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Mark Steyn: Chappaquiddick
SteynOnline ^ | April 14, 2018 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 04/15/2018 1:49:03 AM PDT by iowamark

As I wrote a few days ago, I had minimal expectations of Chappaquiddick The Movie, which opened last week despite the best efforts of the Kennedy family and their various retainers and enablers. I have always been revolted by the fact that Ted, after killing Mary Jo Kopechne, did not have the decency to do a John Profumo and retire from public life for the rest of his days - and I was even more revolted by the way Massachusetts voters did not have the decency to impose that choice upon him...

That combination of outsiders and neophytes may be one reason why this film is considerably more gripping and potent than a cookie-cutter limousine-liberal yawnfest like The Post...

This is a more sophisticated and blackly comic view of the nature of politics than, say, George Clooney's Ides of March. The acidic glamour of power corrodes even Mary Jo's fellow Boiler Room Girls. No sooner are they informed that their friend is dead than one of them steps forward to volunteer: "What can we do to help the Senator?" The ladies themselves, having kept their silence for half-a-century, are said to deny this version of events, and the words themselves are put in the mouth of a fictional Boiler Roomer created for the movie: "Rachel" (Olivia Thirlby). But, whatever their motivations, the actions of almost everyone in this tale facilitate the replacement of one victim by another: Edward M Kennedy.

Chappaquiddick is an excellent film that deserves to find an audience...

(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: chappaquiddick; chappaquiddickmovie; moviereview; steyn; tedkennedy
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1 posted on 04/15/2018 1:49:03 AM PDT by iowamark
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To: iowamark

Oscar nominated of course. /sarchasm


2 posted on 04/15/2018 1:54:49 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE
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To: Robert A Cook PE

Captain Oldsmobile was the only 20th-Century US politician even close to as evil as Satan’s Prom Queen.


3 posted on 04/15/2018 2:05:06 AM PDT by Fai Mao (I still want to see The PIAPS in prison)
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To: iowamark

I had some property on the Vineyard back in the 80s. When I gave my in-laws a tour of Chappy, my late b-I-l was almost apoplectic. Once you’ve seen the original site (it’s changed now) you realize what horse manure Fat Boy’s story was.


4 posted on 04/15/2018 2:06:42 AM PDT by metesky (My investment program is holding steady @ $0.05 cents a can.)
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To: iowamark

bookmark


5 posted on 04/15/2018 2:12:48 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: iowamark

Mark Steyn hits it completely out of the park.


6 posted on 04/15/2018 2:32:04 AM PDT by marron
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To: marron

“I was even more revolted by the way Massachusetts voters did not have the decency to impose that choice upon him... “

Revolted, yes. Surprised? No. They’re pathetic.


7 posted on 04/15/2018 2:44:15 AM PDT by Dr. Pritchett
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To: iowamark

Later


8 posted on 04/15/2018 3:13:50 AM PDT by I_be_tc
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To: Dr. Pritchett

Another universal suffrage success story.


9 posted on 04/15/2018 3:22:48 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Robert A Cook PE

The people of Massachusetts were diseased as they are today!


10 posted on 04/15/2018 3:23:52 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (Trump plays chess the rest are still playing checkers)
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To: iowamark

I saw this movie last week on my local theater’s $5 day. We should follow Mark Steyn’s advice and patronize quality movies. It is well worth seeing.

Official website:

http://chappaquiddickmovie.com/


11 posted on 04/15/2018 3:27:36 AM PDT by iowamark
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To: iowamark
...and I was even more revolted by the way Massachusetts voters did not have the decency to impose that choice upon him...

Mark,as one such voter (life long) all I can say is "you don't get to Massachusetts much,do ya!"

12 posted on 04/15/2018 3:37:52 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (You Say "White Privilege"...I Say "Protestant Work Ethic")
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To: iowamark

I refuse to see it because it should have been made 45+ years ago.


13 posted on 04/15/2018 3:38:32 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's.")
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To: Dr. Pritchett

See Post #12


14 posted on 04/15/2018 3:39:01 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (You Say "White Privilege"...I Say "Protestant Work Ethic")
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To: iowamark

>> I have always been revolted by the fact that Ted, after killing Mary Jo Kopechne, did not have the decency to do a John Profumo and retire from public life for the rest of his days - and I was even more revolted by the way Massachusetts voters did not have the decency to impose that choice upon him...

The media and his peers hid the FACT that he told Dead Mary Jo jokes. That detail was not revealed publicly until their “lion of the senate” was safely dead and buried.

Commie-Rats all of them.


15 posted on 04/15/2018 3:44:02 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Ads for CHhappaquiddick warn of scenes of tobacco use. What about the hazards of drunk driving?)
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To: iowamark

I don't know which is the more fitting symbol of the Kennedy family...a cheesy neck brace or the shaft of an expensive golf club (as was thrust through the neck of Martha Moxley).

16 posted on 04/15/2018 3:44:50 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (You Say "White Privilege"...I Say "Protestant Work Ethic")
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To: a fool in paradise
That detail was not revealed publicly until their “lion of the senate” was safely dead and buried.

Hang on,you've got your labels wrong.The Senior Senator from Vegas was the "Lyin'" of the Senate.Teddy was the "Conscience" of the Senate.

17 posted on 04/15/2018 3:48:19 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (You Say "White Privilege"...I Say "Protestant Work Ethic")
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To: Gay State Conservative

I’d like to know who advised him to include the tie in that hideous costume.


18 posted on 04/15/2018 3:56:02 AM PDT by RonnG ( v)
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To: Gay State Conservative

That picture reminds me of how pretty his wife Joan was. She became an alcoholic pill popping mess. The Kennedy’s ruined the lives of a lot of people.


19 posted on 04/15/2018 3:56:35 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: Dr. Pritchett

John Kerry made his entry into electoral politics by convincing the voters of the Commonwealth that he engaged in war crimes but did not find the experience gratifying. What do you expect of them?

I went to see Chappaquiddick with my wife last Saturday at 4:15 PM in the “Fine Arts” movie theater in Maynard, a blue collar town. It is the only film we’ve seen in a first run movie house since “Gravity”, which was a disappointment. There were about dozen couples who came to watch it at this showing, all like us roughly in their late sixties. After the film the place was silent. We sort of shuffled out, no one spoke. I doubt that there were any Kennedy worshipers in that audience.

My wife grew up in Massachusetts, as a Kennedy hater with a special animus for Ted. She would have preferred a more thorough demonization.

I was familiar with the story from Leo Damore’s compelling book, “Senatorial Privilege”, since re-issued (and sold out) as “Chappaquiddick”. The movie borrows heavily from the book. (Constable Huck was a twenty year old summer constable, basically a parking attendant in a uniform with a badge, not a regular police officer, a detail the film seems to get deliberately wrong, for whatever dramatic effect I know not.)

I will never forgive Kennedy for the disgraceful way he treated Robert Bork, and the farce of his sitting in judgment over Clarence Thomas.

Some time around 1990 I was taking a course at work on making presentations, vu-graph science in the days of mylar transparencies and the infancy of PowerPoint. The instructor was named Gargan, and at some point I asked him if he was related to the Kennedy cousin. His reaction was elusive, and a bit angry, which seemed to confirm the association. Small world.


20 posted on 04/15/2018 3:56:49 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Psephomancers for Hillary!)
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