The Zapruder Film by Art Simon Quite literally, ‘The Zapruder Film’ is an article that goes into great detail outlining the historical facts that spawned one of the greatest conspiracies of the twentieth century. Art Simon, in a surprisingly neutral report, goes on and recounts the historical chronology and thoughtless oversights that are the result of the twenty-nine second video that depicts the death of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. The Zapruder film itself, as well as the events and procedures that follow the assassination of John F. Kennedy, provide a fascinating read that skates somewhere between offering readers a conspiracy-less series of unfortunate events and a full blown cover-up of epic proportions, while never once making the assumption of presuming a stand that can potentially bias a reader. Coming from a person that genuinely believes the Kennedy assassination is a dastardly scheme - implemented by the mafia or the government – Simon’s article successfully plants the seed of ‘what if’ and leaves the reader with a lingering and rejuvenated curiosity toward the event. Although Simon’s article largely focuses on the film, his article goes further into the myth of the Kennedy assassination and puts forth a question of film as vérité as well as discusses the revelatory status of the moving picture (film) v.s. the still picture (photographs). Approximately mid-way through the article, Simon describes how the Zapruder film was used in a controlled reenactment of the Kennedy murder and how still images were taken of the entire reenactment to try and debunk the rumors that had been circulating. The still images were then compared to the film, frame for frame, to try and determine the angle and location etc. of exactly how Oswald supposedly killed Kennedy. As Simon states, photographic images backed up the ‘truth revealing video’. For those of us growing up in the technological age, the fact video proof was actually debated as being ‘real’, and that images were needed to prove it to be ‘truth’ is an absolutely mind-boggling concept. In a brilliant quote, Simon says “you can’t believe what you see, but only what you can measure” (46). In a twisted sort of insane logic, this sentence makes perfect sense. Hundreds of people saw Kennedy gunned down before their very eyes, yet questions began to arise on the trajectory of the bullets and the way in which his body fell and not a single person could accurately and conclusively prove what happened. Even forty years later, the Kennedy murder does not have a conclusion that people can rest easy with, even though there is visual proof. It makes one wonder if the Zapruder film actually hindered rather than helped put the American people at ease. Between newspapers and magazines publishing still captures of the film out of sequence for aesthetic purposes and the CIA’s potential tampering of the original film, researchers have spent years taking the Zapruder film and splicing it with other recorded film reels of the event to offer up a more complete sense of the assassination. This only brings up the question of spectatorship and censoring and video’s uncanny ability to depict real life in real time, while simultaneously assuming an authoritative position that restricts the gaze to one specific aspect of an event, rather than the panoramic view that could potentially give an event context. With that being said, ‘The Zapruder Film’ is a truly fascinating article that establishes a well balanced account of the mysterious and most likely, unsolvable Kennedy murder. Simon does not sign onto either the lone gunman or the grassy knoll theories, but instead allows the perfect amount of leeway for further discussion.