lavatch From 1976-78, the House Select Committee on Assassinations was the second government inquest into the death of President John F. Kennedy. The committee concluded the JFK was probably killed as the result of a conspiracy. But Robert Blakey, the Chief Counsel for the committee, subsequently began to float the unsubstantiated theory that organized crime was behind the death of President Kennedy. The 1979 film "Winter Kills" basically builds on that premise.The film is a stylistic mess with some nearly farcical moments and scenes. For example, Sterling Hayden's character is a virtual reprise of his famous general of "Doctor Strangelove," a character loosely based on Curtis LeMay.But "Winter Kills" is nonetheless presented to the viewer as a political and allegorical thriller with the premise of Jeff Bridges character seeking to discover the truth about the death of his older brother, the president modeled on JFK. The plot is enormously contrived with a series of meetings of Bridges with mafia dons, plus a Mati Hari like femme fatale, who may herself have been involved in the president's death.The most ludicrous character portrayal is that of the family patriarch played by John Huston. SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS: The film absurdly suggests that Huston's father was involved in a kind of Oedipal struggle with his son and that he participated in the killing his son.In the final analysis, "Winter Kills" sheds no light on the JFK assassination, and the film plays more like a made-for-television movie, as opposed to a thoughtful feature film.

Scott LeBrun A rather unique conspiracy thriller / dark comedy, "Winter Kills" is based on a novel by Richard Condon of "The Manchurian Candidate" fame. It may not be nearly as well known, but it merits a look. Jeff Bridges stars as Nick Kegan, the younger half brother of an assassinated U.S. President. 19 years after the killing, Nick comes across a man who makes a dying confession that he was one of the gunmen. Nick then becomes determined to solve this old mystery, soldiering on even as his extremely rich and influential businessman father (John Huston) tries to manipulate the course of events. As Nick pursues leads, he realizes that the people he encounters cannot be taken at face value, and that not all of these leads are going to be particularly helpful.A sincere and likable performance by Bridges helps to anchor the tale, and there's a nonstop parade of famous faces in supporting roles and cameos: Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach, Sterling Hayden, Dorothy Malone, Tomas Milian, Ralph Meeker, Toshiro Mifune, Richard Boone, and an uncredited Elizabeth Taylor. But despite all of these heavy hitters gracing the film with their presence, it's Huston that commands a great deal of attention. He does seem to be quite enjoying himself playing this overbearing and grandiose character. The beautiful Belinda Bauer is appealing as the love of Nicks' life.William Richert scripted, and directs the film as a commentary on the nature of politics, the real-life assassination of JFK, and the power wielded by the affluent 1% represented by Hustons' Pa Kegan. It's a rather intricate mystery, and the best part of it is that you can't be sure where it's going, and aren't two steps ahead of Nick the whole time. One particularly silly scene has an unlikely character attempting to dispose of Nick, only for the sequence to include a rather hilarious, gratuitous dose of T & A.Absorbing entertainment, with real-life production stories that are stranger than anything in the film.Seven out of 10.

bkoganbing Winter Kills is one of the strangest films I've ever watched. But if you like to feast on ham acting than this is the film you've been waiting for all your life. The story has young Jeff Bridges hearing the deathbed confession of a man who says he was the unknown second gunman who killed Bridges's brother, the President of the United States 19 years earlier. Which would roughly be the gap in age between John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy in real life, a bit less for the Kennedys.But Bridges has never had any interest in politics, in fact hasn't had much interest in anything, but has enough money to indulge his idleness, courtesy of father John Huston. This confession does renew his interest and he pursues his own investigation with Huston's backing somewhat.After this as Bridges continues his quest you will see some of the best acting talent around all try to outdo the others. Huston tops them because he has more screen time, but Sterling Hayden as the crazed rightwing millionaire and Eli Wallach as the gay nightclub owner who shoots the arrested assassin like Jack Ruby in real life really earn some honorable mention. You usually have to see a horror film to find this much over the top thespianism.Winter Kills treads ever so gently into satire, but only tiptoeing because the film seems unsure of itself. It's like the director and writers didn't know what direction to take and decided to let the players figure it out for themselves. This is not a great film, but if not taken too seriously can be enjoyed on some levels.

tavm When John Huston died in 1987, Premiere magazine had recommended this movie as one of his best in acting performances. Well, he's certainly interesting to watch as he chews the scenery whenever talking to his son as played by Jeff Bridges as they play the father and brother, respectively, of an assassinated president who was slain one day in 1960. Yes, I'm aware that Winter Kills was meant to be a satire of the Kennedy shooting and the conspiracy that allegedly surrounded it and for a while I was pretty entertained by some of the theories that certain characters played by such character actors like Sterling Hayden, Eli Wallach, Richard Boone, and Anthony Perkins provided. But after a while, the whole convolutedness of the whole thing was too confusing to me and the ending seemed too abrupt for my tastes. Still, I wasn't completely bored what with some interesting star gazing like that woman who played a high class madam (if you know what I mean) that I don't feel like revealing here and the film wasn't too long. So on that note, Winter Kills is at least worth a look. P.S. Writer/director William Richert provided some great commentary on the DVD especially when mentioning then-girlfriend Belinda Bauer who has a very funny and sexy scene here. I also have to admit that since the picture on the disc was pixilated on some sequences, I didn't hear the whole commentary and in fact, I saw what I missed of the movie on YouTube part of the time.