BEFORE: I'm sticking with Netflix tonight, I'm determined to get my watchlist there under 100 films, no matter what. That means I should try to stay up a little later and clear a comedy special every night after a movie, as long as I'm already signed in there. Progress is being made, but it's slow going. Clancy Brown carries over from "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs".
I think tonight's film sort of completes a trilogy that I started in 2017 with two other films about the Kennedy brothers.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Jackie" (Movie #2,637), "Bobby" (Movie #2,666)
THE PLOT: Depicting Ted Kennedy's involvement in the fatal 1969 car accident that claimed the life of a young campaign strategist, Mary Jo Kopechne.
AFTER: Last month I was discussing the fact that 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the famous Woodstock music festival, but it's also the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and an event with ran concurrently with that, the Chappaquiddick scandal. I was busy being a toddler in 1969, so I have no memory of the moon landing or other events of the day and my knowledge of the facts concerning what happened in Chappaquiddick is all based on rumor and hearsay. But for many years after that I lived in Massachusetts with Ted Kennedy as my senator, and I recall it being brought up again and again when he unsuccessfully ran for President in 1980. Looking back on it, it seems weird that there was any Democratic candidate other than the incumbent, President Carter. How was that allowed - was Carter really THAT unpopular? But eventually Teddy gave it up to Jimmy, and the election continued...only there was also an independent candidate that year, John Anderson. It's very possible that Kennedy and Anderson diverted enough votes from Carter to make Reagan the winner.
But enough re-hashing the past, let's get back to the Chappaquiddick event in 1969. For many years I've just naturally assumed that there was a romantic relationship between Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne. I'm not sure why, because it's not like politicians are known for cheating on their wives or anything like that... But according to this film, it's nothing like that - it's just that Teddy and his cousin liked to have a bunch of women to drink with after they competed in this annual boat race, and all these women formerly worked as secretaries for his brother, Bobby. Sure, a house on Martha's Vineyard filled with alcohol, loud music and a bunch of ex-secretaries looking to get ahead in the political world. I'm sure that absolutely everything was above board and nothing illicit took place there. So let's move on.
We know that Ted Kennedy was driving away from the party with Mary Jo as a passenger. Given what we generally know about Teddy, and though he denied it later, I think it's safe to say that the Senator's driving was probably impaired by alcohol. Now, if this took place in the 2000's, then it would make sense for the more sober person to be driving, again I'm guessing this would have been Mary Jo. But since this was 1969, it was a different time, and whenever two people were in a car, and one was male and one was female, the male would be driving. Don't get mad at me, I think it was a law or something at the time, and I didn't make the laws. That's just the way it was - I think women at the time had a reputation for being too emotional to drive, but I think in the mid-1970's someone had a class-action suit against the Massachusetts government, so they had to start giving licenses to women.
My point is that Kennedy handing over the keys to his own car to a woman, even if she were an excellent driver and not impaired in any way, that would have been unthinkable. Males, especially Kennedy males, had big egos and they felt more comfortable in control of the car than riding as a passenger. (Plus, just look what happened to his brother Jack that time he rode in the back seat through downtown Dallas...too soon?) So all that - alcohol, male ego, losing the boat race, trying to impress a girl, whatever other pressures Ted Kennedy was under at the time - that all led to the car going right off the bridge and ending up flipped over in the water. What happened after that got debated for years, like how did Teddy get out of the car and Mary Jo, not so much? Did he jump out in mid-air, was he thrown from the car, or once underwater did he somehow open the door, leave the car and then SHUT IT BEHIND HIM? This has to be the exact moment in history where chivalry died.
His story, once filtered through the P.R. wonks hired by his father, and in written statements to the press and a televised appeal to the public, managed to change again and again over time. Did he dive down repeatedly to try to open the door of the car and rescue Mary Jo? Or did he imagine himself doing that so many times that it became believable to himself and others? Did his cousin and his friend (who happened to be the U.S. District Attorney for Massachusetts) paddle him back to Edgartown in a rowboat, or did he swim across the channel from the smaller island? After initially failing to report the accident, at what point did he change his mind and determine that he needed to get out ahead of the story? After realizing that his driver's license was "probably expired" what steps were taken to have someone at the DMV make him a new, backdated one?
And then there's the big one, with a scandal looming, was the better move to resign or to own up to his faults, deny any criminal wrongdoing (except for leaving the scene of an accident) and try to continue on? Obviously there was great pressure to follow in his brother's footsteps somehow, but this film makes it clear that even Joseph Kennedy, the family patriarch, didn't believe that could ever happen - and that was his opinion BEFORE the accident and the scandal.
A note about Joseph P. Kennedy - that's a tough role for an actor to play, an older man of some importance who's been disabled by a stroke. On the other hand, maybe it's a breeze of a role, like when Eddie Redmayne won an OSCAR for playing Stephen Hawking, and mainly just sitting still in a chair for most of the film. (Yeah, I'm still calling B.S. on that award from the 2014 Oscars.) Maybe after that happened, actors started seeking out roles where they could play paralyzed men who can't even speak, because they just have to show up, sit still for a while and then cash their check. But damn, to cast a great actor like Bruce Dern as Joe Kennedy, what a horrible waste of a man's talent.
Much has been written over the years about the "Kennedy Curse", where SO many family members have had tragic accidents or been in ill health - now, while it's easy to imagine patterns of tragedy, I say that we must keep in mind that some form of tragedy happens to us all. As I said last night, I dare you to try to name one person in history whose story ends well. Now the Kennedy family was quite large, as any good Catholic Massachusetts family might be, so if you think about it, more family members, more tragedy - it's just simple math. The Kennedy list ranges from Joe Kennedy Jr.'s death by plane crash in 1944, JFK's and RFK's assassinations, all the way through JFK Jr.'s death in a plane crash in 1999. Some include Jackie Kennedy's death, but come on, she was going to die at SOME point, she was a heavy smoker. Some lists also include the murder charge against Michael Skakel (RFK's nephew) and the rape charge against William Kennedy Smith, but I'm thinking those were more-or-less self-inflicted. (If you don't want to be charged with major crimes, maybe don't commit any.)
So, a lot has changed in our country in the last 50 years - for starters, if there was a looming political scandal, politicians often (not always, but work with me here...) felt the need to apologize, own up to their faults, and occasionally even resign. Under the current administration, where it feels like there's a new scandal every WEEK, if not every day, as you can see, nobody in the last two years has owned up to ANYTHING, unless there's a court order or an indictment forcing that to happen. The days of the Kennedys (and later, Watergate) are apparently over, and all bets are off, and the President even bragged about being able to stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and SHOOT someone, and not be charged with a crime or scandalized in any way. Stop the world, I want to get off.
Also starring Jason Clarke (last seen in "Everest"), Kate Mara (last seen in "Fantastic Four"), Ed Helms (last seen in "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"), Bruce Dern (last seen in "The 'Burbs"), Jim Gaffigan (last seen in "Chuck"), Taylor Nichols (last seen in "Boiler Room"), Olivia Thirlby (last seen in "Dredd"), Lexie Roth, John Fiore, Vince Tycer, Andria Blackman, Tamara Hickey, Alison Wachtler, Victor Warren, Donald Watson, Matthew Lawler, Angela Hope Smith, Brad Wheelwright, David De Beck, Patrick Sheehan, Charlotte Anne Dore, Tim Jackson, with archive footage of John F. Kennedy (last seen in "The Doors: When You're Strange") and Neil Armstrong.
RATING: 5 out of 10 cue cards
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