Chappaquiddick

This film disappoints. I remember the event quite well and most of the true happenings were covered up and this movie does nothing to add to the truth.

We will never know the complete truth, but money talks and happened in the cover up, but this was not even included in this film. It appears that even 50 odd years later, it is still impossible to get the whole truth, so the Kennedy power still reigns.

A sad day. I feel this movie should not have been released as the speculation will continue, yet a person lost her life and the culprit got away with it.

This retelling of the death of young Kennedy entourage "Boiler Room" secretary Mary Jo Kopechne and the involvement therein (or lack of same, arguably) of rising US senator and last surviving brother of the Kennedy family dynasty, Edward Kennedy, holds back little as it nails its accusatory colours to the mast.

I re-read as much background as I could on the tragic incident and it's difficult not to come to the same conclusion as the writer and director of this movie, that Kennedy firstly failed to attempt to rescue the stricken girl immediately after he escaped the sinking car, then got two of his slavishly obedient underlings to repeatedly dive into the river to try to save the girl, didn't report the matter immediately to the authorities where we learn that if he had, Mary Jo might even have made it out alive, before most shamefully of all, he played down and indeed lied about his role in the matter to go along with the abhorrent advice of the supporting Kennedy machine, a phalanx of important Democrats, including former Secretary of State Robert MacNamara, to cover up his part and so keep alive his future eligibility for the presidency.

As usual in dramatisations of real life happenings, some dramatic licence appears to be taken with events. For example was Ted Kennedy really so scared of his elderly, paralysed father, the family patriarch Joseph (played by an unrecognisable Bruce Dern) and so ashamed of himself as the underperforming last son of the family to justify acting in this deplorable spineless way? Then, was there anything sexual between Kennedy and Kopechne on the night - there are cryptic but inconclusive flashbacks shown hinting at something and Kennedy, whose wife hadn't made the trip, was a known womaniser. Did he really contemplate resigning the Senate right up to the last minute before caving into the surrounding peer pressure and instead turn his live TV broadcast into the contemptible self-serving speech it turned out to be, including his horrendous assertion that this was the infamous "Kennedy Curse" working on him - this just in Senator Kennedy, you didn't die, Miss Kopechne did - and in so saying, trying to bathe in the reflected glory of his two slain brothers? I also thought it was a major mistake to fail to mention the substantial payment that was made to the dead girl's parents, presumably to hush them up.

Only one person knows what happened on that fateful night and I concur with the film-makers' assertion here that Kennedy not only acted in a selfish, cowardly way at the scene - he even tried to weasel out of this by faking a medical report that he was concussed in the crash which affected his actions and then compounded the felony by "wearing" a neck brace for effect at the funeral.

This as I said is a brave film, justifiably, I believe, taking a side and having the courage of its convictions to stick to it. Jason Clarke is excellent as Kennedy while the rest of the lesser known cast give him credible support. The direction could have done with less of the voguish drone shots which seemed at odds with the realistic approach adopted elsewhere plus I found the soundtrack dull and again lacking affinity with the era portrayed.

I doubt this film will gain wide distribution but hope it does. It's an excellent drama, the tragedy of which is how realistically it depicted a tragically avoidable real life accident.

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.

I really cant say much for the movie. but there is a very good pod cast with the sherif that showed up on the seen..what really bothers me is if you look into the whole story... if you or i would have done something like this we would be in jail...just sad that the power and elites get away with it all the time..

The facts speak for themselves in this sober and sardonic telling of Senator Ted Kennedy's infamous late night car crash that drowned "Boiler Room Girl" staffer, Mary Jo Kopechne along with the subsequent cover up mostly stage managed by two of JFKs "best and brightest" Bob McNamara and Theo Sorenson. It is mostly a restrained telling as it displays less cynicism than pointing it out as the old gang huddles at the Hyannis Kennedy compound to plot and strategize for what they hope is a future President. Brother from another mother Joe Gargan attempts to get Ted to do the right thing but he is no match for the Realpolitik of Robert McNamara who is clearly running the interference, pulling strings and creating scenarios while local Sheriff Arena bungles his investigation, much of it in the favor of the Senator as a Kennedy flunky is dispatched to the deceased Ms Kopechne's parents to block access. It is a Humpty Dumpty make over and an unpleasant reminder of "justice" bought through power and influence in this democratic nation of ours.

There's an Oscar worthy performance to be found in tarnished angel's Ted played by Jason Clarke with a smarmy false bravado and unctuous cowardice while garnering great sympathy as he panics and leaves the girl to drown. Clearly the linch pin to the tragedy he is also responsible for some of the dark humor as says too much too soon, fails to re-new his license, comes up with far fetched attempts to elude blame and models a neck brace for effect before tussling on the floor with a fed up Gargan.

Kate Mara's Mary Joe rings with a mature and melancholy sincerity, her scenes with Ted tastefully handled, more concerned with revealing two people at uncertain moments in their life than a just a roll in the sand. Helms as Gargan suffers nobly and humiliatingly much by way of reaction. Bruce Dern as paralyzed dad Joe does as well but in a much more severe way while Clancy Brown's former Defense Secretary McNamara is take charge impressive in a room of heavyweights.

James Curran's direction is well paced and edited as he smoothly moves the investigation along amid the chaos of what's at stake as well as provide jarring flashbacks and allowing Mary-Jo in her own way provide brutal testimony to the audience. Overall the direction and writing (Taylor Allen, William Logan) is neither venally strident nor smugly damning as the film portrays the tragically flawed Kennedy, justifiably in some way, as a victim for being less than a great man in a circle that would not settle for anything but before once again finding himself out of his depth.