When you think of classic Hollywood leading men, Burt Lancaster usually isn’t among the first five names spoken, and might not even be among the first ten. It’s a shame because of Burt’s talent and very manly looks, but not surprising given the roles he took as he got older.

He’s starred in classic films like From Here To Eternity, Judgment At Nuremburg, and Birdman Of Alcatraz, and Warner Bros. has given the hunky Lancaster its Signature Collection status.

Executive Action

In a movie that preceded Oliver Stone’s JFK by eighteen years, David Miller’s Executive Action is a fictional but very plausible conspiracy account of John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963.

There are literally hundreds of different theories as to the identity of the masterminds behind JFK’s death. Burt Lancaster (Farrington) and Robert Ryan (Foster) star in this thriller as the cold and calculating lead conspirators. They are part of a group of businessmen and political figures who are unhappy with the JFK administration, most notably on JFK’s stance on equal rights.

Executive Action is told purely through the eyes of the conspirators, and surprisingly doesn’t include any outside “world views” on the general national sentiment and mood. Including the latter would almost certainly have given sympathy to the conspirators. But to be fair, there men didn’t think much about what Americans cared for. They only cared for themselves and served only their own interests.

The film does include many scenes of actual news footage to help create authenticity and continuity between the backstage scenes of Lancaster and Ryan plotting their thorough scheme and historical record.

While this film is the work of fiction, it does give creative and reasonable answers to the many unanswered questions surrounding the assassination. The one aspect of the film that will always cause doubt in audiences is the fact that even with the small number of people involved in the film’s conspiracy, there still were more than enough people to make mistakes and provide leaks that would have unraveled the plot.

Included on the DVD are trailers for a few Burt Lancaster films, and a ten-minute documentary titled “November 22, 1963: In Search Of An Answer” that shows (with many interviews of the cast and crew) how passionate the filmmakers were toward trying to put some perspective on the non-complete Warren Report on JFK’s assassination and the credibility of some conspiracy theories.

Jim Thorpe – All American