Executive Action (1973) on Netflix
In 1963, men from industry and intelligence meet at Robert Foster's home to plan President Kennedy's assassination. James Farrington calls it an executive action, but Harold Ferguson holds back.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.7/103,834 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes50%
Trailer
Plot summary
At a June 1963 gathering in Robert Foster's home, men from industry, politics and intelligence discuss their dissatisfaction with President Kennedy. James Farrington, a black-ops specialist, calls the plan to kill the president an executive action. He wants the oil magnate Harold Ferguson to back it. Farrington cites past assassinations of presidents and argues a motorcade offers three firing angles, cover and clean escapes. Ferguson is not convinced. Farrington organizes two shooting teams anyway, and Team A practices in the Mojave Desert.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Executive Action (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was Donald Sutherland's idea. He conceived it in 1972 and hired Mark Lane and Donald Freed to write it, planning to produce and star, but no studio would finance him and he gave the project up, taking a role in another film instead.
- The original Lane and Freed screenplay pointed at the CIA so directly that the film's subtitle, 'Conspiracy in America', had its first letters picked out in red to spell the agency's initials. Dalton Trumbo's rewrite dropped that, and Lane complained that the only organization the film cleared was the CIA.
- Once shooting started, writers Mark Lane and Donald Freed were barred from the set. Lane said they thought about trying to stop the film being released, then decided it was better to let it come out and start people thinking about the assassination.
- The day after the film opened, distributor National General Pictures sued NBC for $1.5 million because WNBC-TV in New York had canceled its trailer, objecting to two images as too violent: the president seen through a telescopic gunsight, and a marksman firing practice shots at a desert target.
