Critic Reviews

• Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

  A straightforward documentary on the assassination of President Kennedy.

• Jack Mathews, New York Daily News

  [A] meticulously researched, seemingly unbiased summary of the [JFK] killing and the major conspiracy theories.

• Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

  Oswald's Ghost is a thorough and systematic primer on how and why the JFK assassination became a generational obsession, and seemed to signal the demolition of at least one version of the American dream.

• Michael Fox, Village Voice

  Stone argues quite convincingly that Kennedy's horrifically violent death will continue to prickle the national psyche.

• Joe Leydon, Variety

  Impresses as a concise, intelligent and rigorously well-researched piece of work.

• Maureen M. Hart, Chicago Tribune

  After a strong start, Oswald's Ghost ends up as ephemeral as its namesake.

• Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

  Of course, it doesn't tell us what really happened; that's still shrouded in mystery and always will be, since Lee Harvey Oswald was shot within two days of his arrest.

• Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals

  So long as filmmakers think they're exposing hidden facts, we'll be experiencing the effects of "Oswald's Ghost" long into the future.

• Kam Williams, Mount Desert Islander

  Never quite fanning the flames, this superficial, 90-minute documentary only has enough time to touch the surface of the lingering questions surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald.

• Kam Williams, Sly Fox

  The more interesting question to raise might be "What toll does it take on a society when someone as inconsequential as Lee Harvey Oswald can slay someone as historically significant as JFK?

• Andy Klein, Los Angeles CityBeat

  What starts out interesting eventually feels unfocused: Just what was the rationale for making this in the first place?

• Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics

  Taking on the most over-used documentary topic in America, this JFK assassination flick has to produce a new angle. It doesn't do it.

• Phil Hall, Film Threat

  The only obvious question that Oswald's Ghost raises is: how come Mort Sahl wasn't in the movie?

• Brian Orndorf, eFilmCritic.com

  Filmmaker Robert Stone doesn't have the answer, but his curiosity about Oswald and the entire assassination experience has been shaped into this fascinating documentary.

• Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  Veteran conspiracy buffs probably won't find much of Stone's material particularly new, but Stone's film does serve as a neat summary for the rest of us while offering a number of intriguing insights into how conspiracy theories work...

• Eric Monder, Film Journal International

  Though the film may not change many minds about what happened and why, at least it attempts to describe and explain events like few other documentaries on the same topic.

• John P. McCarthy, Boxoffice Magazine

  Although [the director] often shifts abruptly from micro to macro, the film holds together, and a two-pronged thesis gradually emerges.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  Though the material is hardly fresh, it retains some fascination, and Stone has assembled Oswald's Ghost well, with few of the stylistic tics that marred his Guerilla: The Taking Of Patty Hearst.

• Eric Kohn, New York Press

  The selling point of Oswald's Ghost, Robert Stone's documentary about the enigmatic blue collar Texan generally regarded as the assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is its refusal to dispute the safest assumption.

Read all 19 critic reviews