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The Zapruder film is the 8mm home movie footage shot by Abraham Zapruder in Dallas, Texas, within Dealey Plaza while standing next to the grassy knoll during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. It is the definitive, most authoritative film of the assassination.

Background

Zapruder filmed the scene with a Director Series Model 414 PD movie camera via a spring-wound mechanism at an average tested speed of 18.3 frames-per-second. The entire Dealey Plaza exposed film frames lasts 26.6 seconds, with the presidential assassination sequence occupying 19.3 seconds. There are 486 frames altogether.

The film has been used by the Warren Commission and all subsequent investigations of the assassination. The Zapruder frames used by the Commission consist of exhibits 889-899 plus exhibits 901 and 902 (totaling less than 1 second of the actual 26.6 second film), published in the commission supporting volume XVIII. Frames of the film have also been sporadically published in several magazines, and the film was featured in several movies.

The Zapruder film footage has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for permanent preservation in the National Film Registry.

Some conspiracy theorists claim that only altered versions of the Zapruder film have ever been published. They point to allegedly impossible movements by persons in the background and limousine and irregular limousine signal-light flashing as evidence of film editing. Director Oliver Stone examined the Zapruder film and has publicly stated that, in his opinion as a professional filmmaker, the Zapruder film was not altered in any substantive way. Two other publicly released films of the Kennedy assassination (the Bronson and Nix films) show none of the supposed "anomalies" claimed to exist by conspiracy theorists, and neither show any evidence of tampering. Eyewitness reports of the limousine "slowing down" at the time of the assassination appear to be a result of the witnesses' shock at having seen the murder, and allegedly impossible movements can be explained by the limitations of the camera. There are in fact no anomalies in the film that cannot be easily explained by the limitations of the technology, movement of the camera, or other simple factors.

Zapruder's film is probably the most complete and best-known movie of the assassination, as it provides a relatively clear view of the motocade from a slightly elevated position. However, it is not the only film that captured at least the few seconds just before President Kennedy was struck by bullets. There were at least seven others in Dealy Plaza with home-movie cameras— F. Mark Bell, Charles Bronson (not the actor with the same name), Robert J. Hughes, John Martin, Charles Mentesana, Patsy Paschall, Elsie Dorman, Tina Towner, Marie Muchmore, and Orville Nix, along with an unidentified "Babushka Lady". Nix's, Muchmore's, and Bronson's films include the fatal shot, and the films of Bronson and Hughes show the 6th-floor window of the book depository. .

History

Three copies of the film were made on the evening of November 22 for investigative authorities. Within days, LIFE magazine purchased the original film and all rights to it for $150,000 ($916,000 in 2006), payable in six annual payments of $25,000. Zapruder donated the initial payment of $25,000 to the widow and children of murdered Dallas Policeman J.D. Tippit.

After acquiring the film, LIFE Bureau Head Will Lang Jr. ordered the creation of large photo prints of the individual frames for a special article on the film and the Warren Commission report. At some stage during the photo processing, several film frames were accidentally damaged — though private copies were made for LIFE executives. A few frames of the film have been printed over the years, but generally the film was kept locked away from public scrutiny and was never publicly shown in motion by LIFE.

CBS Dallas bureau chief Dan Rather was one of the few persons in the world privileged to see the Abraham Zapruder film that Saturday morning, November 23. In his narration of the film as part of CBS nationwide television coverage, Rather said the President's head "went forward with considerable violence." This narration confirmed the so-called "Oswald position" for the nation, but he said nothing about the violent backward motion of the President's head which would have strongly suggested to conspiracy theorists a second gunman at that early date. Rather apologized later in 1970s when Zapruder film became public by saying it was "an honest error."

In 1966 Dr. Josiah Thompson, while working for LIFE, tried to negotiate with LIFE for the rights to print important individual frames in a book he wrote called Six Seconds in Dallas. LIFE refused to approve the use of any of the frames, even after Thompson offered to give all profits from the book sales to LIFE. When Thompson's published book included very photo-like detailed charcoal drawings of important individual frames, LIFE filed a lawsuit against Thompson and his publishing company.

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