How ‘Chappaquiddick’ Distorts a Tragedy

Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the most famous members of America’s most famous family, understood that he belonged as much to popular culture as to political culture. Now, nine years after his death, comes a movie about the event that, almost as much as the circumstances of his birth, established him in the tabloid pantheon: Chappaquiddick.

This is one of those exceedingly rare times that I’m actually embarrassed for the writer of an article. You can almost hear this obsequious toady sniveling as he types this ridiculous whitewashing of an indefensibly cowardly act. Even a significant portion of the Kennedy worshipping NYTimes readership is calling him out in the comments.

Neal Gabler was only writing this for his friends; not for 'the public' and certainly not for any serious historical or journalistic purpose.

I just returned from seeing this movie as a matinee this afternoon. After reading this article before I left, I was frankly hoping for something more politically biased than what I saw.

The movie is as objectively factual as I think any portrayal of this incident possibly could be. It was as if the writers and producers set out to adapt the Wikipedia article on Chappaquiddick to the big screen as faithfully as possible. It is like "The Passion of Christ" in its historical detail. Although the acting and production quality were all top notch, I found the portrayal to be too generous to Ted Kennedy. He was projected as an abused son with a well meaning but weak moral conscience.

There were several flashback sequences offering a variety of interpretations. Only at the end were there two, less than a second each, glimpses of anything remotely sexual. The first was of a sympathetic Mary Jo Kopechne reaching out to caress Ted Kennedy's face and then one of her clothed upper body laying on the hood of his car. No mention was ever made of the actual police report of her missing panties.

Ted Kennedy was a sociopath who left his young mistress to die a miserable death in a misguided attempt to save his own political career. He waited ten hours to report the incident while the diver who found her body still grasping the back seat in the remaining pocket of air estimated she could have been saved had Ted Kennedy reported the incident in the first three to four hours. The movie didn't explain this fact either. Despite the wailing of this New York Slimes writer, this movie goes easy on the memory of this monster.

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