EXAMINING TRUTH: An interview with Interview With The Assassin writer/director Neil Burger. By Warren Curry 11/12/02 Part 1 of 2

Ask 10 different people about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and you just might be offered 10 different theories as to the parties responsible for the man's demise. It's a mystery that inspires an abundance of explanations, conjecture and ultimately frustration. How could the death of such a public figure in such a public forum be shrouded in potentially eternal mystery? That's what captivates us.

So, what would happen if a person claiming responsibility for the murder of JFK approached you? Would you be inclined to believe or dismiss them? Most likely, you would be motivated to embark on some further investigation before arriving at a conclusion, hence the premise of Neil Burger's new film Interview With The Assassin. An unemployed cameraman named Ron (Dylan Haggerty) is put in the center of such a predicament when his neighbor (Raymond J. Barry) reveals to him that he was the figure hiding in the infamous grassy knoll on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. The resulting quest to uncover the truth plunges Ron and us, the viewer, headfirst into a world of stifling paranoia that may or may not be the fabrication of an insane man.

Written and directed by Neil Burger and produced by David Levien and Brian Koppelman (the writing team behind Rounders and the recent Knockaround Guys), Interview With The Assassin is a fiction film told via a documentary format. It's a tense, thought provoking journey that examines the often subjective nature of an entirely objective concept -- truth. In a chilling performance, veteran actor Raymond J. Barry (Dead Man Walking, Training Day, The Deep End) stars as Walter Ohlinger, an ex-Marine who claims to have fired the fatal bullet on that notorious day.

CinemaSpeak had the pleasure of speaking with Burger during his recent visit to Los Angeles. Magnolia Pictures will release Interview With The Assassin theatrically on November 15.

A very interesting incident inspired the conception of Interview With The Assassin. Tell me a bit about that.

It happened about ten years ago. I was actually working on a real documentary interviewing World War II veterans in Texas. After a day of shooting, I was having dinner alone -- I was down there alone -- at a bar and grill, and there was a strange old fellow next to me, who struck up a conversation with me. He asked me what I was doing, I told him and for some reason he construed that to mean that I was a reporter, which I wasn't. I sort of allowed that to happen, but once he thought I was a reporter, he said, "I've got this story that's going to blow the lid off of everything." Obviously I wanted to know what that story was. At first he wouldn't tell me -- he was very evasive, tight lipped and, like I said, kind of odd. I didn't quite know what was going on with him. Finally, he told me that he knew somebody that was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, which was a startling claim. I tried to get more information out of him, as we all would, but again he was very tight lipped. I must say, I didn't believe him. He was strange enough that I thought he was crazy or, at the best, he was just pulling the leg of some kid just a few years out of college, who obviously wasn't from there. Eventually, he got up and never came back -- that was it. I had to work on the documentary the next day, and later that evening I was leaving town. There was no way to pursue it really, plus I was in over my head and, most importantly, I didn't believe him. On the other hand, as with every bit of the Kennedy assassination lore, there's always that shred of possibility that he was telling the truth, and I think that stuck with me and in a way has haunted me ever since. Maybe there was that possibility that this guy did know something.

Were you a JFK assassination/conspiracy theory buff prior to this incident?

Not really. I'm as interested in it as the next person, maybe a little bit more, because it is this infuriating mystery that as you look deeper into it you seem to be getting an answer, but then you never get a conclusive, definitive answer. You're just grasping at something that evaporates when you get your hands around it. It's confounding and it will drive you crazy.

Why did you choose the mockumentary or cinema verite format for this film?

Well, it's a documentary format. I hesitate to use mockumentary because that implies it's a comedy, which it certainly isn't. I think that technique is essential to the movie. The movie and its narrative and theme are exploring issues of what's true, what do you believe, how do you bring meaning to your life or to a random event, such as the assassination. The documentary is non-fiction form. You're supposed to be seeing what is true and filming fact. As we all know, documentaries have their own point of view and they're edited, so you're not getting the complete truth, but the form is involved in the truth. That particular technique was essential to emphasize the central themes of the movie: about truth and meaning and what you believe.

Apparently, you were a bit hesitant to cast Raymond J. Barry in the lead. After seeing the film, I couldn't envision anyone more perfectly suited for the role. Why the initial resistance to casting him?

No hesitation at all, actually. I would've loved to cast him, and we considered it initially, but he was too recognizable. He was too well known, and initially we wanted to cast an unknown for the part. We didn't want to have any associations because we wanted to explore this issue of truth further. We didn't want (people to say), "Oh, he's obviously an actor." We looked around, we did a nationwide search for an unknown and we never found anybody who was as great as Ray. We certainly never made a better decision -- he was fantastic.

Is Ron genuinely interested in Walter's story because of curiosity and a desire to seek the truth, or just because he thinks it could be a big financial opportunity?

He's genuinely interested in the subject, but more importantly the movie's about two guys who feel like they're nobodies and what they do to empower themselves -- to make themselves feel like they matter in the world and that their lives are somehow meaningful. Yes, he wants to do it for the money, but the money is just a validation of something else -- that he is somehow special in the world. To me, that's really the heart of the movie: how far you will go to empower yourself, why are you here in this world and how do you make yourself feel significant.

Can we also construe some commentary about how media sensationalism is able to so easily manipulate people?

I think we're all trying to navigate our way through a very complex world. Again, there's this question of, "What do you believe?" Does Iraq have nuclear weapons? Maybe, maybe they don't. Who do you really believe? The report that came out about this? Do you believe what Iraq says? Do you believe what the Europeans say? How does one find their way through all that? With the Kennedy assassination: Oswald did it alone or the Mafia was involved -- all these different stimuli. If we can't even get a conclusive answer to who killed our President, then how are we going to get an answer or clear idea as to how to behave morally or ethically in the world when there are all of these different influences and things tugging at us? I don't think it's so much about sensationalism, but more about these forces pulling us, and how we make our own choices, how we're going to live our lives and what we choose to believe.

Click for Part Two

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