The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1977 film)
| The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Written for television by Robert E. Thompson |
| Directed by | David Greene |
| Starring |
Ben Gazzara Lorne Greene |
| Music by | Fred Karlin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Charles Fries |
| Producer(s) | Richard Freed Lawrence Schiller (supervising producer) |
| Location(s) | McKinney Square, McKinney, Texas Dealey Plaza - 500 Main Street, Dallas, Texas |
| Cinematography | Vilis Lapenieks |
| Editor(s) |
Allan Jacobs Michael Economou (supervising editor) |
| Running time | 210 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Charles Fries Productions Inc. |
| Distributor | ABC |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 30, 1977 |
The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald is an American two-part television film shown on ABC-TV in September 1977. The film starred Ben Gazzara, Lorne Greene and John Pleshette in the title role. It is an example of alternative history. The hypothesis is what might have happened if Lee Harvey Oswald had not been killed by Jack Ruby and had stood trial for the murder of President John F. Kennedy.
The film opens sometime in 1964 and Oswald is in a maximum security cage as a radio announcer tells how he has been on trial for the last 43 days as the eyes of the entire world watch. A bailiff announces the jury has reached a verdict and the world press rushes to their phones. Oswald is handcuffed and led back into the courtroom to learn his fate.
The film then flashes back to the day before the Kennedy assassination. Oswald is trying to reconcile with his estranged wife Marina without luck. The next day, a friend drives him to the Texas School Book Depository and he puts a wrapped package in the backseat. The assassination of Kennedy is then reenacted with chilling conviction. Oswald leaves the building and possibly murders police officer J. D. Tippit. Oswald is arrested in a theater and bound over for trial.
Oswald's prosecutor is wily, sarcastic Anson "Kip" Roberts (Gazzara). From the beginning, Roberts is skeptical about a "poor shlub who couldn't even hold a job" assassinating the President. However, a phone call from President Johnson himself makes him realize he had better stick to this hypothesis. In the meantime, bombastic defense attorney Matt Weldon (Greene) is assigned to the defense. He realizes he has a difficult client upon their first meeting when Oswald keeps talking in paranoid fashion about "them" and "they" manipulating the strings. In addition, Weldon has to deal with several cases of possible witnesses for the defense dying under suspicious circumstances.
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