They sure seem to have an opinion about everything else
Searing Big Screen “Chappaquiddick” Thriller: Mary Jo Kopechne as First #MeToo Victim of Kennedy Family Money, Power and Corruption
by Roger Friedman - February 27, 2018 9:45 pm
I think John Curran’s masterful “Chappaquiddick” was shown once in Toronto for a handful of critics and distributors. Byron Allen was very smart to pick it up for his new Entertainment Company studio–it’s going to be a big hit. What he could never have predicted back in September that by now the movie would have a whole new layer of meaning: Mary Jo Kopechne, left to drown in the waters of Martha’s Vineyard in July 1969, was the first #MeToo victim. Her death, suggested here as caused by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, is the paradigm for everything being discussed today.
Curran has made a couple of movies I really liked– “Tracks” with Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver, and “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” with Mark Ruffalo and Marisa Tomei. He’s Australian and almost 60, so his sensibility is outsider and his interests would be the Kennedys and how power corrupts. The Australian part is lucky because he’s brought Jason Clarke along as Ted Kennedy, and it’s a powerful performance that should put him on early awards lists. Clarke was borbn to play Teddy as it turns out.
“Chappaquiddick” refers to a scandal that in hindsight is stunning that it didn’t end Kennedy’s political career– or put him in jail. Let’s say you’re a fan of Kennedy for everything but this episode. Still, on a boozy summer night — the same weekend that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon–a married but philandering Teddy drove his car off the Chappaquiddick bridge with Mary Jo Kopechne (astute performance by Kate Mara, she’s excellent), a young secretary who’d worked for his late brother Bobby, at his side.
Were they screwing, or just driving around, drinking, having a grand time? No one knows. But the car went into the water and turned upside down. Teddy escaped and did not try to save Mary Jo. He return to the party house where he and friends had been whooping it up, found two of his sycophants (Ed Helms and Jim Gaffigan), brought them back to the scene of the accident. By then, Mary Jo had certainly died.
They never reported the accident. Instead, they created massive cover up that presaged Watergate. The car and Mary Jo were discovered the next morning by passersby. Curran peels the cover up like an orange, and it’s beautiful to watch. Clarke portrays Teddy so ambiguously you almost can’t tell if he’s calculating, stupid, just a lost man child. The result is you can’t take your eyes off of him. Teddy’s scenes with his father– Joe Kennedy after a stroke, wheelchair bound, wordless perfection from Bruce Dern–are riveting.
The Kennedys will not be happy. They may try to kill this film. (In 40 years no one has even tried to tell this story accurately.) Allen will have to present quite a PR front and solid distribution. This isn’t a tabloid story. Curran is damn serious. If Mary Jo as #MeToo victim takes off, the movie will click. This really happened. Ted Kennedy–using his brothers’ assassinations for sympathy–convinced the world that he just didn’t know what happened to this beautiful, smart young woman. “Chappaquiddick” is quite stunning.
Release date is April 6th. More to come, oh yes, when we get closer…
The Kennedys' are an embarrassment to the Irish.
ReplyDeleteAside from the 1969 scandal from Chappaquidick, Teddy is also responsible for a deluge of the illegal immigration problems besetting this country. I remember Teddy's address to the nation following this incident. He went on tv wearing the Skokie collar and told aa whopper of a tale that included his claims of numerous attempts to dive into the water to attempt a rescue. Such bullshit. And then of course the bullshit attempt to barge his way into the democratic primaries against Carter. Remember during the fireman's strike in 1980 when Byrne put him in the St. Patrick's day parade. Amazingly, neither of them got shot.
ReplyDeleteYou see guys like Teddy Kennedy and marvel that they're impossible to embarrass. Can you imagine going on nationwide television with a bullshit story about a drunken driving incident, in which a female passenger, not your spouse, was found drowned in your car, without underwear and then enlisting a couple suck holes to try to prop up your story, worse, to make it sound like you're some kind of a hero. Too bad he made it through that plane crash. Well at least he didn't have to go out and purchase a cervical collar for the Chappaquidick accident, he already had one.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it the Kennedy's never made one comment about the JFK assassination. They had to go along with J Edgar Hoover and LJB's fairy tale that Lee Harvey was the lone assassin.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of not being able to be embarrassed, now comes Pat Quinn, the former accidental governor, with his ads for attorney general. In the ad that ran this morning, he talks about fighting Trump and protecting "you". I'd love to see Quinn go face to face with the 3 police officers whose attempted murderer was pardoned by Quinn on his last day in office. Just another phony bastard lapping at the trough, or trying to.
ReplyDeleteThis movie should've been made while Teddy was still alive
ReplyDeleteI can never forget talking to a 19th Ward political hack from my parish after this bloated alcoholic womanizer died. He was going on and on about what a great guy he was! I didn't say much but neither could I hide my obvious disgust with what he was saying. He knew I was conservative and thought he would try his propaganda on me. He always used personal anecdotes to argue his liberal points. For example if you spoke against illegal immigration he would say "my Dad came here illegally". Typical weak arguments. The Kennedys get weaker, uglier and less politically effective with each generation. Chris Kennedy is just a copy of a copy of a copy in which the picture just gets more blurry and fuzzy each time the copy is made.
ReplyDeleteThe worst Republican is better than the best Democrat. In the end the Democrats vote the way they are told to vote - higher taxes, deficits, gays, abortion, illegal immigrants and non productive citizens who vote for a living. Those are their constituents.
ReplyDeleteThey all need lobotomies like Rosemary!
ReplyDeleteGreat article.
ReplyDeleteTouche. Solid arguments. Keep up the good spirit.
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