‘Chappaquiddick’ Is A Brutally Honest Movie Laying Bare The Kennedys For Who

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ConstantLearner said:
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marybobo:
There is a slight difference. Ted Kennedy was a married man, at a gathering of his campaign mates, drinking with a group of young women who had also worked in the campaign. His drinking caused a tragic accident and then he left the scene to let a young woman die.
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I put some blame on Mary Jo herself for seemingly being willing to engage in a tryst with a married man. If that was, indeed, the case, she wasn’t an “innocent” victim.

Sorry, I cannot figure out how to reply to more than one person in the same post. I realize multiple posts are awkward.
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So you blame Mary Jo for ending up dead?!
 
I think the post I made is self-explanatory and there’s no need for me to keep repeating myself.
 
I am quite surprised this film came out - I have not seen it and don’t have any plans to but the Kennedys are still for many on the left, at least in the US, just this side of royalty. I expect negative films about Nixon. Perhaps this is all getting a bit generational - the younger left is not quite so committed, enthralled by the Kennedy legend as the older generations.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
Perhaps this is all getting a bit generational - the younger left is not quite so committed, enthralled by the Kennedy legend as the older generations.
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This could be. I’m in my later 40’s. I don’t have much of an interest in this case because it happened before I was born. I’m not sure how much someone younger than I am would be interested.

I remember Jackie Kennedy Being referrred to as Jackie O, she had already married Aristotle Onassis.

1969 was a pretty busy summer in the news though. The moon landing, the Manson Murders, this, Woodstock, the Mets winning the World Series.
 
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FollowChrist34 said:
I am quite surprised this film came out - I have not seen it and don’t have any plans to but the Kennedys are still for many on the left, at least in the US, just this side of royalty. I expect negative films about Nixon. Perhaps this is all getting a bit generational - the younger left is not quite so committed, enthralled by the Kennedy legend as the older generations.
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I don’t think there’s much to admire about the Kennedys. They seem a tragic family to me. Just being around them seems to cause others to experience tragedy, too. Look at Carolyn Bessette and her sister, Lauren. JFK, Jr. is the Kennedy I remember. I was on a tour of the chateaux of the Loire in France when I heard about his plane crash. Everyone, no matter what nationality, seemed interested.
 
They are legendary and the borderline quintessential American Irish rags to riches story. Joe Kennedy rose to power in an era where the Catholic Irishman was basically seen as a scourge of society, a ne’er-do-well.

His son sat in the White House. Two of his sons were Senators. He was an ambassador.

Collectively his children changed history in a lot of ways.

The Kennedy clan has indeed done some amazing things in the name of helping the common man. I believe that, and I understand the fascination they hold. They’re living American Royalty to a lot of people.

The Vanderbilts, the Guggenheims, the Wideners and their ilk are all essentially gone, but the Kennedys - as Kennedys - endure. My parents knew where they were when JFK and RFK were both shot. I was working at Duke Hospital when Ted Kennedy was treated there and actually had met him when on a Secret Service assignment as an Air Force military working dog handler back in 2000 at the Iowa caucus.

I was in DFW International Airport on my way to my brother in law’s wedding in England when I heard JFK Jr’s plane was missing…think about how you still know where you were, much like 9/11 and the Columbia and the Challenger. I find it interesting. (And remember, Jackie endeared herself to France all those years before.)
 
FollowChrist34 said:
Perhaps this is all getting a bit generational - the younger left is not quite so committed, enthralled by the Kennedy legend as the older generations.
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For a big chunk of an entire generation, the assassinations of Jack & Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. King, were formative events in our awareness of politics and history.
Younger generations will obviously have other formative events.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
It’s probably a mudslinging movie.
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Nah, it’s looking at a historical event. Besides, if someone really wanted to sling mud at Ted, it’d be easy. The guy wasn’t exactly a paragon of character.

For an anecdotal example, I used to manage a constituent service on the House side. We held an annual joint event with the Senate HELP Committee (on which he was a member) and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The year after he died, we were able to cut our alcohol catering to less than 25% of what it was the year before. He had a reputation for drinking our event dry year after year and pestering our interns. He was not particularly kind.
 
Historical events of which we should be focused on are those which changed the course of the nation or the world, not accidents by a man who made bad decisions while intoxicated.

The spec in the neighbors eye comes to mind here.

Jim
 
Pup7 said:
I was in DFW International Airport on my way to my brother in law’s wedding in England when I heard JFK Jr’s plane was missing…think about how you still know where you were, much like 9/11 and the Columbia and the Challenger. I find it interesting. (And remember, Jackie endeared herself to France all those years before.)
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People usually remember things best when they feel emotionally involved. Even those who did not like the Kennedys would have felt surprised, to put it mildly, at the assassinations of JFK and RFK and the crash of JFK Jr.'s plane. 9/11 had to evoke great sorrow in any American who has even an iota of empathy.
 
Pup7 said:
They are legendary and the borderline quintessential American Irish rags to riches story.
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Yes, you’re right. There are things to admire about the Kennedys even if they did make mistakes. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Won’t be me casting. I am definitely not without sin!

JFK was also a Pulitzer Prize winner, and at a very young age as well.
 
Have you seen the movie or read a synopsis? It’s based on history so it’s not like there are major spoilers but
IMO it didn’t seem like a hit piece at all. Ted Kennedy was made a rather sympathetic character caught in a web of trying to do the right thing, trying not to sink his career, trying to please his father, and sometimes all of these at once which is a recipe for disaster. Kennedy was known for his extra-marital activities later but it wasn’t made the focus of the story which is appropriate.
 
What you posted is blurred out.

Of course it happened, so it’s past or history.

But it had no effect changing world or national events.

Jim
 
I used spoiler tags in case what I wrote was too much for someone who wants to see the film; click on the blurred part and it shows.

I think it goes too far to say it didn’t have an effect on world or national events. If it hadn’t happened Ted Kennedy might’ve been the leader he wanted to be. His negligence changed the trajectory of his political career. He did okay but he was always in the shadow of his brothers but even more so this tragedy.
 
It didn’t effect America nor the rest of the world.

It was a tragic accident and being Ted Kennedy is no longer alive to defend himself, it should be let go.

Jim
 
Show how the event affected the United States, other than making some people hate Ted Kennedy ?
 
It forever changed his life and political career. The people of Massachusetts remained loyal to him but he was never going to have the same respect from the rest of the country or the world.
 
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