Echoes of Dallas: JFK in Cinema at Home and Abroad

Forty-six years ago, two movies — one American, one French — reflected markedly different attitudes toward JFK's assassination

A photo of the deceased “patsy gunman” in the 1979 French film “I… comme Icare” (“I… As in Icarus”) (Credit: V Films/Société Française de Production/France 2)

In 1979, the year the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) issued its final report concluding that President John F. Kennedy was “probably” murdered as a result of conspiracy, two movies centered around that momentous homicide and its aftermath hit the big screen. But their perspectives on the tragedy in Dallas reflected very divergent cinematic attitudes on either side of the Atlantic.