Customer Reviews

National Geographic: Lost JFK Tapes-Assassination

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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.

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.

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)

This program is done in the "As it Happened" style of documentaries with a smidgen of music and creative editing mixed in. Although I'm a big fan of watching videotape roll out in real time with no embellishments, in this case I felt the music and editing were both well done and unobtrusive.

The main claim of this DVD is that it has footage that has never been seen before. Actually about three quarters of this material has turned up in one form or another over the years, but,and this is a big but, there are two areas where this show does break new ground.

1-Somebody on this show must have waded through hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours of audio tapes from Dallas radio stations and government sources. There's some fascinating stuff here, even including a radio conversation between LBJ and Rose Kennedy recorded as Air Force One was flying back to Washington. Much of the live Dallas radio commentary has been matched up to videotape of the event being described, so even if you've seen the video before it gives one a new perspective on it.

2-There's a wealth of videotape from Parkland Hospital which for some reason hasn't turned up before (or at least I haven't seen it). Apparently, at least one Dallas TV station had a live TV camera at the hospital while JFK's body was still inside. Among other things we get to see a haunting live shot of the hearse pulling out of the hospital and driving away to Love Field.

This is a fascinating look at how the local TV and radio personalities and technical people handled themselves when the were suddenly thrust into the center of the world stage.

This DVD is a collection of news stories during those 4 days of upheaval. It is not a platform for conspiracy buffs, who may have seen most of this already. Watching the emotions of the witnesses, journalists and spectators is compelling. The editing is a little choppy but that is because they are trying to capture the events during those days, which means going back and forth to the venues where people were to meet with or see JFK. This is a condensed version of a project PBS did some time ago when they ran the news footage for four days straight. If you are new to the JFK story, this is a good beginning.

I bought this to see the "New and never before released" material. There are some scenes I've not seen before but not enough of them to make this a purchase item. If you're new to the subject, buy it for the color footage. If you've been reviewing this material for a number of years, I'd pass.

Is there a lot in here that's new? No. But the context is important. Here it isn't historical fact, it's breaking news. We hear how the police originally let the Oswald just walk past them out of the Book Depository because they were told by management he was "supposed to be there." One of the early rumors was that "they" -- the assassins -- were a man/woman duo. Oswald is identified as Lee Harold Oswald often. As he is being transported, you can hear the Dallas police speak proudly about how safe he is, and then boom, Oswald is killed, too, before our very eyes. I was touched, too, by how polite both Jackie and Rose Kennedy were, the very day of the murder. Jackie asks the priest to "please pray for her husband." Rose refers to LBJ as "Mr. President" and thanks him for his condolences. Amazing!

Having studied countless JFK materials, including video, I would prefer this particular presentation include more extensive (if possible) coverage of the president's last two days on earth; snippets of his Fort Worth, Texas speech, outside the Hotel, and after the breakfast gathering, certainly should have been much more complete.

Also, the Dealey Plaza scenes did not include the fact that a police officer, post shooting, ran up the grassy knoll, thinking this particular area warranted investigation. Indeed, other citizens converged on the knoll area, for the same reason as the police officer, making me wonder why that bit of historical informaiton was omitted.

I lived through this horrible time and will never forget that day. I still know exactly what I was doing the minute this happened. It is sad to see this footage. I still do not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the shooter. I believe he was just a patsy and that there was a much larger conspiracy behind this plot to kill our president.

The emphasis with this video is on recreating the events of 22 November 1963 in the order as they happened. A fair amount of the video is full length sequences, not the edited pieces we have become accustomed to seeing. To true historians, it may not be vast amounts of "new" footage, but it is pieces rarely seen by the general public.
This is what appealed to me-that day, we didn't see everything as it happened. We depended on network news breaks on radio, then TV. I remember as a child, TV coverage ended in our region after the 10 or 11 pm news. This was the first time coverage and telecasts were run all night long. The businesses sent workers home early that day, second & third shifts were canceled. Our world stopped turning for 4 days. The voice of Walter Cronkite bringing news in small segments up to and including the funeral procession.
Today, Americans have become much more accustomed to disasterous events and assasinations of public figures, rating only short blips on the constantly running new shows. But for the three generations of Americans living at this time, it was a 'first time' event unlike anything since the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. Watch this and see when America changed.