11/22/63 (DVD)

The item was as described

I had been aware of the book when it first came out but was not aware it was made into a movie until I saw a few clips on tik tok. It looked very interesting and then I found out what it was. I have been a Stephen King fan for years and partnered with JJ Abrahms, it had to be worth a watch. Done as a miniseries, the movie is in 8 parts. I am not sure what platform it was shown on, but I can't imagine it was shown on network TV. If you are extra sensitive to language, you may not like it, but the movie was very engaging, did a great job of transporting us to the 60s in order to prevent the assassination of JFK via time travel. There is also plenty of, "Oh damn!" moments as you try to figure it out. I highly recommend this movie.

I wrote this review of the ‘11.22.63’ DVD on 11.22.20 – the 57th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Many of the reviews of this TV mini-series provide a comparison between the film and Stephen King’s novel of the same name. I have not read the novel. So, I will focus my review on who should want to purchase this DVD and what I like about it.I enjoyed the movie. As science fiction, it is average but as a crime or political thriller, it is above average. It had a grip on my attention from the first episode to the last.This is a no frills and no technology science fiction. Don’t expect to see a time travel machine of any kind or wormhole in space. Time travel is made possible by a portal. I don’t want to do a spoiler by describing how the leading man (James Franco as school teacher Jake Epping) travels back to 1963 using the portal at a place that is least expected. No CGI special effects.The producers took pains to recreate scenes of life in 1963. A lot of attention was given to the fashion and modes of transport. If you like women’s attire, facial make-up and hairdo of the early Sixties, this movie will be a nostalgic treat. Buy this DVD if you like to see vintage cars of that period – Ford Thunderbird and others. No need to go to Cuba to see old cars.The scenes at the site of the Dallas Book Depository and the road traveled by the President’s motorcade were staged using reference to actual footage of the assassination taken by persons who were at the site on that tragic day.The producers picked actors who looked the part. You will recognize Lee Harvey Oswald the moment he appears on screen. There is a scene at a night club where an overweight man in black suit appears for only a few seconds. I recognized him immediately as Jack Ruby because I had seen the real Ruby many times in TV documentaries on the JFK assassination.Those who believe that there was a conspiracy to kill JFK will probably like this movie but may be disappointed. Movie spoiler – Lee Harvey Oswald is the lone gunman. He shoots the President but Oswald doesn’t get shot by Jack Ruby in turn.A theme in the movie is that a force protects the Past and it will act to stop time travelers who want to change incidents that have already happened. Still, change may happen which is why Oswald doesn’t die at the hands of Jack Ruby. Change brings changes and there may be regrets. The Butterfly Effect is mentioned by one of the two time travelers in the story.Closing trivia - I have long enjoyed time travel tales and have a long-time interest in the assassination of President JFK. I grew up during the brief shining moment of the ‘Camelot’ years. I saw JFK’s funeral in a newsreel at a time when I didn’t even know how to spell the word ‘President’ or the name ‘Kennedy’. It was shown at the cinema before the start of a movie. As I watched the funeral procession, I asked Mom who was sitting beside me – “Who died?” Mom told me that it was a very important man who died without mentioning the name. I didn’t know JFK or that he was the President. Next question to Mom – “Why did he die?” Mom’s reply – “Someone killed him”. My next question – “Why did someone want to kill him?” If Mom had answered my question, I am unable to remember it. I don’t think she had an answer other than she did not know. If Mom knew the answer and that it was common knowledge, there would not have been a Warren Commission. Yes, Oswald pulled the trigger but I am still waiting to know the answer to that question I asked Mom more than five decades ago.

Time travel show that is done well! Believeable. Good acting. Entertaining.

11/22/1963 is a miniseries that aired on Hulu and was an adaptation of Stephen King's novel by the same name. The premise is that an English teacher living in Maine (of course) in 2016 named Jake Epping, played by James Franco, learns from a dying friend, named Al Templeton, played by Chris Cooper, of a portal that will take him back in time. Specifically, the portal can take him back to October 21, 1960, and Templeton tells Jake that he has been trying to prevent the assassination of JFK. He tells Jake that the past does not like to be interfered with and will try to prevent him from doing anything to change the past. The bigger the event you try to interfere with the harder the past pushes back. Jake takes up the mantle and goes back to the past to surveil Lee Harvey Oswald and try to stop the assassination.For those who have read the book, you know that it is very long, and therefore, even in an eight-episode mini-series, it had to be pared down a lot. So, there are definitely changes from the book, some big, some smaller. For example, in the book, the portal takes people back to 1958 and Jake comes back through the portal to 2016 once before going back to 1958 again, and the storyline involving the young Harry Dunning is a lot more extended in the book.For those who get the blu-ray, the series looks and sounds great. The scenes shot in the 1960s have a very distinctive look to them, both by copying the 1960s style, but the colors of the scenes are different from those set in 2016 which gives the scenes set in the past a distinctive feel. The only extra is a 15-minute making-of documentary titled "When the Future Fights Back".Overall, the series is good, but as is usually the case with movie or tv adaptations of novels, is not as good as the book. Franco does a good job playing Epping and the supporting cast was very good. It definitely hit all of the high points from the book and stayed pretty faithful to the book, but I do think that it suffered from skipping some of the fine details that made the book so good. Ultimately, I do think it is worth watching, regardless of whether you want to pay $20 for an eight-episode blu-ray set.

