When the mini-series The Kennedys was announced last year the left-wing blogosphere “hit the fan,” so to speak. Robert Greenwald, a “progressive” propagandist who seems to always be hitting up readers for money to pay for unpopular “documentaries,” called it “a political hit job,” with no sense of irony or any idea of what the finished product would look like. (He’s currently soliciting money to produce a “documentary” on the evils of the Koch brothers.) Greenwald even dragged self-professed JFK lover Nigel Hamilton (author of the JFK biography “Reckless Youth” — which was also attacked as anti-Kennedy) into the fight. Needless to say, this campaign was designed only to harm the mini’s conservative producer Joel Surnow for, well, being conservative. That’s really the only explanation for their “outrage” since an early draft of the script was all they had to go on.
Never known for letting the facts get in the way of a good story, and always on the lookout for an excuse to start a chant, drum circle, boycott or petition, leftists decided on the boycott/petition angle to get the mini-series dropped from its intended home, the History Channel. Naturally, the network that brought us the two-hour star-studded spectacle called “The People Speak,” based on über-leftist Howard Zinn’s work, caved faster than couch-cushion fort. Fear of a left-wing backlash and/or agreement with the Leftists’ agenda kept other, larger networks from picking it up. So the mini was without a home for a while. (Note: I say this because with a top-notch cast and crew and a $30 million production budget, the quality of the project was never in doubt — which leaves ideology or fear as the only logical rationale for passing.)
It finally found a home on the Reelz Network, where parts one and two premiered last night.
Having watched it, and many other movies based on the life of the Kennedy family (including the aforementioned JFK: Reckless Youth on ABC), my overall reaction is this: What was all the fuss about?
After digesting the first two parts, I can honestly say that there were only one or two things I didn’t know already, and none of them were major shockers. The Kennedys shows the family to be exactly who they are known to have been – ambitious, loyal (at least to each other), tenacious, all with a willingness to do whatever it takes to get their way and an insatiable taste for the ladies. The only people who would come away with their perception of the “clan” being destroyed or even challenged are young people spoon fed history from sycophants and ideological hacks who still believe “Camelot” was the closest we as a nation and species have come to perfection.
The Kennedys hits upon all the old notes; patriarch Joe, ambassador to England at the start or World War II, was a vocal opponent of America’s involvement in any action against Hitler. In other words — he was an appeaser. Joe Jr. was the family’s “chosen one” who was charged with redeeming the family’s reputation, but tragically died when his overloaded plane crashed on takeoff while attempting a reckless bombing raid over Germany. JFK liked the ladies and, while ambitious himself, was uncomfortable with the mantle of family redemption that fell on his shoulders after Joe Jr.’s death. RFK was the pragmatic child who later turns idealistic, though not in parts 1 and 2. And the Kennedy women are loving and supportive while suffering private humiliation silently over the infidelity the Kennedy men treated as every bit the sport as their famous touch football games.
In other words, you know all of this already.
Greg Kinnear plays the older JFK and plays him well. Tom Wilkinson plays Joe Sr. with all the skill you’d expect from such a master. The most surprising performance, and by far the best, is one that upon reflection, shouldn’t surprise anyone — Barry Pepper as RFK. None of these stars do impressions, they play the characters. The Kennedy accent is well known, but lesser actors could have fallen into the trap of simply “doing” the accent and passing that off as performance. That’s not the case here.
The Kennedys is not a linear story. It tells multiple stories in flashbacks, but is mainly set on election night 1960 when JFK wins the White House. PT-109 is covered, as is the mystery of how JFK’s boat could be rammed by a 300 foot Japanese ship without anyone seeing it coming. We also learn of the jealousy and sibling rivalry over the medals JFK received for his heroism.
Joe Sr. and JFK are portrayed as they were, womanizers who managed to disconnect their extracurricular activities from the genuine love they had for their devoted spouses. They were both reprehensible human beings in their treatment of women. Oddly, though, RFK’s portrayal is the closest to hero-worship. RFK and his wife Ethel are shown to be in a genuine loving relationship and their interactions are always sincere.
We see JFK stumble in his first bid for the US House, messing up a stump speech due to nerves. But then we see him get his sea legs while speaking to a group of Gold Star mothers, a group to which, thanks to the tragic death of his older brother Joe, his mother now belongs. No one is brilliant out of the box, and this transformation, as quickly as it went and as minor as it was on the screen, helps humanize JFK. And Kinnear does a great job with it.
But it’s not all good. Katie Holmes plays Jackie with all the sincerity you’d expect from an episode of Dawson’s Creek. She slightly resembles Jackie and is borderline good in the quiet moments when it’s just her and JFK having a typical husband/wife conversation, but she loses you when she’s angry. There’s a scene where her mother, who has been jaded by life and her own failed marriage, advises her of the fact that Jack can’t be faithful and the Kennedy family discards what they want when they’re done with it. Holmes yells at her mother in a way you’d expect to hear from the stage of a high school play.
But the meat of the story, the Kennedy family itself, is perfectly cast and portrays it (based upon books I’ve read and documentaries I’ve seen) with an honesty — warts and all, that the screen hasn’t seen before.
It’s not the best mini-series ever (that honor goes to Lonesome Dove), at least not yet, but it is certainly not the “political hit job” those determined to protect the Kennedy from the truth would have you believe.
The Kennedys were human, all too much in some cases, but they did accomplish great things. Painting them as “American royalty,” as many do, belies the reality that they sought that power, it was not thrust upon them at birth. The Kennedys were and are not royalty, they were an ambitious family with the means and the will to fulfill that ambition at nearly any cost. There is a lot to be admired about that drive, but the means by which they chose to achieve it — something not unique to them or just Democrats — should also serve as a cautionary tale.
It remains to be seen if that is the lesson of The Kennedys, but thus far it is well worth seeing.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.