BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Rio Hayward
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
DKosty123
When you have to document one of the emotional events in the history of the 20th Century, you come here to this one film. United Press International got together with several other sources to cement what has now become the Case Closed legend of the shooting of JFK.The footage here of JFK's last appearances and of the funeral with Jackie and Bobby are really very well put together. Richard Basehart, (Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea on television) is a solid person for narrating this one. There are a lot of facts presented here in a logical fashion which document an event that is finally starting to fade from America's scene this many years later.There is some surprising footage in this account but nothing that would be controversial at all. A lot of footage of the fateful landing at Love Field and the procession to JFK's fate has those of us who remember this day still emotional.More people cried and more people were saddened by this event because of the fact that there we 3 TV Networks who basically for all the days through the funeral broadcast nothing else really dominated television like no other event in history. The live murder of Oswald on TV is here, Osswald's Funeral, even some trace outline of Ruby's Kit Kat Club in Dallas make the cut. Without a doubt, this films proves this is perhaps the most documented event in US History, it even out did Lincoln's shooting which has a huge amount of history documented in the 19th Century. As this event fades into History, and the last sealed records are opened, it is far too late to ever get a better version of this event than this film presents.
kai ringler
very powerful documentary made in 1964, so it was fresh in everyone's mind. movie centers on nov 22-25, 1963. elm st.. the day before the assassination,, the day of,, and the 2 days after,,, chronicles the action of the VP. the process of the swearing in,, what happened to the body,, the brain all of the stat movie focuses on Lee Harvey Oswald and his life. I watched this entirely for the archival footage and not so much to learn anything new,, I did learn a few things,, but not being born when all of this took place it was nice to get a look at all the archival footage that their was,, this movie was a companion piece to the JFK marathon on the history channel for the 50th anniversary of the assassination. didn't really change my mind about things.. just makes you wonder that much more,, to be honest we probably won't ever have a definitive answer one way or the other of who shot Kennedy,, but I know one thing,, he didn't act alone,,,, that duck don't hunt...
Kelly Izaj
The title of this essay above is an apt description for the film FOUR DAYS IN November. For this film was a chronicle of four of the darkest days in American history.And those four days were between November 23-26, 1963 which started on the 23rd at 12:30 PM, Dallas Time when President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dealey Plaza as his motorcade approached the Texas School Book Depository and ended with the burial of President Kennedy on the 26th. And in between those events, we see history rapidly unfolding. First the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit by Lee Harvey Oswald; his eventual capture in a movie theater; and his eventual murder at the hands of Jack Ruby two days later. During that time, we also see the hastily arranged inauguration of President Lyndon B. Johnson aboard Air Force One; the preparations for the funeral of the slain President; and the day of the funeral which ended with President Kennedy's final journey to Arlington Cemetery for burial and the lighting of an Eternal Flame by his widow. All the while, we see the reactions to the events from a stunned America and a stunned world.By using news footage from both local and international sources, director Mel Stuart made a documentary that is still as compelling today as it was back in 1964. Even watching it half a century after the events, one can still feel the immediacy of those turbulent four days and still feel the sense of loss and shock that occurred on that fall day in Dallas. Shocks that still reverberate to this day, even to those who weren't born until after those Four Days in November.
dbonk
Released in November 1964, shortly after The Warren Commission's report, this documentary presents itself as a companion piece to the excellent photographic journal FOUR DAYS compiled by United Press International. It also serves as a prosecuting attorney's template for stating the position of Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone gunman.Beyond this controversial lightening rod, Four Days In November is an effective filmed record of the events surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy. The primary reason for this film's value is the fact that it was released barely one year after the tragedy in Dallas. The nation is still recovering from its shared anguish. The participants interviewed(including Lee Oswald's landlady, Earlene Roberts) convey urgency in their voices and mannerisms of events which are still fresh in their thoughts. There is a raw immediacy in the way this film chronicles the last week of JFK with rare archival footage. With an election looming in 1964, we see a campaign stop in Tampa, Florida as the President is serenaded by accordion with "Hail To The Chief" and presented with a doll for his daughter, Caroline. Back in Washington, the President honors a yearly pre-Thanksgiving tradition and spares the life of a healthy turkey on the White House lawn.Leading up to the Texas trip, Richard Nixon is shown in Dallas as an influential lawyer representing Pepsi-Cola, offering a shrewdly political view as to why JFK is really visiting the Lone Star State. During a stop in Houston, President and Mrs. Kennedy (their last night together) attend an event sponsored by a Mexican-American group called LULACS. Jackie is a hit as she addresses the audience in Spanish. Vice-President Lyndon Johnson is introduced as a "fellow Texan" and provides a few humble words of deference for "our beloved President."What follows is the searing events of November 22-25 replayed in stark black and white. A jarring sidelight to this film includes the appearance of 19yr. old Wesley Frazier retracing his steps that Friday morning, still fresh in his mind. Again, this relates to the advantage of how recent this event was to the actual filming for this movie. Frazier recalls giving Lee Oswald a lift to work in his 1953 Pontiac on their way to the Texas School Book Depository. The viewing audience sits in the passenger seat next to Frazier as he recalls asking "Lee" about his kids, commenting on the weather and that long bundle wrapped up in the back seat.Composer Elmer Bernstein provides a heavily percussive,brass-tinged score which serves to augment the movie's subject matter. Richard Basehart gives an appropriately anchored narrative with just the right amount of gravitas.This film is directed by Mel Stewart who has also lensed THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT documentaries, based on the best-selling Theodore H. White books. Stewart would go on to helm the TV docudrama RUBY and OSWALD. In the context of 1964, Four Days In November is like opening a fresh wound. Forty-five years later, it remains a vivid retelling of a dark, sorrowful chapter in American history.
