At War Over A Tragic Film

Starting next week, anyone can buy a copy of the film for $19.98 (video) or $24.98 (disc). The distributor, MPI, hopes to sell 100,000 or so, but the Zapruders, who will get about $4 a copy, won't profit hugely. They spent more than $300,000 to produce the new, digitally enhanced copy in order to satisfy the dozens of requests that come in for the film. Zapruder still averts his eyes at the grislier scenes. His father once said he had nightmares of the head shot that struck JFK, and told Stolley he was tormented by a dream of walking past a seedy movie house. Outside, a man was hawking, ""Come in and see the president being murdered on the big screen.'' Zapruder junior says he never discussed dreams with his father. ""I can say, though,'' he added, ""that he never looked through a camera again.''

© 1998