Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours Later (2009)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Another good documentary in the never ending lines of looks at the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This one here takes a look at the first twenty-four hours after the assassination and points the spotlight on Lyndon Johnson who was forced to take off as the country was, as it seemed then, falling apart. This is an extremely well-made documentary that has plenty of talking heads on board but they also offer up some voice re-creations of people who were in Dallas and around Kennedy and Johnson as all of this was going on. The documentary does ask a lot of questions like why was it that Johnson didn't know what was going on with Kennedy even though he was staying only a few feet from where the dead President's body was. The documentary really focuses in on Johnson and how no one was telling him anything even though he was technically the President. The second half of the film deals with a lot of the heated debate that would come up between Johnson and Robert Kennedy who felt that the new President was moving too fast to get into office. This is a good companion piece to JFK: 3 SHOTS THAT CHANGED America because this lets us see this history from the man who was right there getting something he really wanted but under very bad circumstances. I loved the way the documentary tried to show what a bad situation he was in because he was so scared of the Kennedy name and family, fearing that they might try to destroy him, which many would feel that they'd later do. I do take a few issues with how bad they make Johnson look but at the same time I think the film is just as hard on Robert Kennedy who really comes off in a bad light. Mrs. Kennedy is shown in the grace that she always is and the stories of what happened on board Air Force One between her and the new President were quite harrowing.