Tuesday, November 18, 2014

November 18 - Kennedy

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on November 18. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

KENNEDY                  

On the day President Kennedy was assassinated, the news spreads to his brother, daughter, mother and cabinet members.  The film then flashes back to the day Kennedy was elected President in a very close election. J. Edgar Hoover reviews a history of sexual depravity by the Kennedys.  The family has to overcome Bobby’s opposition to taking a post in the administration. On November 18, 1960 [Ep. 2, 17:23 to 23:15] Alan Dulles gives JFK his first briefing about the Bay of Pigs operation.  JFK, Jr. is born. Richard Pavlick tries to kill Kennedy. Kennedy gives a memorable inaugural address. Jackie starts work on redecorating the White House, while doubts begin to emerge about the CIA’s proposed operation in Cuba. The invasion fails. JFK had promised no direct US military involvement and refused to agree to it after the invaders ran into trouble. J. Edgar Hoover continues to investigate JFK’s sexual escapades. When Freedom riders testing the new anti-discrimination law get beaten up there is outrage in some quarters. While dealing with this, JFK has to also deal with what he perceives as Jackie’s overspending. RFK tries to prevent violence while J. Edgar Hoover works against them.  Even though he has questions about the forecasts of an easy victory in Vietnam, JFK decides to send military advisors and Green Berets to the country. When RFK tries to get J. Edgar Hoover to fight organized crime, he says the FBI is too busy investigating ‘alleged’ civil rights violations in the South and that he knows things about the Kennedys. JFK and Jackie make a successful trip to Paris, Vienna and London. RFK tries to tell JFK that Hoover knows about his affairs and is ready to use it against them, but JFK won’t listen. His father has a stroke.  Next Kennedy has to deal with double dealing steel executives. Then JFK guides the country through the Cuban missile crisis. He uses a quarantine to force Soviet missiles out of Cuba, while keeping American hawks from starting the third world war. J. Edgar Hoover tells JFK if h ends it with his mistress, he won’t do anything. On a trip to Berlin JFK says “Ich bin ein Berliner” and Martin Luther King, Jr gives his “I have a dream speech”. Then JFK’s son Patrick is born, but dies within two days. Three months later JFK takes a trip to Dallas, Texas.  He is shot and killed.

A slick and glossy biopic. It does at least stick closely to the actual facts. Good performances by all the actors, especially Vincent Gardenia as the paranoid megalomaniac J. Edgar Hoover.  

The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro and America’s Doomed Invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs by Jim Rasenberger (Scribner, New York, 2011) at page 99 give briefing date

Producer – Andrew Brown               

Director - Jim Goddard                                    

Screenplay – Reg Gadney
Runtime – 4 hours 42 minutes                                                            

Starring –

Martin Sheen as John F. Kennedy
Blair Brown as Jacqueline Kennedy
Vincent Gardenia as J. Edgar Hoover
John Shea as Robert F. Kennedy
E.G. Marshall as Joseph P. Kennedy
Geraldine Fitzgerald as Rose Kennedy
Kelsey Grammer as Stephen Smith
Kevin Conroy as Edward M. Kennedy


Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014 



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