Chappaquiddick by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan

Chappaquiddick by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan

Motion pictures depict many villains, despicable, abhorrent characters, as is the case of some recent films Pablo Escobar – in Loving Pablo with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz
Escobar http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2018/07/loving-pablo-based-on-book-by-virginia.html, or Gotti – a film with John Travolta http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2018/07/gotti-by-lem-dobbs-and-leo-rossi.html.

However, Chappaquiddick is different in that the hero is both a sort of a role model, the “Lion of the Senate”, fourth longest serving member of Congress, member of a legendary family, and a criminal, responsible to a large extent for the death of an innocent, young, idealistic woman.

This motion picture is extraordinary and deserving of a few Academy Awards for acting, writing and more, given the manner in which the plot is handled, the fabulous performances, from the leading role of Ted Kennedy who is played by the phenomenal Jason Clarke, through Mary Jo Kopechne aka Kate Mara and last but not least, Bruce Dern as the patriarch of the family, Joseph Kennedy.

The latter only has a couple of lines, if we could call them that, for he mostly mumbles something, his age and medical condition make it necessary for his nurse to read his notes, but feeble and terminally ill as he is, the head of maybe the most prestigious, prominent political family in America slaps his remaining son at a crucial moment.

Ted Kennedy spends a weekend at Martha’s Vineyard, sailing, flirting and philandering with one of the former secretaries of his late brother Bobby, although the motion picture does not delve much on the affair, it deals more with the tragedy and its aftermath.

For an alternative, if similar perspective on the events, you probably have very few, if any better alternatives than read the fantastic Black Water, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, by the remarkable Joyce Carol Oates – reviewed here - http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/10/black-water-by-carol-oates-this-book.html

The hero drinks too much, takes the girl in his car and drives, stopping along the way in a place where a deputy sheriff sees the car and comes to ask if they need help, only to see the vehicle speeding away in the dark, for it is now late at night, near Chappaquiddick.

Alas, the senator drives too fast, on top of being inebriated and choses a fatal maneuver that sends the car plunging into the Black Water, submerged very soon, trapping the young woman in a metal coffin.

When her body would be found, too late, the following day, the first observations made by the undertaker indicate that she had been struggling to get the last breaths of air, before the Black Water entered in all the corners of the car.

Meanwhile, Ted Kennedy escapes from the car he had sent in the water, walks home, makes a few phone calls, but not the crucial, lifesaving one to the emergency services that, if notified, might have brought the victim to the shore alive.

Nevertheless, the protagonist is both a vile personage that drives under the influence, does so in a reckless, criminal manner, instead of calling the authorities he is more concerned with his own persona, and a tragic figure in that he has always had to live in the shadow of his brothers, John Fitzgerald and Bobby Kennedy.

The motion picture is marvelous because it has such a complex story to uncover, where the hero is tormented by the lack of affection, recognition – at least not to the extent that benefited his late siblings – the fact that he is the only son left and appears pressed to run for president.

When he talks to his father, at times with the friends and associates brought in to control the damage done by the accident, Ted Kennedy states or suggests in some instances that he does not want the burden of seeking to become a president, he mentions feeling that there is a curse on all the Kennedys.

The death of the young woman is not just a personal loss, a catastrophe for her parents, it is also an event that would change the course of American history in that it seems to compromise the hopes for the highest office, which before the tragic death it seemed a forgone conclusion that the senator would be a candidate and the likely winner of the presidential elections.

In the aftermath of the accident, the hero presents another version, one would maintain that he was not driving, and then the alcohol is not mentioned, but there is the need to explain the nine hours that have lapsed between the fall in the Dark Water and the report to the police.

The experts invited by Joseph Kennedy would try to find excuses for the initial deposition, pretending that a doctor consults the senator and finds a serious concussion, suggesting tranquilizers- this version is almost immediately rejected, for they did not make the effort to check to see that for that particular diagnosis, tranquilizers can be deadly.

The protagonist uses a collar to appear at the hearings, moves around to swiftly, turns his back and makes movements that are again relevant, he is exposed for wearing a pretense, only trying to get sympathy and pose as a victim, to the exasperation of his cousin and comrade Joseph Gargan.

The latter would cover, help his relative, member of the inner circle of the family as he is – considered in fact as one of the brothers – but he is increasingly infuriated, enraged with this vast operation of covering up and transforming the party responsible for the death of Mary Jo into a martyr

Indeed, Joseph Gargan would retire from the Kennedy family after this loathsome incident and the following ordeal, never to return from private life.

This motion picture is exceptional and fair in its treatment of the characters, without exaggerated wrath and a balanced perspective, limiting itself to presenting facts, without taking sides or throwing exaggerated blame.