Four Days in November (1964) User Reviews

A Vivid Chronicle Of Those Four Dark Days

[dbonk · 8/10 · 19 November 2009]

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.

11/22/63

[nickenchuggets · 9/10 · 28 November 2021]

Because we have recently passed the 58th "anniversary" of JFK's assassination, I felt it was my job to watch this documentary in order to gain a better understanding of what happened that fateful day. For those who were there in Texas, november 22, 1963 was originally a fun and happy day turned into a nightmare, within only a matter of seconds. Four Days In November attempts to show the events leading up to Kennedy's death, the immediate aftermath, and how his sudden demise shocked people all over the world. The film starts with a row of cannons firing off a 50 shot salute, although the entire thing is not shown. It says how there are only two instances where 50 shots are fired: one is on america's birthday, and the other is when a president dies. Although the film was made only a year later in 1964, it has an impressive amount of facts and knowledge relating to the events of 11/22. It says when President Kennedy travels to texas, an employee at a Dallas book depository named Lee Harvey Oswald is busy practicing his daily routine. This is one of my favorite aspects of the movie, because it goes into a great amount of detail regarding Oswald's actions. It says how he was a former marine, and had formidable aiming skills. Skills he will put to the ultimate test soon in the most horrific way possible. Also shown is an italian carcano ww2 rifle with a 4x magnification sniper scope Oswald purchased over a year earlier. His soviet born wife Marina comments about how she remembered seeing it in his garage. On the day of his death, Kennedy's open topped vehicle is scheduled to pass through Dealey Plaza in front of the book depository, from which Oswald will make his shot. Oswald chooses to stay behind while the rest of his coworkers go out to lunch. After taking the elevator to the 6th floor and stacking some boxes near the window to hide his gun's silhouette, he prepares to make his mark on history. Texas Governor Connally, JFK, and his wife Jacqueline are all seated in a tantalizingly exposed vehicle, and Oswald fires. In an instant, Kennedy is fatally hit, and the jovial mood of the day comes to an end. Even though he's rushed to the nearby parkland hospital, by 1 pm flat, John Fitzgerald Kennedy is dead. Meanwhile, Oswald clambers out of his firing position, leaves the book warehouse, and wanders aimlessly around. He eventually shoots a police officer and takes refuge in a theater. Although people around him are not yet aware of the fact he killed the president, they are suspicious of his moves. The theater he's hiding in is surrounded after an employee calls the police, and Oswald is captured and interrogated. More and more evidence mounts and it becomes increasingly obvious that Oswald committed 2 murders, not 1. As he's being questioned by police, a nightclub owner named Jack Ruby watches on television, and is infuriated with Oswald's arrogant and ambivalent attitude. Of course, Ruby would later shoot and kill Oswald as he was being moved to a safer location, thereby ending any possible acquisition of knowledge he might have held. The film also explains how shortly after Kennedy's death, vice president Johnson takes the oath of office and is now officially the new US president. Air Force One flies him, Jacqueline, and JFK's body back to Washington, where a huge funeral procession will later pass. Even immediately after he was killed, Kennedy received a huge amount of tributes, and a great deal of fighter jets flew over his grave site at Arlington Cemetery. Air Force One did as well. Jacqueline would never be the same, and the killing of her husband put her in a position she never wanted to be in. Still, the whole world saw how strong she was to continue living after such a horrible event. While this film doesn't actually have a real storyline aside from history, it is a very important part of history. The people witnessing what happened must have felt the same way people did after the civil war when Lincoln was killed. The new technology of the telegram carried the news around the US in minutes. No president had ever been murdered. There's also a strange amount of coincidences regarding Kennedy and Lincoln even though they never met each other. Both men were shot in the head in front of their wives on a friday, and both of their names have 7 letters. Conspiracy? Maybe, but conspiracy is one of the words you'll probably hear the most when discussing Kennedy's assassination. There are still loads of people today who don't believe Oswald killed Kennedy, even going on to say such ridiculous things as Jacqueline was the one who shot him. I'm not going to get into all that, because the film makes no mention of it. I also thought it was interesting to see how many countries were aghast over what happened to JFK. America's closest allies such as canada, britain, and france were all understandably sad, but even the USSR played nothing but sad music all day in moscow. For one day, there was no cold war. Many world leaders also paid tribute to Kennedy, such as Charles de Gaulle (himself a target of assassination attempts), greece's Queen Federica, and even Nikita Khrushchev. Former presidents Truman and Eisenhower were among the most distraught. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up to view JFK's casket in the Capitol where Lincoln's casket sat almost a century earlier. Overall, this film deals with a sad subject that is made more depressing by the fact that it didn't have to be this way. I often like to theorize about what an america led by JFK throughout most of the 1960s would have been like, but we'll never know. He was the youngest president to be elected, but also the youngest to die. His charismatic nature and outgoing attitude convinced many americans that better times were on their way, but 1 shot put an end to that and brought on the ugly truth. The 60s, while remembered fondly by many people, was a hard and nightmarish decade for the US. The assassination of JFK was just one reason.

