Seven Days in May (1964)

Perfect cast and a good story

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

While this movie doesn't quite have the tension of Fail Safe, it does have a great cast and the plot is engrossing and topical. The US has entered into a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviets. This has led to President Lyman's (Frederick March) popularity plunging as most of the country sees him as weak. The war establishment, led by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Scott (Burt Lancaster), plot a military coup in seven days (hence the title). Kirk Douglas is Colonel Casey, staff aide to General Scott, who sniffs out the plot and alerts the president. A well rounded cast includes Martin Balsam, Edmond O'Brien, Andrew Duggan, Richard Anderson, John Houseman, and Ava Gardner as a former lover of General Scott who has some dirt on him the President's Men can use.The coup is revealed less than 30 minutes in to the movie. The remaining 90 minutes is a cat and mouse game between the President and his men and General Scott and his cohorts. They both try to one up each other using the media, the public, and the nuclear arms race. The tension never quite reaches the level of the aforementioned Fail Safe and that's a shame. This plot had so much potential and talent involved, but it never quite reached its zenith.Douglas' Casey discovers the plot a bit too easily. His evidence is pretty flimsy and for him to risk his career by going to the President and accusing the CJCS with only the information he had was a bit hard to take. Likewise, the plotters were extremely careless in their planning, pretty much leaving a blueprint of their plans for Casey to find. The last hour is pretty good. Watching the two teams chase each other around plot points and locations was well done. Casey having to betray his boss is handled in a professional and cautious manner, showing the character's struggle between following his boss and doing the right thing. What I really liked was how both sides were shown to be men of honor and were truly following what they thought to be right. Lancaster's General Scott comes off as the villain, but you can kind of understand his reasoning, the same way it was easy to understand General Hummel's in The Rock.A great film with some really great talent. Aside from a few plot holes, it was top-notch.

Recently bought and re watched this film with my family. Now in my sixties I saw this picture in reruns of good old TV. You know the good old 5-7 broadcast channels. Long before 500 channel cable packages, those channels produced much of the finest drama and entertainment in general than the huge majority of venues today.Spend the time reacquaint yourself with the greats it will amaze you.

I was a junior in high school when this movie came out. My friends and I had gotten used to seeing kind of fluffy films that showed in our local theater. We weren't ill behaved, but our attention wasn't always on the film. Movies with intense plots got some of the same treatment. I remember this film because I was mesmerized from the first scene. The plot was intricate and the acting superb. I remember telling my friends to be quiet because I was engrossed. This is the story of a coup within the U.S. government. The President had signed a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. This led to a mutinous response from the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Soon it was determined that the President must die as the only way to stop what he was doing. We are immersed in the intrigue of the plot to kill the chief of state. Outstanding movie I could watch a hundred times.

When I first saw this movie, I wondered, how far would things have to go, and, how badly would they have to get, before the US Military actually planned something like this and carried it through!?!? Events like this have been taking place all over the world for centuries...but, in the United States!?!?This is a well-acted, well-written, and, well-directed study of the possibilities of a US government overthrow in a time of fear and paranoia (The Cold War); and, when many top figures in the US Military, and, elsewhere in the US government, believe that the president is too weak and unfit to make the correct decisions to protect the United States due to his support of a nuclear disarmament during the communist nuclear buildup.Lead by Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, this all-star cast delivers a powerful story (written for the screen by the great Rod Serling), that 'could have happened' during this fragile time of world crisis that was all-too-real after World War 2 and up until the fall of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. If some of these events in this movie (and, novel) played out, this just might have happened; and, the results could have been beneficial, or, down-right catastrophic. History has shown that a coup can occur most anywhere if the right people are involved.This is a compelling movie that everyone should see, and, understand, that this 'could happen,' making things better or worse; or, it 'could not happen,' making things better or worse.I highly recommend this Cold War Classic!