Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76671 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-05-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Content/Copy-Protected CD, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 385 minutes

Customer Reviews

Very good Mini Series
JFK was an enigma of the 20th Century. This series showcases his life from his entrance into the White House, through to his assasination in Dallas on 22nd November 1963. It's goood to see his infedelity was not glossed over. Martin Sheen and Blair Brown are spot on perfect as Jack and Jackie, interdispersed with perfect renactments of archival footage. He had a lot happen in less than 4 years as president, The Bay of Pigs, The civil rights movement, the birth and death of his two sons. Martin Sheen of course went on to portray another president in the West Wing. The name Kennedy will always be senonomous with tradgedy. If you are facinated by the Kennedy's and that era in America, this series is a must. It's frank, and as factual and real as it can be. A great forerunner to Oliver Stone's JFK

A good Mini-Series

One of the best mini-series' ever presented on T.V. I compare this movie to Roots, as far as casting and direction. Martin Sheen and John Shea are great as the two major characters, and Bonnie Blair plays Jackie Kennedy as I imagined her, nice but stuffy. I thought Vincent Gardenia's potrayal of J. Edgar Hoover, however was a little overboard. I realize he was stern, but I actually believe he was a weak person, who groveled on his knees to President Nixon, to keep his job! The other members of the supporting cast were great, E.G. Marshall, Geraldine Fitzgerald, etc. A first class production!

An Aged Masterpiece
I was 10 when this TV mini series screened way back in 1983, the twentieth anniversry of JFK's death. The fact that my parents allowed me to watch this was to give me an understanding of a person I grew to admire, and still do to this day...Despite all of his flaws.

This mini series was cutting edge when it was created and looking back now, was probibly the first attempt to dramatise the little over 1000 days of office JFK had.

Martin Sheen, although at the time believed to have been mis-cast for the role, pulls it off well and probibly launched his career proper, and enspired his sons to do the same. No sign of President Bartlett here though.

Geraldine Fitzgerald plays a fine Jackie, wearing the infamous pink suit and pill pox hat for any actor these days is always tinged with ominous dread and sadness.

John Shea plays the all important Bobby role and with Vincent Gardenia as J Edgar Hoover, it great to see these two men playing off each other.

Because of the fact that it was only twenty years since JFKs death and the fact that sensitivity was still needed towards Jackie and the reamaining Kennedy's, many of JFKs shortcommings were "papered" over and his private peccadillos were only touched on, with Gardenia's Hoover playing off them. Hoover is slightly mis-represented here as an aging surly dictator director of his FBI, hiding his own insecurities and sexualy. His obsession with the Kennedy clan was well known by 1983, however I feel that it was played on too much.

World events of the time are given due credit, including Vietnam and Cuba, but also the Civil Rights movement that inflammed its self during JFKs short reign.

Special Features of the DVD set include four short documentries and the last one called "The Last Two Days" shows the moments leading up to and including the assasination, as well as the infamous radio report.

Extended scenes DOES make for a longer miniseries, some of it not needed. But considering it's now the 21st century and some of the goals set by JFK himself still unachieved, this DVD set makes for a nostelgia trip back to 1983. A miniseries made in it's time, a time still with unreleased information, without morphing actors into live scenes and a good attempt to get a handle on a president that meant so much to so many for such a short time.