...or did this magnificent History Channel documentary about the Kennedy assassination actually unfold without showing the assassination once? I need to regroup a bit here, because I was certain that I saw this TV special a year or two ago, so much does it feel like something I've seen before. But it appears for all intents and purposes to be brand-new, told in almost real-time (no narration or God-awful reenactments which are supposed to represent the actual history that we are so often subjected to in storm chaser videos and such). But this special- especially for the first 25 minutes- is absolutely amazing: plain black boarders with a teletype clock click minute-by-minute as the events of November 22, 1963 unfold: Kennedy's breakfast speech in Fort Worth, a quick flight to Love Field in Dallas, and the start of the motorcade into Dealey Plaza. And all the images are true documents: black-and-white and color film- both newsreel and home movies- interspersed with some fantastic quality b&w videotape, a medium still relatively new in 1963.
And then, perhaps the most genius edit of all: the moment the cars turn onto that small expressway past the Texas Book Depository at the strike of 12:30 pm CST, the scene switches *not* to the famous Zapruder film that we all know, but to the start of "As The World Turns," in monochrome videotape, with the first CBS Bulletin (voiced by an off-camera Walter Cronkite) interrupting the soap opera- just as it had 46 years ago.
Not seeing the event actually made this more frightening to watch.
When the action resumes from the bulletin interruption, the cars have already begun their sprint to the hospital, but we already know it will be to no avail. A few minutes later, the docudrama gives the same treatment on the ABC network, as a ladies' fashion show (also in its original black-and-white videotape) is interrupted by ABC/WFAA's "out-of-breath" program director Jay Watson. (Watson's ABC footage, it seems, is given more air time than the CBS Cronkite footage- perhaps because Cronkite's now famous on-camera reaction had been aired many times before.) Incredibly, horribly, it's all over at the strike of 1:00 pm, just a scant 30 minutes after it began, as the death knell tolls all over the country and the world falls into sorrow. Almost without a break, we are then given a minute-by minute blow of the antics of Lee Harvey (Harold?) Oswald- arrested almost immediately and transferred to what looks like the police station's night court. But by the time we can begin to process his back story, he, too, is gunned down by Jack Ruby (nee' Rubenstein)- this even caught on both film AND videotape. The remainder of the docudrama, of course, delves into the never-ending Warren Commission analysis of what really happened to the president, and the ensuing speculation as to whether or not there was more than one assassin- a speculation that continues to this day. For 4 grueling hours we are transplanted into a block of time, the events of which seemed to have happened in a matter of minutes. And, echoing a famous newsreel from the 1960's, we are there.
And then, perhaps the most genius edit of all: the moment the cars turn onto that small expressway past the Texas Book Depository at the strike of 12:30 pm CST, the scene switches *not* to the famous Zapruder film that we all know, but to the start of "As The World Turns," in monochrome videotape, with the first CBS Bulletin (voiced by an off-camera Walter Cronkite) interrupting the soap opera- just as it had 46 years ago.
Not seeing the event actually made this more frightening to watch.
When the action resumes from the bulletin interruption, the cars have already begun their sprint to the hospital, but we already know it will be to no avail. A few minutes later, the docudrama gives the same treatment on the ABC network, as a ladies' fashion show (also in its original black-and-white videotape) is interrupted by ABC/WFAA's "out-of-breath" program director Jay Watson. (Watson's ABC footage, it seems, is given more air time than the CBS Cronkite footage- perhaps because Cronkite's now famous on-camera reaction had been aired many times before.) Incredibly, horribly, it's all over at the strike of 1:00 pm, just a scant 30 minutes after it began, as the death knell tolls all over the country and the world falls into sorrow. Almost without a break, we are then given a minute-by minute blow of the antics of Lee Harvey (Harold?) Oswald- arrested almost immediately and transferred to what looks like the police station's night court. But by the time we can begin to process his back story, he, too, is gunned down by Jack Ruby (nee' Rubenstein)- this even caught on both film AND videotape. The remainder of the docudrama, of course, delves into the never-ending Warren Commission analysis of what really happened to the president, and the ensuing speculation as to whether or not there was more than one assassin- a speculation that continues to this day. For 4 grueling hours we are transplanted into a block of time, the events of which seemed to have happened in a matter of minutes. And, echoing a famous newsreel from the 1960's, we are there.