|
American Experience - RFK | 
 enlarge | Director: David Grubin
Actor: Blair Brown
Studio: PBS Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $15.82
You Save: $9.17 (37%)
New (24) Used (7) from $13.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 10966
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 120
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 705147
UPC: 841887051477
EAN: 0841887051477
ASIN: B000BITUKM
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: October 5, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED!
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 The Real Robert Kennedy- A Sober View June 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is somewhat ironic that at just the time that when presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, a recent addition to the Democratic Party pantheon of heroes and heir apparent to the Kennedy legacy, is claiming the nomination of the party that the 40th Anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy during the presidential campaign of 1968 is being remembered in some quarters. That event holds much meaning in the political evolution of this writer. The Robert Kennedy campaign of 1968 was the last time that this writer had a serious desire to fight solely on the parliamentary road for progressive political change. So today he too has some remembrances, as well. This documentary from the Public Broadcasting System's American Experience series only adds some visual flashes to those remembrances.
In a commentary in another space I have mentioned that through the tumultuous period leading to the early spring of 1968 that I had done some political somersaults as a result of Bobby Kennedy's early refusal to take on a sitting president, Lyndon Johnson, for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Moreover, I committed myself early (sometime in late 1967) to the reelection of Lyndon Johnson, as much as I hated his Vietnam War policy. Why? One Richard M. Nixon. I did not give Eugene McCarthy's insurgent campaign even a sniff, although I agreed with his anti-war stance. Why? He could not beat one Richard M. Nixon. When Bobby Kennedy jumped in and Johnson announced that he was not going to run again and I was there the next day. I was a senior in college at the time but I believe I spent hundreds of hours that spring working the campaign either out of Boston, Washington, D.C. or elsewhere. Why? Well, you can guess the obvious by now. He COULD beat one Richard M. Nixon.
It was more than that though, and I will mention more on that below. I took, as many did, his murder hard. It is rather facile now to say that something of my youth, and that of others who I have talked to recently about this event, got left behind with his murder but there you have it. However, to show you the kind of political year that it was for me about a week after his death I was in the Hubert Humphrey campaign office in Boston. Why? You know why by now. And for those who don't it had one name- Richard M. Nixon.
But let us get back to that other, more virtuous, political motive for supporting Bobby Kennedy. It was always, in those days, complicated coming from Massachusetts to separate out the whirlwind effect that the Kennedy family had on us, especially on `shanty' Irish families. On the one hand we wished one of our own well, especially against the WASPs, on the other there was always that innate bitterness (jealousy, if you will) that it was not we who were the ones that were getting ahead. If there is any Irish in your family you know what I am talking about.
To be sure, as a fourteen year old I walked the neighborhood for John Kennedy in 1960 but as I have mentioned elsewhere that was a pro forma thing. Part of the ritual of entry into presidential politics. The Bobby thing was from the heart. Why? It is hard to explain but there was something about the deeply felt sense of Irish fatalism that he projected, especially after the death of his brother, that attracted me to him. But also the ruthless side where he was willing to cut Mayor Daly and every politician like him down or pat them on the back and more, if necessary, to get a little rough justice in the world. In those days I held those qualities, especially in tandem, in high esteem. Hell, I still do, if on a narrower basis.
Okay, that is enough for a trip down memory lane back to the old politically naïve days, or rather opportunistic days. Without detailing the events here the end of 1968 was also a watershed year for changing my belief that an individual candidate rather than ideas and political program were decisive for political organizing. That understanding, furthermore, changed my political appreciation for Bobby Kennedy (and the vices and virtues of the Democratic Party). That is the import of this well-produced (as always) portrayal of the short life and career of Robert Kennedy. If in 1968, with my 1968 political understandings, I stood shoulder to shoulder with Robert Kennedy my political evolution and his political past, as detailed here, changed my perceptions dramatically.
This documentary highlights the close relationship between Robert and his older brother John starting with the Massachusetts United States Senate campaign in 1952 (and that would continue in the 1960 campaign and during John Kennedy's administration right up to the assassination). We are presented here, however, with the `bad' Bobby who was more than willing to join Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy's "red scare" anti-communist campaign and the anti-labor McClellan Committee campaigns against Jimmy Hoffa in particular. There is no love lost between this writer and labor bureaucrats like Hoffa (or his son) but a bedrock position then and today is the need for labor to clean its own house. What purpose does government intervention into the labor movement do except to weaken it? Bobby was on the other side on this one.
Under the John Kennedy Administration Robert, moreover, played a key role in putting a damper on the early civil rights movement in the South (as well as putting a 'tap' on Martin Luther King at the behest of one J. Edgar Hoover), the Bay of Pigs decision and aftermath , the Cuban Missile Crisis confrontation with the Soviet Union and the early escalation, under the rubric of counter-insurgency, in Vietnam. As readily observable, where I had previously downplayed my opposition to some of Bobby's positions I now put a big minus next to it. That is politics.
