Cheap Seven Days in May (DVD) (Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas) (John Frankenheimer) Price

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Customer Reviews of Seven Days in May

For the MTV generation, this would probably be very boring as it relies on insightful realistic dialog and some powerful non-jerking camera-work to tell a great story.

Burt Lancaster is Kirk Douglas' superior officer in the same military outfit, and Douglas suspects Lancaster is up to something secret and no good. The relationship and animosity between them is powerful and convincing as the story unfolds and the secret slowly comes out. Frederick March plays a convincing president, who, at first cautiously suspicious, grows more determined as the movie reaches its climax. The three or four supporting roles are handled superbly as well.

I guess it would fit into the category of "political thriller", and goes well with the other 3 major cold-war era movies - "Dr. Strangelove" (satire), "Fail Safe" (drama), and "The Manchurian Candidate" (drama, also directed by John Frankenheimer).

The DVD includes an entertaining commentary by the director, John Frankenheimer.

All around a well-done movie. I have over 200 DVD's and this goes in my top 20 for sure.

Crisp and Compelling Drama
For whatever reasons, I am intrigued by films and television programs which offer recreations of Presidential activities which are presumably authentic. The West Wing, for example, as well as The American President and this film. Produced by Kirk Douglas and directed by John Frankenheimer, Seven Days in May is based on a hypothetical and perhaps plausible idea: During the Cold War, a cabal of senior-level officers in the United States military services led by General Robert Mattoon Scott (Lancaster) secretly plan a coup by which to remove President Jordan Lyman (March) who is perceived to be "soft" on Communism, indeed naive as he stubbornly pursues policies which (the officers fear) would render their beloved nation impotent to foreign domination. Kept highly secret for obvious reasons, the coup preparations have been underway for quite some time as the film begins. Douglas plays Colonel Martin ("Jiggs") Casey, a Marine officer who reports directly to General Scott. Casey views Scott (as do countless others) as a great American patriot. As portrayed by Lancaster, he is indeed impressive. At times intimidating. Scott's brilliant mind is wholly free of any second thoughts, either about himself or about the course on which he proceeds. Of course, he and his coup associates are committing treason.

Inadvertently, Casey learns about the coup and at first refuses to believe it. Loyal to Scott and methodical by nature, he begins to gather the salient facts like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle (no pun intended), dreading the image which begins to emerge. At this point, it would be a disservice to those who have not as yet seen the film to reveal any more about the narrative. Suffice to say that Frankenheimer brilliantly increases the tension as President Jordan and his associates (who include a reluctant Colonel Casey) scramble to prevent the coup. The acting is consistently outstanding. The events preceding the inevitable climax are credible (including some unexpected luck which does not seem to me farfetched), and the film concludes with style and grace. It is worth noting that Rod Serling wrote the screenplay, based on a best-selling novel co-authored by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Waldo Bailey II. Also, that Ava Gardner skillfully plays a small but essential role as Eleanor Holbrook. This is not a thriller, much less a chiller. Rather, the film offers an especially interesting story, well-told. It has lost little (if any) of its dramatic impact during the almost 40 years since its initial release. Thoughtful and thought-provoking entertainment is always appreciated, whenever and wherever we may find it.

Mayday
Funny how both conservatives and liberals can cook up their own paranoid fantasies from the same sets of facts. This Kennedy-era melodrama hearkens back to both the October 1962 missile crisis and the Nuclear Test Ban treaty of JFK's administration. When some people on the Right claimed the country was being handed over to the Soviets, two liberal Washington reporters cranked out the novel "Seven Days in May" about a military coup to topple the government. The movie is a faithful re-creation of the book and it's plain ridiculous. Burt Lancaster plays an updated Air Force version of Douglas MacArthur whose nefarious scheme is foiled by a smug band of patriots led by Kirk Douglas. Frederic March's President is so un-appealing you wish somebody would overthrow him, and poor Ava Gardner, 15 years on from being the most beautiful girl in Hollywood, looks like death warmed over. Rod Serling's script is riddled with a pomposity he usually edited out of his "Twilight Zone" work.