JFK Page #3

DOCTOR:

(to the police officer)

Higher'n a kite on something. Been

like this since she came in.

BACK TO DOCUMENTARY IMAGES

We see the last close-ups of Kennedy shaking hands on the

tarmac at Love Field, smiling, into the motorcade... the

downtown streets of Dallas, people packing the sidewalks

clear back to the buildings, hanging out of windows ten

stories up, schoolgirls surging out into the street in front

of the car. The President is wildly popular - except for

the occasional posters calling for his arrest for treason...

VOICE 7

More rumors emerge of J.F.K.'s

backdoor efforts outside usual State

Department and CIA channels to

establish dialogue with Fidel Castro

through contacts at the United Nations

in New York. Kennedy is seeking

change on all fronts. Bitter battles

are fought with Southern

segregationists to get James Meredith

into the University of Mississippi.

Three months after Kennedy submits a

sweeping civil rights bill to

Congress, Martin Luther King leads

250,000 in a march on Washington.

Robert Kennedy, as Attorney General,

for the first time ever vigorously

prosecutes the Mafia in American

life, bringing and winning a record

number of cases - 288 convictions of

organized crime figures including 13

grand juries against Jimmy Hoffa and

his Teamsters Union. The President

also takes on Big Business, forcing

back steel prices, winning 45 of 46

antitrust cases during 1963 and he

wants to help everyday taxpayers by

ending age- old business privileges

like the oil depletion allowance and

the fees paid to the Federal Reserve

Bank for printing America's currency.

Revolutionary changes are foreseen

after J.F.K.'s assumed re-election

in 1964. Foremost in the political

consciousness of the country is the

possibility of a Kennedy dynasty.

Robert Kennedy in '68, Teddy Kennedy

in '76. In November, 1963 John

Kennedy travels to Texas, his

popularity sagging to 59% largely

due to his civil rights stand for

which he is particularly hated in

the South. Texas is a crucial state

for him to carry in '64. With him

is Vice-President, Lyndon Johnson

and Texas Governor John Connally.

On November 21, they visit Houston

and San Antonio. On the morning of

November 22, he speaks in Fort Worth,

then flies 15 minutes to Love Field

in Dallas, where he takes a motorcade

through downtown Dallas on his way

to speak at 12:
30 at the International

Trade Mart. Later, the motorcade

takes him through Dealey Plaza at

12:
30...

DEALEY PLAZA - THAT DAY (NOV. 22, 1963)

We see a massive overhead shot of the Plaza as it lay then.

Credits conclude under shot - and we have the subtitle

"November 22, 1963."

A young epileptic screams and suddenly collapses near the

fountains in front of the Texas School Depository. He has a

violent epileptic fit that attracts surrounding attention.

Dallas policemen run over to him. We hear the siren of an

ambulance roaring up.

TIMECUT TO ambulance loading the epileptic man and taking

off.

AMBULANCE VOICE:

We are en route to Parkland.

BACK TO a montage of the shooting. We see Kennedy, in the

last seconds, waving, turning the corner at Houston from

Main... We see TV footage and a piece of Zapruder film from

before the shooting; fragmented images...

CUT TO stages shots of crowd people looking on. The images

are grainy to match the tone of the Zapruder film. People

are on rooftops, hollering. The crowd is wild with

enthusiasm. We pan past Jack Ruby and slam into him in black-

and-white. The camera shows a Cuban man with a radio; a man

with an umbrella; subliminals. Through open windows on the

fifth floor of the Criminal Courts Building, convicts watch

and holler from their jail cells. We see the sixth floor of

the Texas Book Depository with open windows and a vague blur

of a figure and a rifle.

The clock on the Hertz sign reads 12:30.

VOICE:

We'll be there in about five minutes.

A motorcycle officer paralleling the Kennedy car tries to

use his radio.

It's jammed. The sound of the jammed Dictabelt drives the

rest of the sequence.

We see Zapruder, a short middle - aged man, shooting his 8mm

film from the Grassy Knoll, and then we see Jackie Kennedy -

floating on film, her voice, high, soft:

JACKIE KENNEDY:

(voice restaged)

And in the motorcade, you know I

usually would be waving mostly to

the left side and he was waving mostly

to the right, which is one reason

you're not looking at each other

very much. And it was terribly hot.

Just blinding all of us... We could

see a tunnel in front of us.

Everything was really slow then.

And I remember thinking it would be

so cool under that tunnel.

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