaded with people I grew up watching. Ooh, Kevin Bacon! Ooh, John Candy! Ooh, the guy who played Rowdy Burns in Days of Thunder! These stars' appearances gave the movie an added level of importance. Kevin Bacon is a pretty big star, after all (ah, the early '90s) so if he's playing some prison bitch for eight minutes of screen time, it's for a damn good reason right?

But I not only looked at film differently and all the fun ways a movie could assault you visually, I looked at life with a fresh pair of specs. I began to really question the world I lived in (my parents called this stage "hell"). And I began to question what made a movie great, how effectively it told its story or got its point across, comparing it to other pieces of storytelling I'd seen. I began asking, What are lies? Or better yet, What is truth? What is theatrical? How are wars started? After seeing this film, you question your government; you question authority. This is a movie that found me at maybe the perfect time. It was my Catcher in the Rye.

I fell in love with films that antagonized the audience, but in a good way. I became an Oliver Stone fan and through his ups and many downs I remain one. So it no surprise that I am more eagerly awaiting W. than I am Le Shia's latest. But don't spread that around.

They could be watching.

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