JFK (film) Quotes

JFK (film) is a TV program that debuted in 1970 . JFK ended in 1970.

It features A. Kitman Ho as producer, John Williams in charge of musical score, and Robert Richardson (cinematographer) as head of cinematography.

JFK (film) is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of JFK (film) is 188 minutes long. JFK (film) is distributed by Warner Bros..

The cast includes: Joe Pesci as David Ferrie, Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison, Donald Sutherland as X, John Candy as Dean Andrews, Michael Rooker as Bill Brousard, Frank Whaley as Oswald Imposter, Kevin Bacon as Willie O'Keefe, Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald, Brian Doyle-Murray as Jack Ruby, Sissy Spacek as Liz Garrison, Wayne Knight as Numa Bertel, Ed Asner as Guy Bannister, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Lee Bowers, Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw aka Clay Bertrand, Jim Garrison as Earl Warren, and John Larroquette as Jerry Johnson.

JFK (film) Quotes

Wayne Knight as Numa Bertel

• (Wayne Knight) "Anyone can get a gun in Texas."

• (Wayne Knight) "There's a lot of smoke there, but there's some fire."

Pruitt Taylor Vince as Lee Bowers

• (Pruitt Taylor Vince) "At the time of the shooting there seemed to be some commotion -- I just am unable to describe; a flash of light or smoke or something which caused me to feel that something out of the ordinary had occurred there on the embankment --"

Donald Sutherland as X

• (Donald Sutherland) "We would have arrived days ahead, studied the route, checked all the buildings. Never would have allowed all those wide-open windows overlooking Dealy Plaza, never. We would have had our own snipers covering the area the minute a window went up. They would have been on the radio. We would have been watching the building, checking for baggage, coat under the arms -- Never would have allowed a man to open an umbrella along the way. Never would have allowed the car to slow down to 11 miles an hour, much less take that unusual curve at Houston and Elm. You would have felt an army presence on the streets that day. But none of this happened. It was a violation of the most basic protection code we have, and it's an indication of a massive plot based in Dallas."

• (Donald Sutherland) "That's the real question isn't it: why? The how and the who is just scenery for the public. Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, The Mafia, keeps 'em guessing like some kind of parlor game, prevents 'em from asking the most important question: why? Why was Kennedy Killed? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?"

• (Donald Sutherland) "The organizing principle of any society, Mr. Garrison, is for war. The authority of the state over its people resides in its war powers. Kennedy wanted to end the Cold War in his second term. He wanted to call off the moon race and cooperate with the Soviets. He signed a treaty to ban nuclear testing. He refused to invade Cuba in 1962. He set out to withdraw from Vietnam. But all that ended on the 22nd of November, 1963."

• (Donald Sutherland) "Garrison?"
• (Kevin Costner) "Yes."
• (Donald Sutherland) "I'm glad you came. Sorry about the precautions."
• (Kevin Costner) "I just hope it was worth my while, Mr?"
• (Donald Sutherland) "I could give you a false name, but I won't. Just call me "X"."

• (Donald Sutherland) "Fundamentally, people are suckers for the truth. And the truth is on your side, Bubba."

• (Donald Sutherland) "After I came back, I asked myself, why was I, the chief special officer, selected to travel to the South Pole at that time that any number of others could have done? And I wondered if it was because one of my routine duties if I had been in Washington would have been to arrange for additional security in Texas, so I decided to check it out. And sure enough, someone had told the 112th Military Intelligence Group at Fourth Army Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston in Texas to stand down that day, over the protests of the Unit Commander, Colonal Rike. This is significant because it is standard operating procedure, especially in a lnown hostile city like Dallas."

John Candy as Dean Andrews

• (John Candy) "Kennedy's as dead as that crab meat, the government's alive and breathing. You gonna line up with a dead man, Jimbo?"

• (John Candy) "Is this off the record, Daddy-O?"

• (John Candy) "You as crazy as your mama. Goes to show it's in the genes."

Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison

• (Kevin Costner) "The FBI says they can prove it through physics in a nuclear laboratory. Of course they can prove it. Theoretical physics can also prove that an elephant can hang off a cliff with its tail tied to a daisy. But use your eyes, your common sense."

• (Kevin Costner) "About as subtle as a cockroach crawlin' across a white rug."

• (Kevin Costner) ""One may smile and smile and be a villain.""

• (Kevin Costner) "Who wants out?"
• (Kevin Costner) "Shut up."

• (Kevin Costner) "Thank you for your time, David. I'm sorry this has to end inconveniently for you but I am going to have to detain you for further questioning by the FBI."
• (Joe Pesci) "Why, what's wrong?"
• (Kevin Costner) "David, I find your story simply not believable."
• (Joe Pesci) "Really? What part?"

• (Kevin Costner) "At least my reputation is still fine with people watching "Laugh In"."

• (Kevin Costner) "They killed Robert F. Kennedy. He won, and they killed him. They shot him down."
• (Sissy Spacek) "Oh God. Both of them? They got both brothers?"

