Latest / Spotlight English: Advanced / Twenty-Six Seconds that Changed One Man's Life (Advanced Program)

Transcript

Twenty-Six Seconds that Changed One Man's Life (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Andrew Davis and.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I'm Alice Irasari. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: It is easier for people to understand no matter where
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: in the world they live.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: He kept many of his films in his house. He
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: had been making films at home for decades. He was
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: not a professional filmmaker. He just loved doing it. He
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: used a small camera that he could hold easily in
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: his hands. He filmed his family on trips or around
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: their homes. But he recently bought a new camera. It
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: was one of the best cameras available to non professional filmmakers.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: He worked in Dallas, Texas. The President of the United
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: States was coming to his city. He decided to use
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: his new camera to film him. He had no idea
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: he was about to film the most famous home movie
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: in history.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: On today's Spotlight, we look at the life of Abraham Zapruder.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Who was he? Why was his film so important? How
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: did it change the world? How did he live with
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: what he had seen?
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: His employees called him mister z Zupruda owned a dressmaking
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: company in Dallas. He was known as a fair and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: respectful boss. He had been married for thirty years. He
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: was thinking about leaving his job. He wanted to travel
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: around the world with his wife. He wanted more time
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: to work with plants and to play music. He wanted
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to relax and enjoy the rest of his life. But
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: his life changed on that horrible day in Dallas.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: It was November twenty second, nineteen sixty three. The President
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was coming to Dallas.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: He would drive near Zapruder's business. Zupruder liked President Kennedy
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: very much. He wanted to film Kennedy while he was there.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: One day, he would show this film to his grandchildren.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: President Kennedy was riding in a car with no top.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: It was called a limousine. People could see him easily.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: The President's car was in a long line of cars
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: called a motorcade. The motorcade drove through the city of Dallas.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: It would pass through ddee Plaza. This was a location
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: very close to Zapruda's business. Zupruda and a friend hurried
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: through Deey Plaza. He climbed on top of a small
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: structure one meter high. Zapruda's friend supported him from behind,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: so he would not fall. Zapruda had a great view
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: looking down. President Kennedy's motorcate would pass right below him.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Zapruda started filming with his camera.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: The entire film lasted only twenty six seconds. It was
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: in color but without sound. It showed President Kennedy and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: his wife sitting in the back seat of the limousine.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Two men protecting the President and his wife sat in
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: the front seat. In a few moments, the motorcade would
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: pass by Zapruder. He got his camera ready. Then there
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: was a loud sound. Zapruder and the other witnesses thought
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: it was a gun shot. As Kennedy drove toward Zapruder,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: another gunshot sounded. This time Zapruder saw Kennedy lean forward.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: The President grabbed his throat. When Kennedy was in front
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: of Zapruder about twenty meters away, a final gunshot sounded.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: The President was shot in the head. He fell over
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: in the seat. Their car drove out of sight. Zupruder
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: stopped filming. He could not believe what he had just seen.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Someone had shot the President right in front of him.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Zapruda knew his film would be very important the police
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: would want to study it. Other people also filmed the event,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: but Zapruder's film was the only clear record of Kennedy's death.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: A Dallas reporter saw Zapruda's camera. The reporter asked if
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: he had filmed the shooting. Zupruda said yes. The reporter
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: told a Tope law enforcement officer. The officer developed the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: film so it could be viewed. Then he made three
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: copies for different law agencies. Zapruda kept the original copy.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: He had to decide what to do with it.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Zapruder was one of the first people in the world
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: to understand what had happened. He saw everything through his camera.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Almost everyone else was uncertain. When Zapruder got back to work,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: his friends told him President Kennedy was just injured. He
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: was simply being taken to the hospital. But Zapruder knew
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: the truth. He responded, they killed him.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: They killed him. The next day, Zapruda decided to sell
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the rights to his original film to Life magazine for
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He asked Life to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: leave out one moment from the film. This was the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: moment when the bullet struck President Kennedy's head. It was
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a horrible image that Zapruda did not want the world
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: to see. He wished he had never seen it. Life
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Magazine agreed.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Sapruder chose to sell his film to Life Magazine because
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: he respected their work. He thought they would handle the
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: film with good taste and judgment. One of the magazine's editors,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Dick Stoley, said.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Zapruda was very worried that the film would be used
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: in an offensive way. He did not want it to
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: go to the wrong person. You could see that President
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Kennedy was a man in great pain.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: After President Kennedy's death, a special group of men investigated
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the murder. The United States government wanted to know for
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: certain who had shot the president. The group was called
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the Warren Commission. They discovered that one man, Lee Harvey Oswald,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: had shot President Kennedy. He shot with a rifle from
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: a window on the top floor of a building. The
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: building was not far from where Zapruda had filmed.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Over the years, many people questioned whether Oswald had acted alone.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: They thought other shooters might have been involved. They offered
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: various opinions about why the president had been killed. They
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: wondered if it was something political. They made theories about
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: who was behind it and why.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: But none of it changed what Sapruda had witnessed. Nothing
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: could erase his memory of Kennedy's death. He struggled with
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: terrible dreams for the rest of his life. He felt
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: guilty for making money from his film. He decided to
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: give some of the money to the family of a
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: police office whom Oswald had also murdered that day.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: When Zapruder testified in front of the Warren Commission, he
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: talked about living with the awful images in his mind.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: He said, I have seen it so many times. I
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: have nightmares.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: They come every night.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: I wake up and see the images.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Zupruda became famous for filming a president's murder, but his
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: family remembered him as a loving man who laughed at
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: his own silly jokes. They knew the man behind the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: camera what he filmed was much less important to them.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: The stress of living with what he had seen became unbearable.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: His family said he never used a camera again.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Zupruder died from stomach cancer in nineteen seven, almost seven
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: years after President Kennedy's death.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Did you know about President Kennedy's killing before this script,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: what would you have done if you had been the
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: one who filmed the killing? You can leave a comment
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: on our website at www dot Spotlight English dot com.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and x You can also get Spotlight episodes delivered directly
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to your Android or Apple device through our free official
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Spotlight English app.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: The writer of this episode was Peter Anderson. The producer
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: was Mitya Osaki. The voices you heard were from the
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: for this episode and voiced by Spotlight. No AI or
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: artificial intelligence was used in this episode. This episode is
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: called twenty six Seconds That Changed One Man's Life.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Spotlight Advanced episode. Goodbye.