UPI Account Of History

[DKosty123 · 7/10 · 17 November 2016]

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.

First and Among the Best

[sbibb1 · 15 July 2004]

This 1964 documentary was released the year following JFK's assassination. The producers worked in cooperation with United Press International (with which they published a companion book) to produce this account of the days leading up to President Kennedy's assassination.

For those that want a well rounded documentary that supports the findings of the Warren Commission (meaning that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin) this is the documentary for you.

In the 40 years since this documentary was released there is footage used in this film that has still not been used in other and more recent documentaries, making this film, in my opinion well worth it.

This film was originally released on VHS in the late 1980s, and was re-released again on VHS in 2000. Not on DVD as of yet, but still worth seeing.

One of my earliest memories

[jtyroler · 10/10 · 20 September 2008]

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.

Four Days in November

[Scarecrow-88 · 10/10 · 12 November 2016]

Powerful document of the four days in November of 1963 that haunt our nation to this day. Telling in how it shows a grief stricken nation mourning a fallen hero that led America out of the brink of war and tried to be a force in civil rights, Richard Basehart's matter of fact narration seemed fitting to take us through the opening highs of that charismatic personality and charming smile that JFK exuded while on tour through Texas (Houston and Ft Worth before Dallas) to the tragic, horrible lows of his assassination and funeral ceremony as family, diplomats, friends, politicians, and the citizens of a country trying to make sense of it all achingly pray and sorrow. Details knitted together from real footage and some recreated occurrences involving Lee Harvey Oswald, from witness accounts, take us into four days that shocked and traumatized a nation and world. The funereal festivities involving JFK as his coffin eventually made its way to Arlington cemetery is heartbreaking...it just shouldn't have happened. It feels like you are reliving it all as Basehart accounts for what he symbolized and left behind. Gone far too soon...and he would not be the last national tragedy in the 60s to be taken before he should have.

assassination

[kairingler · 6/10 · 28 December 2013]

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...

Great movie, very educative...

[belle_gitan · 10/10 · 13 November 2005]

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.

old style documentary

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 9 November 2016]

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 of the Darkest Days in American History

[mrizaj · 10/10 · 21 November 2013]

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.

Oswald Acted Alone

[zensixties · 8/10 · 21 January 2012]

This is a well done documentary that came out in 1964, when the JFK assassination was still fresh in everyone's mind.

In any case the atmosphere of mourning is captured well and it's just like you are actually there in Dallas and DC. The whole world was grieving and LBJ rode the wave to pass unheard of civil rights legislation, but also get us into Vietnam at the behest of JFK's advisors.

We know know the Oswald acted alone and this film is about capturing the moment when the nation and world mourned a great leader at a crucial point in history.

4 days in nov

[mossgrymk · 5/10 · 20 April 2021]

This is a worthy addition to any Kennedy lover's Camelot collection.

a horror film in the truest sense

[blanche-2 · 23 February 2002]

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.

Excellent summary of what happened

[EPMD57 · 8/10 · 14 June 2023]

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.

A lot of Great News Footage Here

[Michael_Elliott · 22 November 2013]

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.

Affecting period piece

[PrometheusTree64 · 29 August 2014]

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.