Just in time for the 40th anniversary of Bobby Kennedy, Shane O’Sullivan, an Irish documentary maker, presents his film at the Pioneer Theater - and on the Documentary channel.
“RFK must die” explores the gaps in the official investigation, with rare footage and testimonies – some were taken at the time and neglected; other interviews were conducted with survivors in the past few years. The movie does not espouse one particular conspiracy theory (and the aficionados will no doubt find some of their favorite elements missing from this piece) but it creates enough doubts about the official version to sustain interest through the meandering and the impasses of the author’s investigation. Was Sirhan Sirhan, the convicted murderer who to this day claims not to remember anything, manipulated, hypnotized? Were some agents of the CIA or other services resentful towards the Kennedy involved? Such possibilities are suggested, never conclusively demonstrated.
The Ambassador Hotel where the event took place in Los Angeles has been razed; the witnesses are disappearing: Shane O’Sullivan hopes that his work will add to the pressure to reopen the case before it would be too late, and help William Pepper, the lawyer attempting to do so on Sirhan Sirhan’s behalf. It just might. As a viewer, there is only one main regret: that the film-maker never truly choose between his quest and its results to articulate the movie. As a result, the focus constantly oscillates between the process of searching for the truth and the chapter and verse of an investigation report.
