Product Details

• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Nat'l Geographic Vid
• DVD Release Date: March 9, 2010
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0032LV4MM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,419 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

To mark the anniversary of JFK's assassination on November 22,1963, hundreds of hours of news footage, radio reports, audio recordings and home movies have been released that captured history as it was chaotically unfolding. This unique eyewitness material was first stored by local news stations in Dallas/Fort Worth and then in the vault of The 6th Floor Museum—which is dedicated to helping others understand the day Kennedy was killed.

Now, National Geographic reveals this rarely seen archival footage that has been digitally captured and assembled into a detailed timeline. Included is footage capturing the real-time horror of parade-goers who witnessed the killing, the out-of-breath local anchors reporting the breaking news bulletin, the priest who describes administering the president's last rites and the ongoing, on-air speculation over who fired the fatal shots.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost JFK Tapes - excellent, March 19, 2010

By 

HistoryTeacher (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: National Geographic: Lost JFK Tapes-Assassination (DVD)

As someone who lived through the event, and has been collecting the news coverage of those four days in November 1963 ever since, I almost decided not to purchase yet another video. I thought I had seen everything that was possibly available, but I am so glad I changed my mind. There are news clips (some have partially been available for years) but seen in thier fuller context, they become extraordinarily moving. The clips are simply fascinating to see in a more in-depth viewing, especially inside and outside of Parkland as well as the Trade Mart. The horror is in plain view, and it is a fabulous collection of American broadcast history. My only (minor) issue with this film and others who insist on using it is the picture of the yellow roses laying in the back on the limo after the president has supposedly been removed from the back seat. That cannot be the President's limo -- Mrs. Kennedy was given red roses that day (not yellow ones#, and obviously the seat would have been covered in blood and not publicly shown. I believe that is the limo that the Johnsons were riding in, as earlier clips show Lady Bird holding yellow roses at Love Field.

The film also reveals an America of mid-20th century, which has a look of innocence and almost bewilderment. Massively incorrect information... smoking cigarettes on air...much opinion instead of facts... just fascinating and just as I remember it). There is an immaturity to the broadcasts that are especially touching in view of the state of the industry today. The clips are essentially Dallas news personnel, with some national network break-ins. It therefore has a very immediate and local reaction. It all seeems another world, another time. It was really not terribly long ago, yet so much happened in the decades that followed this cataclysmic event, that there is a multi-layered sadness to it. For anyone interested in either JFK, the early 60's, or the assassination itself, this DVD is mandatory viewing. Would love to see more as old films are released from files.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible weekend in broadcasting history, February 2, 2010

By 

David A. Medzorian (Arlington, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: National Geographic: Lost JFK Tapes-Assassination (DVD)

As a former broadcaster and broadcast historian, I was very impressed with "The Lost JFK Tapes" and the effort that went into weaving together all of the vintage videotape, film, and radio reports to paint such a vivid picture of that weekend. Some of the footage I have seen before, such as in the recent "JFK: 3 Shots that Changed America". This program however, centered more on what was happening in Dallas and included scenes I have never seen before. One of them was the videotaped sequence of JFK's body leaving Parkland Hospital. Most of the television footage comes from WFAA, KRLD, and KTVT-TV collections, because they are currently owned by the Sixth Floor Museum at Deally Plaza, which co-produced the program. Absent was material from WBAP-TV and Radio in Fort Worth because they still have their footage and tape in their own archives. In addition, the Love Field arrival was also described for radio by Joseph Long of KLIF as part of a local radio pool that day. Apparently, the producers didn't have access to that recording either. The one thing I didn't like about the show was the audio description of the Oswald shooting. Who was that reporter who kept saying "Harvey Lee Oswald" and who displayed no emotion at all after the shot was fired? Aside from that, I highly applause "The Lost JFK Tapes" and look forward to its release.

86 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars COMPELLING -- WATCH A NIGHTMARE UNFOLD, March 4, 2010

By 

Robin Simmons (Palm Springs area, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: National Geographic: Lost JFK Tapes-Assassination (DVD)

I was in Dallas the day President John Kennedy was murdered. School was dismissed early. That evening I went to the site of Kennedy's death.

Having grown up in the Dallas area, I was very familiar with Dealey Plaza on the edge of downtown Dallas.

But I was not prepared for what I found. As the shades of night fell, I recall seeing what appeared to be a blood-red full-moon suddenly hovering over the horizon aligned with and in perfect view of the killing zone. On both sides of Elm street there were and still are grassy embankments. On the south-westerly side is the famous Grassy Knoll. But on this ominous and strange night, both embankments were covered with a solid layer - layers, no doubt - of flowers and hand-scribbled notes. They wafted and fluttered in the slight breeze that moved across the city of death. As if in slow-motion, people wandered, meandered and stood among the carpet of color. There was no sound but for the weeping of the mourners. Strangers to each other but bound now by the sadness and shock of mortality, history and mystery.

I'll never forget it. It's a moment that has yet to be properly defined. Was it a coup d'état as many still insist? I heard disturbing stories and theories by those who were there and from those who were in some way connected to the events and persons of that fateful day in Dallas.

There's not enough room on these pages to detail the amazing tales I heard first-hand, but to this day, I tend to think the simplest of all explanations is that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the lone killer - if he even pulled a trigger that sunny afternoon.

National Geographic has culled and edited from archival footage of local Dallas area TV and radio stations in a linear recreation of the timeline of the media and police report of the events from Kennedy's arrival in Dallas to the aftermath of his body leaving Parkland hospital. A friend of mine was working at Parkland hospital emergency room that day and he told me he still sees Jackie Kennedy's freckles floating as if on translucent skin. "I've never seen anyone as pale since. It was ghostly," he said.

Also on that fateful day, Aldous Huxley (BRAVE NEW WORLD) died. So did C.S. Lewis. And in England, the Beatles released TILL THERE WAS YOU. Coincidences embedded with meaning?

If this moment in history still interests you, check out this remarkable, revelatory documentary that focuses on a few noonday hours of November 22, 1963 and watch a nightmare unfold. (Not rated, widescreen, 90 minutes)