Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

From my favorite movies..

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I love this series. Greg Kinnear was my favorite, but every actor was perfection. Barry Pepper was feisty and wonderful, and I loved Katie Holmes as Jackie. It was a joy to watch. A great production it is.

I read most of the reviews posted here and it seems everyone has made some pretty good points across the board. There is SOOOOOOOOOOOO much to mine as far as story possibilities it is actually staggering. First off, the acting…(1.) I usually just ignore Greg Kinnear… But…I think he did a pretty good job. He did look like JFK, more than I thought was possible if I had to cast someone to play Jack. But…he can't hold a candle to Bruce Greenwood's performance in THIRTEEN DAYS. I remember seeing the Martin Sheen mini-series in 1983 and loved it, but alas, I haven't seen it since then. Sheen is such a fine actor that I'll take it on blind faith he nailed it better than Greg. A lot of JFK's magnetic personality was lacking in the performance, most especially the dry humour. But some of that blame should be heaped onto the writers for not infusing the script with more depth. (2.) Katie Holmes…. I think she has charm and talent. Did she nail Jackie, no…. was it a terrible portrayal, no. She did her job, no better no worse than any other capable actress could have done. (3.) Barry Pepper…I think he is a fine actor and did bring out certain traits of RFK that seemed to ring true. But..again I feel, like some others have already stated, Steven Culp nailed Bobby's personality for me, anyone else is just a copy of a copy. (4.) Enrico Colantoni's portrayal of Hoover left me cold. Far too animated at times. (5.) I like Tom Wilkinson and thought he gave a good performance as the cold and calculated Kennedy elder. Could it have been more sublime…sure. Could there have been a bit more lightness to counter the harsh "Kennedy-touch-football-win-at-any- cost" attitude…of course. Again this is the writers fault for not including these moments for the actor to use. Overall I think the series is a Clift Notes (or Coles Notes if you're Canadian like me) version of the Kennedy era. So much was left out and so much was incorrect. I could go on and on like some others but I won't rehash other reviews. If you know NOTHING about the Kennedy era then it will satisfy, if you do… then there are lots of things that will grate on one's nerves. SIMPLE fixes that did not hinge on spending extra money…just on a BETTER SCRIPT! The production value is pretty good but there is a "TV" quality about it. But that comes down to budget, you can only do so much with a finite amount of money especially when dealing with a by-gone period of history. It simply costs money to change our 21st century landscape to other past eras. So I will let that go and say they did a pretty good job (even though I have no idea of the allotted budget, it is not reported on this site). Having said all that…it is also up to the director and cinematographer to take what they have and make it better with staging and lighting and camera- work and…and… and…… ! The biggest problem are 1. the writing and 2. The directing. Lets deal with the writing…like others have stated, so many things were factually wrong with the entire series. Granted, it is impossible to include everything into an 8 hour time frame when you are dealing with such a big chunk of time and with as many important figures within this story…BUT at least when you cherry pick what you ARE going to use at least get it factually correct. The writers had the benefit of 50 years of other people's tireless investigative work on this subject (literally thousands of books and films out there) and yet it seems they made so many 101 factual mistakes with their script. This topic (the Kennedy's) should have dedicated much more that 8 hours to tell this epic story. I also agree with the few who pointed out the random ping-ponging back and forth in time within a single episode. Over all, just sloppy writing. Both writers come from TV and it shows. The director of 24, Jon Cassar, obviously used them since they worked on that show. A smart producer should have stepped in (at least one of the 14 listed) and kept them as junior writers, paid some extra money, gotten some heavy weight writers in to do the final drafts and made the entire series stronger. Oh… by- the-by; someone should have OK'd the hiring of a history consultant! But I'm sure that money was better spent on all the producers bonus's and perks or whatever. Now on to the biggest problem, the directing. This looks like a TV mini-series. Mr. Cassar could never be accused of being cutting edge or having a cinematic eye. Most of 24's unique look came from the editing. If this production had been shot in the 1980's it would be stellar, but in 2011….it looks okay at best. The entire series is simply a homogenized version of some truly monumental events in that era that demanded more attention to detail and more time to tell the story properly. The saddest part is that when a production company drops the ball on an important subject like this, that it usually takes a dozen years to pass until someone will justify spending money to produce a new version to get it right. At least there are other films and mini- series like THIRTEEN DAYS, JFK, PARKLAND, KENNEDY (1983), etc. to show a more accurate view of whatever slice of the pie they chose to present. As of this writing the same production company is producing a follow up series and I'm sure it will serve up the same old same old. Unlike the first time, I will not be buying that DVD set sight unseen. So to sum it up, this mini series is basically the BEST OF the Kennedy's with a bunch of the hits missing.

