Posted on 04/15/2018 5:36:13 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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.
But utter contempt for your protagonist doesn't make for very interesting drama. So it is to the film's benefit that its director, writers and Jason Clarke in the lead role manage to locate enough humanity in the empty waddling husk of Teddy to make a compelling story. Mr Clarke is Australian, his director John Curran is American but has spent much of his career Down Under, and the screenwriters Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan are two first-timers born a decade after Chappaquiddick and who'd apparently never heard the word until 2008. 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.
In the shorthand of history, Chappaquiddick is a stand-alone event, but it occurred, in fact, on the July weekend in 1969 that Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon - and it arose from a reunion of the "Boiler Room Girls", the devoted young ladies who'd worked on Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign of the previous year. So Teddy, the youngest Senate Majority Whip in history, is nevertheless staggering in the shadow of both his dazzling brother's recent assassination and the fulfillment of his other assassinated brother's most audacious challenge.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
In 1961, as a student returning from Europe, I glanced at a US airport official's list of "restricted individuals". Only one name was on it: Christine Keeler.
Boy, hope I’m never the target of Mark Steyn’s scorn.
Continuing to be curious about Paul Ryan’s sudden desire to retire.
Yes, he is a brilliant writer.
Isnt it amazing that the whole of Massachusetts and America for that matter allowed him to get away with murder and then give him a life time job representing us and pay him for it......sick
“Continuing to be curious about Paul Ryan’s sudden desire to retire.”
Probably going to Fox News as “balance” for Jason Chaffetz.
First, the was a LEO (either a sheriff or prosecutor) who emphasized that he was a Democrat and he didn't want to be involved in a witch hunt on Ted. So he admitted that inconsistencies in the stories and events weren't pursued. He never expressed any desire to get to the truth. He seemed to imply that he know what it was and he didn't want to go there.
Second, one of the Boiler Room Girls maintained that there was no sex involved. Sure. Six older men (many of whom were married) and six younger girls for a party. That's the kind of naivete or secret-keeping that hounds love to hear. They admit there was lots of alcohol there but no sex? Sure. Come on, the secret's been out for years - we all know what kind of sleaze balls the Kennedy clan and its associates are. I would guess that there was never a vulnerable young female around Joseph, Sr., Joseph, Jr., John, Robert, or Ted who wasn't at risk (and let's not forget Rose looking the other way). The Kennedy's are scum at the Clinton level.
BTW, one of the cool things about the movie was all the extinct car brands that appeared: Oldsmobile (of course), Pontiac, Rambler, Plymouth, International truck. I didn't see a Studebaker but it wouldn't surprised me to learn that I just missed one.
I think growing up in Tax-a-chusetts in the 60s and 70s, watching the Kennedy's monarchy reign over that place is one of the reasons I went over to the "right side" as an adult. Never really talked politics with my parents. My dad rarely spoke about it, saying it was because he ran a retail business and didn't want to potentially offend some of his clientele. Looking back on it, probably a smart move, even in a state like Mass which, in those days, wasn't nearly as blue as it is today.
My mother, on the other hand, was a typical liberal hypocrite. She always claimed to vote for "the best candidate", but about 99% of them had a "D" after their names. And she had a particular blind spot to all things Kennedy, even after hearing some of the stories from my dad's customers about what tightwad bastards the entire family was.
Yes, that's the elephant in the room never mentioned. Six older - well, slightly older - married men off to a beach party with younger, single women with the booze flowing freely and it's all just innocent fun?! Right! And these women, the Boiler Room Girls, have been steadfastly silent for fifty years suggesting to me they were handsomely rewarded for same (one, Esther Newberg, was very high up in a publishing house and is now a bigwig at ICM, so maybe her buy-off was professional advancement).
And those Dem voters in Massachusetts kept electing him!
bfl
Liberals have no soul.
By the time Pauly retires, there will be an open bunk in A. Weiner’s cell.
I read the book many years ago. The movie plays Ted in the best light possible. As if he had a sense of moral values or was introspective.
It also continues the myth they returned to the car to help the woman. Since they drove back to the site they had a jack and a jack handle to break the windows. They didn’t try. Even a large rock would have got that job done. Nobody went back to rescue her. Simply part of the story they created. And the movie repeats this myth.
I am convinced he wanted her dead: Dead women tell no tales.
Only us Massachusetts yokels voted for Ted Kennedy. There was a real reason why he did not make President—the rest of the country had more sense than us.
The Dem party is practically a religion in Massachusetts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.