WASHINGTON, June 13 -- The haunting image of John F. Kennedy's assassination, captured in a 26-second home movie by a Dallas dressmaker, has been impressed on the national consciousness for nearly a quarter-century. Now, Abraham Zapruder's family is sparring with the Justice Department over the price tag for the historic footage.
The family is seeking $18.5 million for the film Zapruder shot as the president's motorcade moved through Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The government proposes to pay far less.
"It takes an awful lot of courage for someone in the government to determine what the value of this film is, but that's what's necessary for the government to take advantage of what we are trying to do," said Henry Zapruder, a Washington attorney whose father died in 1970.
The original Zapruder film, considered a key piece of evidence in the investigation of Kennedy's assassination and made famous to a later generation in Oliver Stone's movie JFK, has been stored in a National Archives film vault since the 1970s. The Zapruder family maintained the rights throughout the years.
But last year, a government board declared that the film was the possession of the people of the United States, and said the government had to determine how much to compensate the family for its rights.
The Justice Department has offered the family $750,000 while indicating that the upper range might reach as high as $3 million, The Washington Post reported today.
The family deposited the original film in the National Archives vault because they wanted to ensure its safety and preservation. The film, which has deteriorated over the years, is stored at 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
The family allowed non-commercial users, such as teachers and students, to use the film for free and charged a fee for those who wanted the film for commercial purposes.
In 1992, Congress created the Assassination Records Review Board to amass all relevant evidence in the Kennedy case. That board declared in April 1997 that the film belonged to the federal government.
The Zapruders, who say they would prefer the film belong to the nation, began entering into discussions with the Justice Department last year over proper compensation. The family offered to sell the film for $18.5 million, and the Post said the Zapruders received appraisals for the film as high as $70 million.
John Tunheim, a federal judge in Minnesota who is chairman of the Assassination Records Review Board, said last year that there has never been a historical artifact like it, so its monetary value could be hard to agree upon.
The Zapruders fear the only option they will be left with is a lawsuit. But family members said they would prefer not to do this, and would instead like to see this as a gift to the nation by not seeking the full value.
"We have been trying for the last five years to make this contribution to the government," Henry Zapruder said Friday.
The movie was cited by the Warren Commission in its conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, was Kennedy's assassin.
But the film also has been cited by the commission's critics, who said it proves that Oswald alone could not have fired three shots as quickly as they were fired. Some conclude he had help --- or was not even involved.
James Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center, a private collection of Kennedy assassination documents, stressed last year the importance of the government retaining possession of the original Zapruder footage.
"This is paramount evidence," he said.
Lesar also told the review board last year that technology someday could be developed that would yield new information about the assassination from images between the sprocket holes on the film --- 20 percent of the exposed surface of the film's 486 frames.
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