The controversial 2011 miniseries "The Kennedys" was turned down by History Channel because it wasn't 100% accurate, as if anything that purports to tell a true story on film is 100% accurate. The truth is that the channel was pressured by its board members, many of whom were friends of the Kennedys, to turn it down. The History Channel in England managed to stoop to broadcast it, so something tells me, as my grandmother used to say, there was "dirty work at the crossroads." Speaking of which, this miniseries attempts to give us a realistic look at the Kennedy family, and it isn't too pretty. If this were about my family I'd try to keep someone from broadcasting it as well. And they didn't even give us the worst parts.The beginning story centers around Joe Kennedy, a man who built his fortune with insider trading and had political aspirations which were dashed when he was pulled from his Ambassador job in England. He then focused on making his son, Joe Jr., the star politician, but when Joe was killed in the service, his hopes turned to Jack. According to this, he didn't think too much of Bobby. Yet in the series, Bobby actually emerges as a hero.The focus is on these Kennedy men without much about the rest of the family, which was a criticism. But in order to do that, the miniseries would have had to be a maxiseries. It does touch on Rosemary, the mentally/emotionally challenged child who was institutionalized, and whom Joe arranged to have a lobotomy. The miniseries doesn't mention the last part.There is no mention of Kathleen, nor would there have been, since her family cut her off when she became involved with a married man. When she died in a plane crash at the age of 28, her mother Rose, who did not attend her funeral, said that it was God's punishment for her being involved with a married man. In 1963, President Kennedy saw his sister's grave for the first time.As far as Jack and Jackie, Jackie emerges as a woman very much in love with her husband, a man who made her unhappy most of the time with his infidelity. This was just something you were supposed to put up with, I guess. I believe there was a lot of love between both of them; and I believe that toward the end of his life, JFK became more and more impressed with her as a woman and realized how important she was to him. It's said that when he died, clippings about her were found in the top drawer of his desk.Bobby Kennedy comes off as extremely aggressive, loyal, hardworking, a loving husband, and a family man. He was one who, in a way, had greatness thrust upon him and came to a tragic end as a result. Not mentioned is how much Ethel came to resent Jackie because after JFK died, she was calling Bobby for every little thing. One does see her doing this in the miniseries, though.JFK's portrait is that of a thoughtful man who listened carefully to advice and didn't cave into the military, who wanted him to blow Cuba to kingdom come. The focus here is on the pain he endured from Addison's disease and various infidelities. We do not see a lot of his tremendous charm, his humor, and his great charisma.The acting is uniformly excellent. I had some problems with Barry Pepper's accent, which I felt in the beginning wasn't organic but really put on. Greg Kinnear was amazing -- as usual, his performances are surprising and he's underrated as a result. If he doesn't sparkle enough as JFK, it's probably because it wasn't in the script.The most brilliant performance is that of Tom Wilkinson as Joe, a powerful, controlling, ruthless man who let nothing stand in his way to get what he wanted. Wilkinson's real-life wife, Diana Hardcastle, is a marvelous Rose Kennedy.Katie Holmes does a good job as Jackie, though she resembles Mary Tyler Moore a little more than the First Lady. She is nevertheless lovely and a sympathetic character. We're not really able to see her courage, but we can see what she went through in the White House. We also see that she was an amazing woman, classy and sophisticated, and a wonderful mother without it being beat over our heads. The assassination was well-handled with real documentary footage and no emphasis on gore.Some of this film is verbatim from real events - Kennedy's speech in Dallas at the Chamber of Commerce, his televised report to America about the Cuban missile crisis, Bobby's speech in Los Angeles, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the White house meetings were verbatim as well, since those transcripts exist and were used in "Thirteen Days." All in all, I thought this was very good; I read an expert's list of inaccuracies, and it was fairly short, having to do with whether or not Bobby and Jack discussed their sex lives with one another; whether Joe was pro-Hitler; and whether Joe kissed his secretary in front of Rose. The expert had that incorrect. In the film, Joe is kissing his secretary when Rose enters the room. It wasn't deliberate. Also the expert didn't know if Joe actually did have an affair with his secretary. Not that it would surprise me if he did. I do believe he had a great deal of respect for his wife, however, and would not have done anything to embarrass her.I highly recommend this series. If the miniseries comes off like a soap opera, let's face it, the lives of the Kennedys were just that. Unfortunately their lives were all too real, and most of them paid a high price for their fame and ambition.

I was 6, living in Dallas, when this occurred. I just remember my Mom on the phone saying "oh no, oh no". And she hadn't even voted for Kennedy.I just know that whenever anybody visited Dallas after that, they ALL wanted to go to the school book depository, as well as the famous grassy knoll. Sometimes, they even wanted to go on to Parkland. Sigh.One of our neighbors from church was also a Dallas policeman, and he was in charge of 'guarding' Mrs. Kennedy and then V.P. Johnson. He had a lot of quiet stories to tell.I thought this 'film' handled Oswald well, as the loner that he was. I'm just glad that he was taken out of the picture early on.Katie Holmes was great as the poor Mrs. Kennedy. Maybe without the 'finishing school' touch, but she was spot-on, as were the other actors, although I didn't think Rose Kennedy was well represented. Nor do I think the actor portraying Lyndon Johnson was a good choice. But maybe that's because I later went to school in Austin.Again, not a nice memory for this city, for sure. But this 'film' handled Mrs. Kennedy's miscarriage well and showed it as the real turning point in their lives. So many movies have been made about this event. Speaking as a Dallas native, although a very young native, it left its mark on the city.