• (Kevin Costner) "Under the guise of a patriotic club-owner out to spare Jackie Kennedy from having to testify at trial, Jack Ruby is shown his way into an underground parking garage by one of his inside men on the Dallas Police Force, and when he is ready Lee Harvey Oswald is brought out like a sacrificial lamb and nicely disposed of as an enemy of the people."

• (Kevin Costner) "All these documents are yours. The people's property, you pay for it. But because the government considers you children who might be too disturbed or distressed to face this reality, or because you might possibly lynch those involved, you cannot see these documents for another seventy-five years. I'm in my early forties, so I'll have shuffled off this mortal coil by then, but I'm already telling my eight-year-old son to keep himself physically fit, so that one glorious September morning, in the year 2038, he can walk into the National Archives, and find out what the CIA and the FBI knew. They might even push it back then, hell it may become a generational affair, with questions passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, but someday, somewhere, somebody will find out the damn truth."

• (Kevin Costner) "Of course, when he had realized that something had gone wrong, and that the President had been killed, he knew there was a problem. He may have even known he was the Patsy. An intuition, maybe. The President killed in spite of his warning. The phone call that never came. Perhaps fear now came to Oswald for the very first time."

• (Kevin Costner) ""Let justice be done though the heavens fall.""

• (Kevin Costner) "I don't, I can't -- I can't believe they killed him because he wanted to change things. In our time. In our country."
• (Donald Sutherland) "Well they've been doing it all through history. Kings are killed, Mr. Garrison, politics is power, nothing more. Oh, don't take my word for it, don't believe me. Do your own work, your own thinking."
• (Kevin Costner) "I can't. The size of this is -- beyond me. Testify?"
• (Donald Sutherland) "Me?"
• (Kevin Costner) "Testify."
• (Donald Sutherland) "Ha ha. No chance in hell. No, I'd be arrested and gagged, maybe sent to an institution, maybe worse, you too. Now I can give you the background, but you have to find the foreground, the little things. Keep digging. Remember, you're the only person to bring a trial in the murder of John Kennedy. That's important, it's historic."
• (Kevin Costner) "I haven't yet. I don't have much of a case."
• (Donald Sutherland) "You don't have a choice anymore. You've become a significant threat to the national security structure. They would have killed you already but you got a lot of light on you. Instead they're trying to destroy your credibility. They already have in many circles in this town. Be honest, your only chance is to come up with a case. Something, anything. Make arrests, stir the s*** storm, hope to reach a point of critical mass that'll start a chain reaction of people coming forward, then the government will crack. Remember, fundamentally, people are suckers for the truth; and the truth is on your side, Bubba. I just hope you get a break."

• (Kevin Costner) "It's gonna be OK, Dave. You just talk to us on the record, we'll protect you. I guarantee it."
• (Joe Pesci) "They'll get to you too. They'll destroy you. They're untouchable, man."

• (Kevin Costner) "White is black, and black is white."

• (Kevin Costner) "Back, and to the left -- back, and to the left -- back, and to the left."

• (Kevin Costner) "So what really happened that day? Let's just for a moment speculate shall we? We have the epileptic seizure around 12:15, p.m. distracting the police making it easier for the shooters to move into their places. The epileptic later vanished, never checking into a hospital. The A-Team gets on the sixth floor of the depository. They were refurbishing the floors that week, which allowed unknown workmen access to the building. They move quickly into position just minutes before the shooting. The spotter on the radio talking to the other two teams has the best overall view, the God spot. B-Team one shooter and one spotter with radio gear and access to the building, moves into the lower floor of the Dal-Tex building. The third team, the C-Team moves into the picket fence behind the Grassy Knoll, where the shooter and the spotter are first spotted by the late Lee Bowers in the watch tower of the rail yard. They have the best position of all. Kennedy is close and on a flat low trajectory. Part of this team is a coordinator who has flashed security credentials at people chasing them out of the parking lot. Probably 2-3 more men are in the crowd on Elm. 10-12 men. Three shooters. Three spotters. The triangulation of fire that Clay Shaw and David Ferrie discussed two months before. They have walked the plaza. They know every inch. They have calibrated their sight. They have practiced on moving targets. They are ready. Kennedy's motorcade makes the turn from Main onto Houston. It's gonna be a turkey shoot. They don't shoot him coming up Houston, which is the easiest shot for a single shot from the Book Depository. They Wait. They wait until he gets in the killing zone, between three rifles. Kennedy makes the final turn from Houston onto Elm, slowing down to some 11 miles an hour. The shooters across Dealy Plaza tighten, taking their aim, waiting for the radio to say "Green. Green." or "Abort. Abort.". The first shot rings out, sounding like a backfire it misses the car completely. Frame 161, Kennedy stops waiving as he hears something. Connaly's head turns slightly to the right. Frame 193, the second shot hits Kennedy in the throat from the front. Frame 225, the President emerging from behind the road sign, you can see that he's obviously been hit, raising his arms to his throat. The third shot, frame 232, takes Kennedy in the back pulling him downward and forward. Connaly you'll notice shows no signs at all of being hit. He is visibly holding his Stetson, which is impossiable if his wrist has been shattered. Connaly is turning here now, frame 238 the fourth shot. It misses Kennedy and takes Connaly in the back. This is the shot that proves there were two rifles. Connaly yells out "My God. They are going to kill us all." Somewhere around this time another shot that misses the car completely, strikes James Tague down by the underpass. The car brakes. The sixth and fatal shot, frame 313 takes Kennedy in the head from the front. This is the key shot. The President going back and to his left. Shot from the front and right. Totally inconstant with the shot from the Book Depository. So what happens then? Pandemonium."

