Four Days in November

Four Days in November (1964)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated documentary taking a look at the four days in November where the country changed forever. I've watch dozens of documentaries on Kennedy and several just this past week on the 50th Anniversary of the president's assassination. I was rather late coming to see this popular film and even though I've seen quite a few there was still countless bits of footage that I had never seen before. I think what really makes this documentary stand apart is that it was made less than a year after the assassination so needless to say there's all sorts of footage that just typically doesn't get shown today. I think some of the most interesting moments deal with the moments right after the assassination when people were just hanging on to see whether or not the president was going to survive his wounds. The aftermath of course is another thing and it's interesting to note that hints of a conspiracy theory on displayed here and a couple of them would later be used in Oliver Stone's JFK. There's no doubt that history buffs will want to check this thing out because there's simply so much news footage that you really get a great idea of what it was like, television wise, when this happened. I will say that the film feels a tad bit long when watched today and it's also a bit too dry and at times lingers on. Still, there's no question that all the news footage makes this one worth checking out.

I've just rented this movie and let me tell you that, if you do are not familiar with JFK's assassination, this is the best to have or rent.

It speaks about the tragedy from the first day President Kennedy and his wife arrive in Texas, till the sad day of his burial.

The movie is very well narrated and it makes you feel almost like if we were there at that moment.

We can see all the speeches that JFK did until the morning of his assassination, showing a man with a great sense of humor. It's too bad that he left so early. He looked like a great person even if it wasn't the same advice for everyone.

I appreciated the chronological telling of the story. This documentary relied a lot on narration rather than interviews, but I still think it made for compelling viewing. Everything was tastefully done and reported with accuracy.

There are two reasons I can't give it above an 8 out of 10:

The coverage of the actual day of the shooting felt rushed. I think the existence of the Zapruder film, which the doc-makers would not have known about back then, has made this part of the doc seem lacking by comparison. I can't faul the filmmakers for that, but it's something that dates the documentary.

The other reason this film wasn't perfect was because too much time was given to the somber aftermath. Yes, it was important to include footage from the procession and the funeral, but devoting 30 minutes was too much.

I was a little over 4 years old when this happened. My mom was watching "The Edge of Night" and got a little angry when a "special bulletin" interrupted her soap opera. Then she started crying after Walter Cronkite made the announcement that the President had been shot.

My aunt and uncle had the book that went with this documentary. 45 years later, I finally see this documentary. In watching it, I felt like I was there. This is something that no book or still photo could do justice to.

I had no idea of the number of people that were lining the streets watching Kennedy's ill-fated motorcade. This documentary gives you a sense of some of the "what ifs": what if it had rained that day, what if motorcade hadn't made a turn and drove straight, what if the "bubble top" had been on the limo?

November 22, 1963 started out as a great day for the Kennedys and everyone at the breakfast in Fort Worth. At about 12:30 that afternoon, it became a tragedy for most of the world.

You can't go by the IMDb vote of 6.3 because, if you check out the age/gender breakdown on the voters, its the women (sorry, ladies) who sink the average on this project -- probably giving it a low rating because "it's sad." The men give it a higher rating, presumably because they know it's supposed to be sad.

At any rate, it's a great period piece, a product of its immediate era.

While it's just a compilation of footage and doesn't address anything controversial (e.g., Oswald is presumed "guilty") it's a poignant time capsule, with its noble-tragic tone -- managing to be touchingly doom-riddled and yet somehow ice cold.

It couldn't be anything else.