Chappaquiddick

There are two tragedies in this film. The first is the death of Mary Jo Koepechne, the young woman left to die in an upturned car in shallow water. The second is Ted Kennedy's ultimate refusal to accept responsibility for his negligence. The fact that the second tragedy works so well in the shadow of the first is a testament to how well the movie is written and performed.

The movie begins with a montage of Kennedy family photos and audio describing the achievements and deaths of Ted's three brothers, Joe Jr., Jack, and Bobby. The implication is that Bobby lives in a world of tragedy already, but that he also lives in the shadows of three brothers. Throughout the film, we hear from Ted, his cousin Joey, the secretaries (including Mary Jo), and even Joe Sr. that Ted either needs to find a way out of those shadows or that he will never be able to get out from them. Ted wants to be his own man, but he can't quite escape the gravitational pull of his family name that, a mere decade before, had dominated American political life.

In seeming preparation for what could be a presidential run, Kennedy rounds up Jack's secretaries in order to try and get them to work for him. He invites them to a small cabin in Martha's Vineyard to drink and participate in a boat race (that Ted embarrassingly loses). The secretaries as a whole, save Mary Jo, have bought into the Kennedy mystique completely, but Mary Jo is scarred by the deaths of the Kennedy brothers and is reticent about coming back into the "family", as Ted puts it. Ted drives her back to town in an effort to continue to try and convince her, but he takes the ill-fated turn and drives off the bridge, overturning the car.

One of his first lines of dialogue after exiting the car cuts right to him. He's gotten out of the car (he doesn't know how) and walked back to the cabin. When he sees his cousin Joey out of sight of everyone else, he says, "I'll never be president." It's not the safety of Mary Jo whom he's left behind, probably dead, that concerns him, but his political future and his ability to live up to the family's expectations.

What follows is something between a comedy of errors and a tragedy as Ted, Joey, and advisors brought in by Joe Sr. work to mitigate the situation with Ted making poor decisions left and right from a sloppily written statement to the police (that gets to the media) to a neck brace that brings nothing but scorn due to its obvious needlessness. All through this, Joey, the faithful cousin lawyer, is Ted's conscience, begging for Ted to do the right thing by calling the police right after the accident, telling the truth, and eventually resigning.

It's the final scene, Ted's address to Massachusetts and the nation, that shows Ted as completely fallen and Joey's complete degradation in the face of Ted's insistence on weathering the storm. Joey has begged Ted to resign, even writing a resignation letter at Ted's request with the expectation that Ted would read it. But it becomes obvious that Ted's not going to do it. His voice seems distant. The lighting is low. There's something wrong, and he tosses Joey's letter aside in favor of the message written by Joe Sr.'s advisors. Joey's ultimate disgrace comes when he is shanghaied into holding up the cue cards for Ted in his final half of the speech. Joey does his duty, but he simply cannot believe what he's seeing and hearing from his friend. He had expected Ted to rise up above the shadow of the Kennedy family by doing what was right, but Ted had fallen in with Joe Sr.'s view of greatness instead.

It's that final scene that really makes the movie, distilling the central conflict within Ted by using Joey perfectly in contradistinction to Ted's actions.

The movie is well made, moves a little slowly but is compelling due to it's subject. The actors do a superb job. Even Ed Helms and Jim Gaffigan manage to make you forget who they are.

Kennedy and his handlers do not come off well, of course. It's a not a documentary and I do not trust Hollywood or the media to portray anyone historical character completely accurately.

For me, there are 2 take aways from the movie:

1. This was a sincere young lady whose life was cut much too short. It was difficult for me to watch her on screen knowing what was about to happen to her. She deserved better. Sadly, she is a footnote in history. We should refer to it as the Mary Jo Kopechne scandal, not Chappaquidick.

2. The end of the film featured "person on the street" interviews from 1969. It was amazing to listen to the ones who dismissed his short-comings and continued to support him. Seeing those interviews in the Trump era makes for an interesting perspective. Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton or Donald Trump, the American voter on both sides of the aisle will look past a man's sins if they think that person will advance their political agenda. The opposite is also true: People will mercilessly and unflinchingly condemn a person for his shortcomings if they don't agree politically. This was true during the 2016 election cycle. It was never about Hillary or Trump's demons, it was always politics. Until that is understood, people will never get why Trump has support.

The biggest unanswered question for me is: how did Kennedy get out of the car. If the doors were jammed shut and the windows unbroken, which kept anyone from getting Mary Jo out of the car, then how did he get out?

Ted Kennedy and his memory even today is idolized by various women's groups. This movie shows the truth for those of us who remember his abandonment of Mary Jo and let her die a slow, agonizing death in the car he crashed. And then his contradictory stories in the cover up. The powerful family even reached into the court system to block exhumation of Mary Jo's body, thus helping the extensive coverup. This is a real story about real people and until this movie, the media protected Teddy and his powerful family. More people should see this, the truth should be out there. And Ted Kennedy should not be idolized. He should have faced a jury on manslaughter charges.

Better late than never that the true story of the Chappaquidick coverup gets major attention. For the Kennedys, laws and rules were always for the little people. I'm of a generation old enough to remember Chappaquidick. It's good that the younger crowd gets to see how the Kennedys operate. Disgusting how Ted, backed by his army of fixers and p.r. Hacks, portrays himself and his family as victims, when he was responsible for a young girl's death. My only complaint about the movie is that it's too kind to him, leaning on the "dad made me do it" and the myth of Kennedy family devotion to "public service." As a resident of Massachusetts I am ashamed that after this miscarriage of justice the voters of this state continued to re-elect this execrable miscreant. By the way it's been reported that "powerful people" tried to stop the release of this movie.

Growing up in the 60's, and a fan of JFK, I recall reading about this event as an unfortunate driving accident involving Kennedy's younger brother Ted and his secretary Mary Jo, who had been drinking at a party, and were probably having an affair. Seeing this movie, I can't help but think it should have been made a long time ago, as so much is revealed about what really happened. But, I still think this is an important film for my generation and younger people who tend to hero worship without uncovering the tragic flaws. It's also a dramatic eye-opener about the political machinations used to retain power. The actors are good, the story is compelling, but more time spent on Ted before and after would have made it better. And I came away sad about Mary Jo and her family in view of her dedication to a worthy cause.