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.
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.