Seven Days in May – Two superb versions

Dwight Eisenhower was the man who commanded the biggest military machine in Western Europe during World War 2. With his superb political balance, he managed the disparate British, American and French commanders and produced an unquestionable victory. President Truman who decided to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan was seen as ‘weak’ for letting the Korean War happen so much that Eisenhower was elected as President in 1953. But once inside ‘the system’, he often had grave misgivings about the rampant military machine which seemed unstoppable and was taking money and resources away from social programs. So much that in his farewell address, he cautioned against the ‘growing military industrial complex’. Here’s the link to the speech about Ike cautioning about the Military Industrial Complex which was probably the most prescient in its context and content , especially when seen through the lens of 21st century American rampages throughout the world.

He coined the term that has now become synonymous with huge arms deals and trillions of dollars being spent on weapons that overpromise and under deliver such as the F35 Lightning 2 JSF, one of which landed in Trivandrum a year ago and had to wait for three weeks for the support team to put it right. Ex military personnel usually join the military corporations through what is known as the ‘revolving door’ as they are extremely knowledgeable about the snakes and ladders process of the military buying system. When President Kennedy became President, he had already promised to increase welfare spending and trim the excessive military budgets and decided to get out of Vietnam, where Americans were actually fighting though designated as “advisers”.

It is in this context that the book Seven Days in May was released in 1962 and became a bestseller. I read the book sometime in the early 1980s but couldn’t get the film at all; naturally; since its such a off beat subject and the video libraries of those days specialized in ‘action films’. In simple terms, the military feels that enough is not being spent on it by the civilians and so they plan a military coup with the fig lead of a “Constitutional Crisis due to the Presidential inability / enfeeblement” and similar mild mannered words. The Coup will be led by the Joint Chief of Staff (JCS), THE MOST powerful military man on earth, who can call upon all the four US military forces including the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The plan for the coup is under the cover of a military exercise where ‘opponents’ have seized control of the government and hence the exercise is to check how to take control back from the ‘opponents. The JCS’ s military aide, a ‘lowly’ Colonel, sees through it for what it is and sets in motion a plan to bring it down, even though he is torn between his conscience as a soldier who has to obey his superiors and his sworn oath to defend and uphold the Constitution.

Seven Days in May (1964)

Genre: Military Conspiracy thriller

Platform: You Tube

Time: 1 hour 55 minutes

Director: John Frankenheimer

Cast: Burt Lancaster (Gen. James Mattoon Scott). Kirk Douglas (Col. Martin ‘Jiggs’ Casey). Fredric March (President Jordan Lyman). Ava Gardner (Eleanor Holbrook).

Plot: Its 1970 and the President has signed a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union, leading to his ratings plummeting and the hawks calling for his resignation…

Gen. Scott, the JCS is vocally and publicly critical of the President’s policies and is soon plotting away with a group of civil and military conspirators to take over the Government till his aide Col. Casey finds out about the program. Casey is aided by his former lover and Scott’s mistress Eleanor and a dipsomaniac ex-Senator who wants to find out more about the ’exercise’.

The film surely must have set the cat among the pigeons , since it came out in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination and the then recent Cuban Missile Crisis which almost started WW3. (American Air Force General Curtis LeMay repeatedly asked permission from President Kennedy to bomb Cuba with atomic weapons). The increasing involvement in Vietnam also found an echo with the ordinary people about a rampant and unchecked military doing only what it wants to keep the machine running. The black and white photography lends itself to the gloomy conspiratorial atmosphere where one good man Casey unravels everything about the conspiracy.

Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas starred in seven films, the final one being the action-comedy Tough Guys (1986) as two ex-cons trying to go straight. This is their fifth film together and the veterans really compete in the laurels for the acting chops. Frederic March’s hand wringing performance mirrors the then real life President Johnson who increasingly found himself escalating the Vietnam War , at the behest of his military advisers, most of whom still believe today, that they would have ‘won’, if not for silly ‘rules of engagement’. The then “state of art technology” may look like kludge/inelegant but was true for its time.

This is a tense superb thriller and mirrors the times and fears perfectly, pointing to Frankenheimer’s expertise in superb thrillers (The Manchurian Candidate had just been released in 1962).

The film is Free at below links:

An okay English print at Internet Archives
https://archive.org/details/7-days-in-may

Another okay You Tube English version
https://youtu.be/wq0pN1RhgcE

Good You Tube print but in Spanish (English subs can be turned on)

Script – 5 out of 5

Story – 4 out of 5

Direction – 5 out of 5

Photography – 5 out of 5

Total – 4.8 out of 5

The Enemy Within (1994)

Genre: Military Conspiracy thriller

Platform: You Tube

Time: 1 hour 23 minutes

Director: Jonathan Darby

Cast: Forest Whitaker (Col. MacKenzie ‘Mac’ Casey). Jason Robards (Gen. R. Pendleton Lloyd). Sam Waterston (President William Foster).

This 1994 film is true to the spirit and letter of the novel and also has to live up to the 1964 film. In my view, this film is far better for its understated performances, especially that of Forest Whitaker as Casey who unravels the plot. Given that this is a 1994 upgrade and in colour, some digressions are a given such as Casey being a black officer, Casey’s son indulging in casual stealing from an electronics store and Casey and his wife trying to deal with it while Casey is simultaneously unraveling the plot. There are additional digressions in the shape of the Russians who help Casey – remember this was 1994 and Boris Yeltsin was seen as America’s friend while Russians viewed him as an American puppet and a plain stupid drunk politician (giving rise to Vladimir Putin and his continued rule from 1999 till date). None of these digressions take away from the core plot and in fact contribute to it.

The Russian head spy in Washington code named Jake (John Dzundza) agrees to help Casey as he doesn’t want a military government in power as it would bankrupt an already weak Russian economy. The ‘Russian agent’ who agrees to help Casey is a real surprise. As Casey, Forest Whitaker, gives one of his best performances as the man caught between his morals – between his superior officer and his promise to defend the Constitution. In keeping with the 1990s atmosphere there are some PCs , along with emails and cassettes for dictations.

Given the political shenanigans of Trump and the military at loggerheads and Trump trying to put ‘his’ people in place, the film is a better mirror of current times and holds far more relevance today.

The film is free on You Tube