The home movie footage that caught the assassination of the American President, John F. Kennedy.I had assumed that I had seen this film a dozen times, maybe one hundred times. But I guess I was seeing lower grade copies, and probably just clips, Seeing the complete film, with its 2012 remastering... wow. I had no idea the film was so nasty and gory. It may be one of the more disturbing things you will ever see, and definitely the most disturbing to be considered worth preserving by the Library of Congress.The version I saw also had commentary, which seemed a bit questionable, such as the crowd chasing the assassin up the grassy knoll. Was that Zapruder talking or added later? I presume the latter.

This is quite possibly the most monumental piece of live footage ever captured by an amateur photographer. The film of JFK's fatal shooting is, in itself, not particularly entertaining or interesting unless it is in a re-mastered and "shake-free" form. However, the impact of this film on the controversy surrounding one of the most famous assassinations in world history cannot be denied.The best showcase for this piece of film can be found in Oliver Stone's brilliant film, JFK.

I remember when various stills from this film were printed in LIFE magazine but the actual head shot images were apparently forbidden to be seen at the time. Now this historic piece of film is available to all. It only lasts a few seconds but the important roll it has played in history is legendary. So many theories, questions, debates etc. about the assassination of the 35th president of the United States have been raised over the years and they almost always center around this small strip of film.

...and it has yet to receive 5 votes. Granted it's only 26 seconds long, a little more than half the length of Bambi Meets Godzilla, and that darned road sign gets in the way of the camera at such a crucial time.It's amazing that Zapruder kept shooting as the real shooting started. We might otherwise have been left with images of running feet and chaos. The film, dissected later in Image of an Assassination - A New Look at the Zapruder Film (1998), clearly shows that the president and John Connolly were hit at different times and from different directions than was concluded by the Warren Commission.Or that was one magic loogie.