Thursday, December 21, 2017

While we're doing this reckoning. . .

. . . let's really get down to it. Heading to theaters soon:


Remember, Ted Kennedy was the America's conscience. Consider this bit of wisdom from Neal Gabler:
What we loved and admired in him, what we hope for ourselves and our country, is his sense of moral largeness, his unbounded capacity to care, not because he was a saint but because he wasn't. By challenging us as he challenged himself, and reminding us where we fall short, Kennedy shames us, a gift that, one suspects, will linger in the national soul.
A guy who left a woman to drown in an Oldsmobile shames us. I suppose that's right, but not in the way Gabler thinks it does.

8 comments:

Bike Bubba said...

Am I so weird for not wanting to watch repeated flashbacks of Mary Jo Kopechne drowning? If we need to have a *(&)(*&) movie made about this to figure out that "Dick 'em and dunk 'em Teddy" was a creep, I weep for our country.

(and yes, that was the nickname my dad learned for him--his company was based in Foxboro MA, and he came back with that one along with the lobsters he always brought home after business trips to HQ)

Of course, maybe I am weird. I stopped watching "West Side Story" after hour 2 when I realized I was just waiting for Tony to get killed. I know, it won Oscars and all that, just didn't need to see it.

Mr. D said...

I don’t think you’re the audience member that needs to see the movie, Bubba.

Bike Bubba said...

True, and weeping for my country.

3john2 said...

The trailer appears to be pretty unflinching. Is that why Gabler felt the need to throw some hagiography into the mix?

Brad Carlson said...

The trailer appears to be pretty unflinching. Is that why Gabler felt the need to throw some hagiography into the mix?

To be fair, Gabler's quote is from the column he wrote within days of Kennedy's death in 2009.

Mr. D said...

To be fair, Gabler's quote is from the column he wrote within days of Kennedy's death in 2009.

More fair than Ted ever was, of course.

Gino said...

i'm surprised the kennedy family hasnt found a way to stop this film.

3john2 said...

i'm surprised the kennedy family hasnt found a way to stop this film.

Well, Old Joe was the fire, Bobby had the brains. John-John, I guess we'll never know. Ted was just the bloated legacy, and since then the rest of the family is basically just going through the motions.