Loved it must watch

Very good show, interesting to watch and exhilarating.

If you read the book, you’ll love this series.If you didn’t read the book, you’ll love this series even more. This is by far one of the greatest pieces of cinematography ever created, and James Franco was the perfect casting for Jake Epping/Amberson.This will pull on your heart strings and intrigue you just as much, with each episode better than the previous one. Great story, great acting, great directing. 5 stars

Gift. They loved it

A great series. Shame it is not on any streaming service.

Having read the book by Stephen King, one of the best books I have read, I just had to see the film. The movie generally follows the book, with a few digressions. I found it entertaing, and being in episodes I was able to watch it over several days. Highly recommend.

... zumal sich der Film weitgehend an den Roman hält. Und Steven King ist nun mal ein Meister der Phantasy. Besonders beeindruckt haben mich die realistisch wirkenden Szenen aus einer "amerikanischen" Kleinstadt um das Jahr 1960 (in Kanada gedreht ?) - allein die Autos waren ja schon zum Verlieben. Außerdem scheint man einige Aufnahmen direkt an der Dealy Plaza in Dallas gedreht zu haben - mit Blick auf das Schulbuchlager. Also entweder war das eine ganz besonders gelungene CGI, oder man hat die Plaza samt der Elm St. für die Filmaufnahmen gesperrt. Durchaus möglich, weil das Gebäude ja inzwischen als National Historic Landmark gilt.Wer den Roman kennt, wird sich über den Spannungsbogen nicht wundern, und die fiktionale Lovestory mit Sady Dunhill durfte natürlich auch im Film nicht fehlen. Sehr schön und und gelungen ist das letzte Treffen zwischen Jake Epping und Sady, der zugleich auch den Schluß - oder besser Abschluß - im Roman bildet.Manche Szenen des Romans wurden zwar von Maine nach Kentucky verlegt, aber das tut dem Film keinen Abbruch. Ein Film ist immer auch ein eigenes Werk, das dem Roman nicht buchstabengetreu folgen muß. So wie z.B. in Stanley Kubricks Verfilmung von The Shining zu sehen. Weshalb der Film trotzdem um einen Stern unter der Höchstwertung liegt, ist der Tatsache geschuldet, daß es andere Filme gibt, die den jeweiligen Roman von Steven King noch besser umsetzen - und subtiler. Hier wäre The Dead Zone zu nennen mit Christopher Walken in der Hauptrolle und - mehr noch - The Green Mile mit Tom Hanks in der Hauptrolle. Irgendwo muß man das jeweilige filmische Werk unter den vielen Verfilmungen von Steven Kings Romanen ja einordnen. Ganz ähnlich wie hier erging es mir bei The Stand - hier haben einige Leute mitgespielt, die wirklich exzellent waren, wie z.B. der Darsteller des Harold Lauder oder der des Tom Cullen. Dennoch schien mir die dortige filmische Umsetzung insgesamt zu kurz, und die Aufnahmen wirkten manchmal kulissenhaft. Letzteres haben wir hier, bei Der Anschlag, nun gottseidank nicht. Auch die Länge der Verfilmung ist hier viel angemessener.Zum Schluß noch ein Wort zur angeblichen Alleintäterschaft Oswalds. Wer daran noch glaubt, ist entweder a) nicht die hellste Kerze auf der Torte oder befindet sich b) im Bann der - sagen wir: Netzwerke, die absolut kein Interesse an der Aufklärung der Tat haben und nach wie vor alles versuchen, diese Aufklärung zu verhindern; sei es durch weitere Zurückhaltung von Akten oder Schwärzung von Texten in schon freigegebenen Akten; sei es durch den 1967 von der CIA aufgebrachten Begriff Conspiracy Theory (Verschwörungstheorie), womit alle Kritiker an der offiziellen Darstellung der Tat diskriminiert und ins Lächerliche gezogen werden sollen. Hierfür hat der Film - und hätte auch der Roman - keinen Abzug in der Bewertung bekommen, denn: Es handelt sich um einen Roman. Einen Phantasy-Roman.Und stellt nicht gerade der Umstand, daß Oswald in einer Phantasiegeschichte als Alleintäter auftritt, diese Alleintäterschaft an sich schon in Frage ?

Arrived on time, in good condition. Good mini series. The book is better of course.