History Literature / SevenDaysInMay

* TheRemake: By Creator/{{HBO}} as ''The Enemy Within'' in 1994, with Sam Waterson as the President, Jason Robards as the General, and Creator/ForestWhitaker as the Colonel. Updated for a post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar world, and the conspirators planning to use the TwentyFifthAmendment to declare the President incompetent to serve.

* ReassignedToAntarctica:
** Averted when a Pentagon communications officer tells Colonel Casey about a seemingly-innocuous bit of gambling by some high-ranking officers (it's actually a code indicating their willingness to join the coup). Instead of a heavy-handed punishment detail, General Scott wisely has the blabber shipped off to a highly-desirable post in UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}, and orders Casey to take a few days leave so he won't be in a position to observe anything else suspicious. This turns into a BrickJoke at the end of the novel, when the officer, now working in Hawaii, hears about Scott's resignation and thinks that President Lyman sure must hate gambling.

* BlatantLies: General Scott claims that the president himself gave him the authorization (on a day when they covered a large number of issues) to create ECOMCON and the secret base they're being trained at when the president confronts him directly about the coup. Justified as Scott is too smart to directly to admit to anything even though they both know he is lying.

* TheRemake: by HBO as ''The Enemy Within'' in 1994, with Sam Waterson as the President, Jason Robards as the General, and Creator/ForestWhitaker as the Colonel. Updated for a post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar world, and the conspirators planning to use the TwentyFifthAmendment to declare the President incompetent to serve.

* TheRemake: by HBO as ''The Enemy Within'' in 1994, with Creator/SamWaterson as the President, Creator/JasonRobards as the General, and Creator/ForestWhitaker as the Colonel. Updated for a post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar world, and the conspirators planning to use the TwentyFifthAmendment to declare the President incompetent to serve.

* TheRemake: by HBO as ''The Enemy Within'' in 1994, with Sam Waterson as the President, Jason Robards as the General, and Creator/ForestWhitaker as the Colonel. Updated for a post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar world, and the conspirators planning to use the TwentyFifthAmendment to declare the President incompetent to serve.
* RevealingCoverUp: Averted. There's only one death under suspicious circumstances (of a White House aide carrying absolute proof of the conspiracy) and that's never shown to have been anything other than [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident an ordinary plane crash]]. Two people who look like they've been 'disappeared' turn out to have been merely detained on various pretexts. The closest we get to this trope is when a conspirator angrily tells Colonel Casey to shut up about the gambling signal -- it's this overreaction that first raises Casey's suspicions.

* TheDeepSouth: Lyman's ally Raymond Clark is a senator from Georgia. In the novel, he can go between a Southern drawl and his normal voice at will.
* DiscreetDrinkDisposal: Senator Clark has been that a Colonel Henderson might know something about the coup. When he turns up at a secret military base demanding to speak to Henderson, the conspirators place Clark under temporary detention, sending in a bottle every half hour so he'll be too drunk to talk sense. Clark has to keep pouring his favorite bourbon down the toilet, which doesn't improve his disposition when Henderson does turn up.

* TheAlcoholic: Senator Clark. At one stage when he's being 'detained' on a military base, the conspirators send in a bottle every hour to keep him quiet. Clark has to keep pouring them down the toilet, which doesn't improve his disposition.

* DiscreetDrinkDisposal: Senator Clark has been that a Colonel Henderson might know something about the coup. When he turns up at a secret military base demanding to speak to Henderson, the conspirators place Clark under temporary detention, sending in a bottle every half hour so he'll be too drunk to talk sense. Clark has to keep pouring the booze down the toilet, which doesn't improve his disposition when Henderson does turn up.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: For once this helps the good guys. When an Air Force general (CINC-NORAD) complains about 'classified' flights that he hadn't authorized, the President realizes he's not part of the conspiracy and orders him to ground the aircraft at once.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: General Scott could possibly be interpreted as this, depending on your politics.

* BlatantLies: General Scott claims that the president himself gave him the authorization to create ECOMCON and the secret base they're being trained at when the president confronts him directly about the coup. Justified as Scott is too smart to directly to admit to anything even though they both know he is lying.

* BlatantLies: General Scott claims that the president himself gave him authorization to create ECOMCON and the secret base they're being trained at when the president confronts him directly about the coup. Justified as Scott is too smart to directly to admit to anything even though they both know he is lying.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Scott at the end accuses Casey of being a traitor for warning the president about the planned coup. This from a man who was actively plotting high treason. Even from the standpoint of a personal betrayal it is hypocritical, as Scott kept Casey out of the plot even before he confirmed to himself that Casey would be against it.

* DuelingStarsMovie: Kirk Douglas vs Burt Lancaster.

* UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar: Part of Jordan Lyman's BackStory in the novel. Lyman suffers a HeroicBSOD caused by what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder until another soldier, Raymond Clark, [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan slaps him out of it]]. Clark goes on to become a senator--and Lyman's lifelong friend and most trusted political ally.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: For once this helps the good guys. When an Air Force general (CINC-NORAD) complains about 'classified' flights that he hadn't authorized, the President realises he's not part of the conspiracy and orders him to ground the aircraft at once.

