Norman Mailer: Works and Days

Footfalls in the Crypt

Mailer's Vanity Fair review of Oliver Stone's film JFK (February 1992), one of only two film reviews he wrote; reprinted in JFK: The Book of the Film.

“Footfalls in the Crypt,” Mailer’s review of Oliver Stone’s JFK, appeared in Vanity Fair in February 1992 (124–29, 171) — one of only two film reviews he ever wrote. At a Town Hall panel the next month (92.7) he glossed his own position: Stone’s film “should be seen not as history but myth,” the story of “a huge and hideous event in which the gods warred, and a god fell,” while the Kennedy assassination remained burdened by “the mind-stultifying myth of the lone assassin.” Reprinted in JFK: The Book of the Film, The Documented Screenplay, by Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar (Applause Books, 1992).

First published: 1992-02
Form: essay
Lennon & Lennon: 92.4
Cite as: /works/1992-02-footfalls-in-the-crypt
Last updated: 2026-06-06