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I wanted to but couldn't!

Expected more

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY is a political thriller, that brings to us, in a realistic way, an attempt by several combative generals to take control of the Government in the United States during the crisis, which is caused by the Cold War. It is based on the novel of the same name by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II. This film, from a former perspective, acts as a frightening sight in a near future.James M. Scott is a general, who is convinced that liberal President Jordan Lyman is soft on America's enemies. He plans, together with his partners, takeover of the United States, because he has the great public support. However, his closest aide, Colonel Jiggs, has revealed their plan to the President. Every effort made by President Lyman to find concrete evidence of General Scott's scheme is scuttled by political protocol, human error and accidental death. The conflict seems to be inevitable... but...A shocking plot develops through the game of cat and mouse, in which the roles are not entirely clear. This can be seen as a kind of conflict between self-confidence, pride and ideology. Of course, the ultimate winner are the United States. This is probably correct, at least in this case. Mr. Frankenheimer has stepped up the tensions to the limit, through a series of speculations, in this melodramatic story. Of course, he has laid a cruel trap for the audience, because, a national hero becomes a traitor. A climax is followed by a realistic confrontation between the main protagonists. That political philosophy can be seen in several ways. The fear and anxiety are the causes of the problem in this case. The generals are trying to do something at the time of the nuclear threat and thus they lose their identity in that madness. Of course, there are the visible consequences, usually through conspiracy theories.Fredric March as President Jordan Lyman is an extremely powerful character who has awakened from a kind of lethargy. Mr. March has offered a convincing performance. Kirk Douglas as Colonel "Jiggs" Casey is a brave and dignified key of the plot. He is torn on all sides, but skillfully puts together the pieces of the mosaic into a single unit. Burt Lancaster as General James Mattoon Scott is a confident and cold character, who seems to have all trump cards in his hands.Their support are Ava Gardner (Eleanor Holbrook) as a former and current love, Martin Balsam (Paul Girard) as a skeptical press secretary and Edmond O'Brien (Senator Ray Clark) as a drunk scout.The wisdom and the courage, in combination, are the strongest weapon.

As good as the movie was, there were two significant disconnects in the story for this viewer; both involved Colonel 'Mutt' Henderson (Andrew Duggan). The first was when Henderson made it out of the Econcom desert hideaway with Senator Roy Clark (Edmond O'Brien) in tow. Didn't they make it out of there just a bit too easily? That there was no pursuit by forces on the ground allowing them to get away scot-free, that just didn't ring true for me.The second was that airport lounge scene when Henderson disappeared off screen, having been brought back under control by Major Scott's (Burt Lancaster) saboteurs. How is it that Senator Clark was left alone, virtually in the same location? They must have known he was there and in on the conspiracy in progress. All the more incredible given that Paul Girard (Martin Balsam) had already been murdered by sabotaging a plane load of civilians and covering it up as a crash.But with those couple of question marks hanging out there, the rest of the story was a pretty good one. Maybe not as tension filled as the same year's "Fail-Safe" about an accidental attack on the Soviet Union with no hope of recall, but it had it's moments of suspense and intrigue. Rod Serling's screenplay brought the drama on screen invariably close to a real life Twilight Zone that the American public never got to witness - the takeover of the United States government by a military coup led by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.For me, the best scene was the confrontation between President Lyman (Frederic March) and Lancaster's Major Scott. The dialog between the two men is masterfully written, culminating in that chilling stare down between Scott and Colonel Jiggs Casey (Kirk Douglas) right after Scott leaves the President's office.Which leads to one last remaining question mark about the picture, that was also a hallmark of many of Serling's Twilight Zone scripts. With the crisis for the President over and the three Joint Chiefs generals resigning, what exactly are the repercussions for Major Scott? Presumably the story continues with penalties involved for the perpetrators of the conspiracy, but we never get to know what they are.

The American President Lyman (Fredric March) with low approval ratings has passed a divisive nuclear disarmament treaty. The head of the Joint Chiefs General Scott (Burt Lancaster) opposed the treaty and is organising a secret coup with some of his supporters. His aide Colonel Jiggs Casey (Kirk Douglas) informs the President of the behind the scenes manoeuvring and Lyman instructs some of his trusted men to get evidence of the conspirators plans.Director John Frankenheimer loved a conspiracy thriller. Here he paints the conspirators as misguided and maybe the President as too honourable and principled.The film contains too much talking heads at times and it suffers from it during the showdown between Lancaster and March. The President actually does come across as weak and maybe proves Lancaster's point when in reality a more forceful resolution was required by the Lyman.The film is still masterful, full of intrigue and tension but it does move slowly at the beginning and has a major flaw. If the President was unpopular how did he manage to get the Treaty ratified by Congress? As the treaty is approved by Congress then it make General Scott's action more murkier and he should had been called out more strongly for his treachery.

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY may have seemed like "science fiction" back in 1964, but today, in 2015, it looks like nothing less than a blueprint for the political coup that began with Kennedy's assassination in 1963. (That's known as being "prescient," for those of you who didn't know...) Tapping Rod Serling to write the screenplay was a stroke of genius: from boxing (REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT) to Big Business (PATTERNS) to Fantasy (THE TWILIGHT ZONE) to down-to-Earth bona fide science fiction (PLANET OF THE APES), Serling was more than capable of spinning a yarn in cinematic terms, regardless of Genre. The complicity of the Media (Television in particular) and Big Business to overthrow the U.$. Government (i.e.; government of, by, and FOR The People) is highlighted in SEVEN DAYS IN MAY- exactly as it's come to pass. Says Senator Clark (Edmond O'Brien) in the movie: "This country will probably live as if peace were just as big a threat as war." How's THAT for prescient? "This one must be Deep and Dark," Lancaster tells an aide. Is it just me, or is that almost word-for-word what we heard going into Iraq the second time...? "We've all got to stay on alert these days," Whit Bissell advises, prefiguring the on-going, never ending "War on Terror." But it's Hugh Marlowe as the televangelist newscaster who sums it all up best when he says: "I'm not a lover of Communists, Socialists, or intellectual bleeding hearts. I have only one interest, and that is symbolized by the red, white and blue of our glorious flag." The camera then lingers lovingly on the faces of the fanatical followers of Lancaster before he takes the stage and promptly declares his love for the "Motherland." Shades of the Nuremberg rallies. When Martin Balsam's plane crashes, one can't help but be reminded of the documentary CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC Hit-man, in which just this kind of "accident" is detailed. March as The Pre$ident challenges Lancaster to beat him at the ballot box. "You don't steal it after midnight when the country has its back turned." The Real World parallels are obvious. The Great Disregard with which The Man (Obama, not James Earl Jones) has been treated since being elected speaks for itself.