Executive Action (film)

Executive Action is an American political thriller film. It is a fictionalized account of a conspiracy to assassinate United States President John F. Kennedy. Released in November 1973 on the tenth anniversary of the JFK assassination, the film stars Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Will Geer. It was directed by David Miller, produced by Edward Lewis, and written by Dalton Trumbo. The screenplay was adapted from the novel Executive Action by Donald Freed and Mark Lane, published earlier in 1973; the novel also includes special material by Stephen Jaffe. Freed and Lane received film credits for their story, and Jaffe was the film's technical adviser and uncredited supervising producer.

Although Executive Action is about a conspiracy, it does not adhere to the conventions of the conspiracy thriller genre in which one or more independent journalists or outside investigators seek to expose the truth of a high-level conspiracy. Instead, the film is told from the standpoint of the conspirators, and the audience watches them carry out the JFK assassination in a methodical, businesslike manner.