November 19 - Kennedy

This movie has a scene that happens today - November 18. I hope you enjoy this film and watch it tonight. 

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 give 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 test the new anti-discrimination law gets 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 his 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. However 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. Note that JFK’s moral hypocrisy in committing adultery was what made him vulnerable to Hoover’s machinations. If he hadn’t cheated on his wife, he could have dumped Hoover without recriminations.

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

Released - November 20, 1983

Starring –

Martin Sheen as John F. Kennedy                     

Blair Brown as Jacqueline Kennedy                     

Geraldine Fitzgerald as Rose Kennedy 

Kelsey Grammer as Stephen Smith             

Tom Brennan as Adlai Stevenson                    

Donald Neal as Ralph Yarborough                 

James Burge as Peter Lawford             

Joe Lowry as Dave Powers                                                               

Frances Conroy as Jean Kennedy Smith

Kent Broadhurst as Richard Paul Pavlick      

David Leary as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.          

Harry Madsen as Clint Hill                              

Carmen Matthews as Mamie Eisenhower      

Janet Sheen as Elaine de Kooning                 

George Guidall as Nicholas Katzenbach       

J.R. Dusenberry as John Connally                 

Laurie Kennedy as Patricia Kennedy Lawford

Don MacLaughlin as Chief Justice Earl Warren

Jessica Ann Durr as Caroline Kennedy (ages 5–6)

Hannah Fallon as Caroline Kennedy (ages 3–4)

John Shea as Robert F. Kennedy

Vincent Gardenia as J. Edgar Hoover

Charles Brown as Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kevin Conroy as Edward M. Kennedy

E.G. Marshall as Joseph P. Kennedy

Nesbitt Blaisdell as Lyndon B. Johnson

Ellen Parker as Ethel Kennedy

John Glover as Bill

Peter Boyden as Pierre Salinger

Joanna Camp as Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Al Conti as Sargent Shriver

Peggy Hewitt as Letitia Baldrige

Larry Keith as Stanley Levison

Tanny McDonald as Lady Bird Johnson

David Schramm as Robert McNamara

Trey Wilson as Kenneth O'Donnell

Barton Heyman as Curtis LeMay

Margo Tully as Nellie Connally