Finally though, I will frankly admit a lingering `softness' for Bobby. Why? The late political journalist Jack Newfield, one of the inevitable 'talking heads' that people PBS productions, a biographer of Robert Kennedy I believe but in any case a close companion in the mid-1960's and a prior resident of the Bedford- Stuveysant ghetto of New York City, made this comment about a Robert Kennedy response to his question during a tour of that area. Newfield asked Kennedy what he would have become if he had grown up in Bedford-Stuveysant. Bobby responded quickly- "I would either be a juvenile delinquent or a revolutionary". I would like to think that he meant those alternatives seriously. Enough said.
A story of growth February 10, 2008
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
This should be required viewing in high-school classrooms. It really seems to capture....as best as can be done in two hours who RFK was and even more so, because of his own personal tragedy and pain, what he had grown into.
If his life had ended in November 1963, then that would have left us with a story of someone who was just another talented, power-driven, and even ruthless politician. But it did not. And because of his brother's death, we are presented with Part 2 of his life...."The Awful Grace of God" where "in agony, he learned wisdom" and became a different person.
This film shows some incredible, almost surreal moments of the 60's particularly 1968. One that stands out and really shows this man's character was the often quoted speech in Indianapolis where he had to tell hundreds of black, hurting people that Martin Luther King was killed. Raw courage. Quoting Aeschylus to them the way he did. Just amazing to watch.
You really don't have to be an RFK "fan" to get something from this. I think if you're just a fan of humanity and how one person can make a difference in their world and grow and change. And with respect to the reviewer who didn't like this because they didn't interview his detractor's....would it really have mattered if they could have gotten the thoughts or comments of LBJ, Nixon, Jimmy Hoffa, or J Edger Hoover?
Moving, Informative, Perceptive November 3, 2007
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
The American Experience-RFK is an exceptional documentary of the growth of one of the most remarkable figures in history.
 Glorifying RFK October 7, 2007
15 out of 29 found this review helpful
PBS appeared to glorify Robert Kennedy as something of an enlightened, courageous, moral leader who, if given the chance, would have "saved" the United States from itself -- e.g. withdraw American troops from Vietnam, end racial strife, and institute social programs to further help the disadvantaged. Indeed, a large number of Democrats placed their hopes in his candidacy for the nomination, and the poignant displays of grief following his assassination underscored the strength of their faith in him. Without much surprise, in death, he was elevated into mythical status, even legend it seemed.
By failing to interview any of his critics, however, PBS offered a skewed image of Kennedy. Given his controversial nature and reputation for being combative, rude, haughty, and impatient, his position on the issues must have generated substantial debate and criticism. Unfortunately, because everyone in this documentary offered nothing but praise for him, viewers gain little insight into what the American public felt about him collectively.
Common decency enjoins us to assess Kennedy's career and life fairly, to weigh the good and bad equally. That being said, Kennedy worked for and thus helped Senator Joseph McCarthy destroy the careers of many innocent public servants. Despite the great injustices wrought by the Red Scare, he continued to express respect for McCarthy and made the Republican senator godfather to his first daughter, Kathleen. Following the Bay of Pigs snafu, he ordered the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro at least eight times, countervailing Langley's recommendation that his efforts would be fruitless. More revealing, however, was his unwillingness to clarify his orders in writing because he did not want to be held accountable for his decisions -- a mentality squarely at odds with notions of government transparency, moral leadership, and democracy. Lastly, while he excoriated corrupt labor union officials and Italian-American gangsters during his tenure in the Rackets Committee, he maintained a very sanctimonious position, even though part of his family's enormous wealth derived from his father's illicit bootlegging operations and hence ties to organized crime. Therefore, his behavior casts serious doubt upon the widespread Democratic conviction that he would have been a "good" president.
Thus, it remains unclear whether Kennedy would have kept his campaign promises regardless of the consequences. For example, his pledge to withdraw American GIs from Vietnam does not seem entirely convincing. His break from LBJ's war policies appear rather hypocritical in light of JFK's orders for the CIA to assassinate President Diem Ngo because the latter refused to permit large numbers of American combat troops to enter South Vietnam. In essence, his brother escalated the Vietnam War without fully considering the long-term consequences. As the second most important person in the JFK administration, he did absolutely nothing to stop his brother.
 I Really Enjoyed Watching This July 23, 2007
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed watching this. It had rare footage that I hadn't seen since 1968. It reminded me why I supported him in 1968, even though I wasn't old enough to vote yet. It brought tears to my eyes.
|
|
|
Copyright 2008 - RailroadBookstore.com
| |
