JFK: One Day in America

This documentary is fascinating! All the movies, books, and documentaries about this tragic day, and this one still managed to tell me things I didn't know!

I think what makes this documentary different is that it is told completely by people who were actually there, from investigators to secret service, to the guy who helped them catch Oswald, to the a freaking coworker of Oswald's whose story alone is worth watching this documentary to see. I'd never heard his story before, but it sure is amazing.

There are even accounts of people who closely surrounded Jackie, who tell little details I don't remember hearing before.

With the wealth of info already presented about the assassination, this documentary still had some new information and insights to show! Definitely worth the watch!!

I was impressed with how this documentary was put together. The interviews with secret service men, journalists and actual hours of footage gave an in depth look at the events of the day that changed America and the political landscape. I appreciate that the feature did not try to push Lee Harvey Oswald as the only shooter as this version is simply not true. Facts and commonsense show he was not a lone gunman who acted alone. But putting that aside, this feature moves away from this and shows the footage, events and reactions of the event. It lives up to its title and description which is to capture the day and events unfolded. I feel we should not get too hung up or fixated on the conspiracy because it was covered up and they want to keep it that way because they got away it. I am skeptical a little with how Jack Ruby was portrayed as someone who loved the Kennedy's and conveniently was able to access the police station which held Oswald. But again it could have been sloppy police work, the day was full of sloppy protection and police work. Too many questions that did not get answered. Overall a well put together feature that captured the shocking events of the day.

The best part of this series is the interviews with actual participants and witnesses of that fateful day in Dallas, though by this time, so distant from those events, most seem somewhat dispassionate, and their stories, retold probably hundreds of times, sometimes take on the suggestion of a melodramatic script. Completely understandable, of course. How many docs have they been in? The constant, slow, morbid funeral home dirge in the background is laughably heavy handed.

You'd think there's nothing left to say about this subject; no new information to offer, and no new footage to be seen. But what this series has done is reprehensible. They've taken lots of the now-exhausted familiar footage of that day and falsified it with colorization. Yes, even videotape material has been infected with this falsification that has been used to attack any number of black and white films and still photographs that can be seen on the internet and other cable TV offerings.

So if every frame of a scene has been tampered with, how much trust is deserved? They also did an extremely cowardly act; the pivot point of the whole real-life incident; the Zapruder film is shown, everybody's seen it a thousand times, so we know what the fatal shot looks like. BUT HERE, IT'S BEEN REMOVED. I guess with CGI or something, so it runs smooth, but terrible or not, it's vital to show it. The audience is being protected. It's being infantalized. There are many, better documentaries on this event all ready made.

For such a well-documented, critically examined moment in history, it is remarkable that anything new can be uncovered about 11/22/63. But that is exactly what director Ella Wright accomplishes in "JFK: One Day in America" on the 60th anniversary of those tragic events.

What is remarkable about this National Geographic series is that it combines a straightforward documentary approach with little nuggets of eyewitness stories (tougher and tougher to find as the years roll by).

On one hand, the three episodes here are a fairly chronological retelling (albeit one of the highest production value) of the entire ordeal, such as President Kennedy's arrival in Texas, the assassination itself, Lee Harvey Oswald's involvement (and own subsequent fate), and Jackie Kennedy's journey through it all up to the funeral in Washington DC.

On the other hand, the hallmark of "One Day in America" might be the personal remembrances of those directly involved. For example, a worker at the Texas School Book Depository who actually carpooled with Oswald to work that fateful morning is heard from. On another occasion, the Secret Service agent in charge of Mrs. Kennedy recounts lifting the lid of JFK's casket for the First Lady to take one last look at her slain husband.

This is also one of the most most rawly emotional nonfiction series you'll ever find. Though not one ounce manipulative, it expertly portrays the personal grief of those directly involved and the mourning of the nation as a whole over the seemingly unthinkable loss of a young, full-of-promise leader.

This was one of the easiest 10/10 ratings I've ever given a documentary series. There is not a person alive I wouldn't recommend it to.

This is just your usual run of the mill JFK documentary. Though it has people who are still alive and were either part of the Government at that time, involved in the City of Dallas, or had a connection with Oswald. National Geographic has added color to some of the archival footage, which didn't needed to be done but whatever.

There's not much that is really uncovered here that is new, there is plenty of information left out. Really nothing in it is new. We all know that this year marked the release of the Additional Documents Release starting in April-Aug, which is all available on line through the National Archives website.

It is worth giving it a watch, but don't expect to learn any new information or details. This is still one well kept secret.