• (Kevin Costner) "Ask the question, ask the question."

• (Kevin Costner) "The war is the biggest business in America, worth $ 80 billion a year."

• (Kevin Costner) ""Treason doth never prosper," wrote an English poet, "What's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.""

• (Kevin Costner) "If you let yourself be too scared then you let the bad guys take over the country, don't you? And then everybody gets scared."

• (Kevin Costner) "I never realized Kennedy was so dangerous to the establishment. Is that why?"
• (Donald Sutherland) "Well that's the real question, isn't it? Why? The how and the who is just scenery for the public. Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, the Mafia. Keeps 'em guessing like some kind of parlor game, prevents 'em from asking the most important question, why? Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?"

Kevin Bacon as Willie O'Keefe

• (Kevin Bacon) "I didn't think much about it at the time. Just bulls***, y'know, everybody likes to make themselves out to be something more than they are. 'Specially in the homosexual underworld. But when they got him I got real scared. And that's when I got popped."

• (Kevin Bacon) "People got to know, why he was killed."

Michael Rooker as Bill Brousard

• (Michael Rooker) "This is Louisiana, chief. I mean, how do you know who your daddy is? Because your mama told you so?"

• (Michael Rooker) "You're way out there, boss, taking a crap in the wind, and I for one am not going along on this ride."

• (Michael Rooker) "Clay Bertrand is Clay Shaw?"

• (Michael Rooker) "None of their testimony is gonna hold up in court, Chief. Hell all three of them have reputations as low as crocodile piss."
• (Kevin Costner) "That bother you, Bill? I always wonder why it is in court if a woman's a prostitute she has to have bad eyesight. Now go around the Quarter start snoopin around see if we can find out who this guy Bertrand is."
• (Michael Rooker) "The six of us with no money and in private are gonna solve a conspiracy that the Warren Commission couldn't solve?"
• (Kevin Costner) "I didn't pick you because of your legal skills you know?"
• (Michael Rooker) "Gee thanks, boss."
• (Kevin Costner) "Because you're a fighter. I like a man who isn't afraid of bad odds."

Frank Whaley as Oswald Imposter

• (Man at Firing Range) "I didn't pay two bits for a target just to have someone else shoot at it."
• (Frank Whaley) "Hey, I'm sorry buddy- I thought I was, uh, shooting at that son-of-a-bitch Kennedy."

• (Frank Whaley) "No honest working man can afford to buy a car in this god**** country anymore. Maybe I'll have to go to Russia and buy a car."

Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald

• (Gary Oldman) "I am not resisting arrest. I am not resisting arrest."

Joe Pesci as David Ferrie

• (Joe Pesci) "Man, you don't leave the Agency. Once you're in they got you for life."

• (Joe Pesci) "Oh man, why don't you f***in' stop it? s***, this is too f***in' big for you, you know that? Who did the president, who killed Kennedy, f*** man. It's a mystery. It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma. The f***in' shooters don't even know. Don't you get it?"

Ed Asner as Guy Bannister

• (Ed Asner) "Camelot in smithereens."

Brian Doyle-Murray as Jack Ruby

• (Brian Doyle-Murray) "Oswald."

• (Brian Doyle-Murray) "My life is in danger. If you request that I go back to Washington with you- that is if you want to hear further testimony from me -- Can you do that? Can you take me with you?"
• (Jim Garrison) "No, that cannot be done. There will be no safe place for you. We're not law-enforcement officers."

John Larroquette as Jerry Johnson

• (John Larroquette) "You know, I must say, we have heard some strange things coming out of your office in New Orleans. First, we heard that the Cuban exiles killed the President. Then the mob. Now your latest theory seems to be that the CIA, the FBI, and the Pentagon, and the White House, all combined in some elaborate conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. Let me ask you, is there anyone besides Lee Harvey Oswald who you think didn't conspire to kill the president?"

Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw aka Clay Bertrand

• (Tommy Lee Jones) "One likes friends who has friends."
• (John Candy) "Indeed."

Sissy Spacek as Liz Garrison

• (Sissy Spacek) "Go to sleep."
• (Kevin Costner) "Godamn it, I've been sleeping for three years."

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