Four Days In November (1964)

A different way of telling a story

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Archival footage is used to recount the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It follows Kennedy before arriving in Dallas as well as following Lee Harvey Oswald's footsteps. There is a small section for the actual shooting in the middle and then the aftermath dominates the second half. It's a very traditional documentary. There is a wall-to-wall old guy narration. It's timely released a year after the assassination. It got nominated for the Oscar. Its traditional newsreel style never really breaks and it follows the story mostly chronologically. The most compelling is probably hearing from Oswald himself and the foreboding description of his life. Basically, it's the standard documentary to encapsulate the event.

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.

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.

This black and white documentary, so simple in its chronicling of President Kennedy's fateful trip to Dallas with his wife and the Johnsons, is absolutely devastating. The President is charming and funny and the trip is filled with local color such as residents singing Mexican music to the group - yet all the time, you know how it ends and you want to scream.This film is a no-miss and if you get a chance to see it on History Channel, better yet, as they interview the director during the breaks.