The Zapruder Film: Reframing Jfk’s Assassination

It is the most famous home movie of all time, the most closely analysed 26 seconds of film ever shot, and the most disturbing visual record of what many have called
the crime of the century . In 486 frames - a mere six feet of celluloid - Abraham Zapruder’s iconic film captures from, beginning to end, the murder of President John F. Kennedy in broad daylight. The film has become almost synonymous with the assassination itself and has generated decades of debate among conspiracy theorists and defenders of the Warren Comission’s offical report. David Wrone, one of America’s foremost authorities on the assassination, re-examines Zaproder’s film with a fresh eye and a detailed knowledge of the forensic evidence. He traces the film’s 40-year history, fom its creation through its initial sale to
Life
magazine, analysis by the Warren Commission and legal battles over bootleg copies, to its sale to the federal government for 16 million dollars. Wrone’s major contribution is to demonstrate how the film itself necessarily refutes the Warren Commission’s lone-gunman and single-bullet theory. He asserts that the film provides a scientifically precise timeline of events, as well as crucial clues regarding the shots fired that day. Analysing it frame-by-frame, in relation to other evidence, he builds a convincing case against the official findings. Without speculating who actually shot JFK and why, he concludes that the president’s death was the result of a conspiracy.