As JFK Assassination Files Are Slated for Release, Recalling the Controversial Film That Started It All

President Trump, who is allowing the documents to be released, is believed to be fascinated by the JFK assassination.

JFK, the controversial film by Oliver Stone, was released 26 years ago and remains a smorgasbord of fact, fantasy and wild conspiracy theories. 

Now, the movie has been credited with bringing about the release of once top-secret files on the assassination. 

“It's pretty amazing that it is Stone's movie, JFK, that brings us to this point,” Philip Shenon, the author of A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination, told Inside Edition.

“Stone's movie comes out in 1991, creates a million conspiracy theories about the assassination," he added. "The next year, Congress reacts to the furor by passing a law that forces the release of all these documents within 25 years." 

President Trump had the power to block the release at the last moment but ultimately chose not to, tweeting Wednesday, “The long anticipated release of the JFK files will take place tomorrow. So interesting!” 

The release of 2,800 files was approved by the federal government late Thursday, with President Trump blocking others for an additional six months.

Trump had "no choice" but to submit the held files for further review due to national security concerns, The Associated Press reported.

The president himself is fascinated by Kennedy's 1963 death in Dallas.

On the campaign trail last year, he brought attention to a tabloid report that a man filmed with Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, is the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump’s opponent for the Republican nomination

Cruz ridiculed the claim as bogus.

Nothing tells the story of the assassination better than the Zapruder film.

Clothing manufacturer Abraham Zapruder was in Dealey Plaza on that tragic November day with his new 8mm Bell and Howell home movie camera. As Kennedy’s motorcade emerges from behind a street sign the president is seen clutching his throat after being struck by the assassin's first bullet.

Just as Jackie Kennedy realizes something is wrong with her husband, a second bullet strikes.

The 26-second Zapruder film is probably the most examined films ever shot. Abraham Zapruder, who died in 1970, once said he almost didn't take his camera with him on that fateful day.