** Averted when a Pentagon communications officer tells Colonel Casey about a seemingly-innocuous bit of gambling by some high-ranking officers (it's actually a code indicating their willingness to join the coup). Instead of a heavy-handed punishment detail, General Scott wisely has the blabber shipped off to a highly-desirable post in UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}, and orders Casey to take a few days leave so he won't be in a position to observe anything else suspicious.
** This turns into a BrickJoke at the end of the novel, when the officer, now working in Hawaii, hears about Scott's resignation and thinks that President Lyman sure must hate gambling.

JFK — who was killed shortly before the film's release — considered the film so important because he believed the events in the book and movie could very well happen. After the spat between UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur and President UsefulNotes/HarryTruman, as well as JFK's own problems with his generals, he was well aware that there were those in the military who felt they should be in control of the country instead of him.

!!Tropes:

* ReassignedToAntarctica: Averted when a Pentagon communications officer tells Colonel Casey about a seemingly-innocuous bit of gambling by some high-ranking officers (it's actually a code indicating their willingness to join the coup). Instead of a heavy-handed punishment detail, General Scott wisely has the blabber shipped off to a highly-desirable post in UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}, and orders Casey to take a few days leave so he won't be in a position to observe anything else suspicious.

* WildCard: Vice Admiral Barnswell is approached to take part in the coup, but thinks it's too risky and declines. Knowing this the President sends his aide to force him into providing a signed statement about the conspiracy, which is lost when the aide's plane crashes on its way back to Washington, whereupon Barnswell claims he knows nothing about any such statement.

* DiscreetDrinkDisposal: The commander at the secret base keeps sending liquor in to Clark, who keeps pouring it down the toilet.

[[quoteright:315:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/00000733_1514.jpg]]

''Seven Days in May'' is a ConspiracyThriller about an attempted MilitaryCoup in the United States. The story first appeared as a 1962 novel by Washington journalists Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II. It was adapted into a 1964 FilmOfTheBook, directed by Creator/JohnFrankenheimer, starring Creator/KirkDouglas, Creator/BurtLancaster, Creator/FredricMarch, and Creator/AvaGardner, and scripted by Creator/RodSerling.

* WavingSignsAround: The film opens with a group of people picketing outside the White House and holding signs both protesting and supporting the treaty. Fisticuffs ensue.

* CanNotSpitItOut: Colonel Casey can't bring himself to actually ''say'' the unthinkable -- that there's a coup planned -- and starts waffling until the politicians tell him to stop screwing about.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: For once this helps the good guys. When an Air Force general complains about 'classified' flights that he hadn't authorized, the President realises he's not part of the conspiracy and orders him to ground the aircraft at once.

* RevealingCoverUp: Averted. There's only one death under suspicious circumstances (of a White House aide carrying absolute proof of the conspiracy) and that's never shown to have been anything other than [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident an ordinary plane crash]]. Two people who look like they've been 'disappeared' turn out to have been merely detained on various pretexts. The closest we get to this trope is when a conspirator angrily tells Colonel Casey to shut up about the gambling signal -- it's this overreaction that first raises his suspicions.

* WavingSignsAround: The film opens with a group of people picketing outside the White House and holding signs protesting the treaty.

'''''Seven Days in May''''' is a ConspiracyThriller about an attempted MilitaryCoup in the United States. The story first appeared as a 1962 novel by Washington journalists Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II. It was adapted into a 1964 FilmOfTheBook, directed by Creator/JohnFrankenheimer, starring Creator/KirkDouglas, Creator/BurtLancaster, Creator/FredricMarch, and Creator/AvaGardner, and scripted by Creator/RodSerling.

'''''Seven Days in May''''' is a ConspiracyThriller about an attempted MilitaryCoup in the United States. The story first appeared as a 1962 novel by Washington journalists Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II. It was adapted into a 1964 FilmOfTheBook, directed by Creator/JohnFrankenheimer, starring Creator/KirkDouglas, Creator/BurtLancaster, and Creator/FredricMarch, and scripted by Creator/RodSerling.

When the movie was being filmed, President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy gave the producers special access to the White House, allowing them to film there with access never before or since granted to any (non-documentary) film crew. The President would even conveniently arrange to visit Hyannis Port for a weekend when the film needed to shoot outside the White House. The Pentagon, in contrast, refused to cooperate at all, leading to the filmmakers doing a bit of covert filming on-site with star Douglas in costume.

''Seven Days in May'' is a ConspiracyThriller about an attempted MilitaryCoup in the United States. The story first appeared as a 1962 novel by Washington journalists Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II. It was adapted into a 1964 FilmOfTheBook, directed by Creator/JohnFrankenheimer, starring Creator/KirkDouglas, Creator/BurtLancaster, and Creator/FredricMarch, and scripted by Creator/RodSerling.