I am big enough to admit that I watched every episode of The Kennedys. I have great admiration for JFK, RFK, and Teddy Kennedy, but as someone currently trying to fashion a script based on an histoical subject, I didn't find its portrayal of the family beyond the pale. Nor did I see it as a political smear with rightwing overtones.
After reading all the historians' critiques (most based on a reading of an early draft of the script), I was prepared to be appalled by the whole thing, but there were some aspects I liked, most especially Greg Kinnear's eery resemblance to JFK, Katie Holmes's Jackie impersonation (she's the first actress to catch Mrs. Kennedy's way of raising her right eyebrow when she emphasized something), Barry Pepper was a perfectly reasonable facsimile of RFK in all his choirboy earnestness if not his charisma (though in some scenes he looked more like Dennis Hopper and sounded more like Bugs Bunny). And Tom Wilkinson and Diana Hardcastle made a splendid Joe and Rose Kennedy.
That they were entirely wasted on a terrible script should not be held against them. In fact, it seems to me the writers squandered a great opportunity with such a promising cast. Writing The Kennedys for the History Channel must have been very difficult, for the production has a nickel-and-dime feel to it worthy of that network, but they owed the Kennedy family better.
And so did Jon Caesar, the director, who should have at least given Kinnear more guidance. The actor could have delivered a terrific performance, but his portrayal lacked JFK's veiled, dry charm, dazzling smile, and confidence in his own intelligence. Someone should have told him that JFK modeled himself on Cary Grant, and always kept up appearances. Instead, Kinnear looked rather anxious and afraid, emotions JFK never publicly betrayed even when he presumably felt them. (Only in the Cuban missile crisis scenes did Kinnear strike the right note of his exasperation and his searching intellect.)
The show failed to show the stark contrast between the ailing private man and the vigorous public figure. The contrast should have been shocking, but Kinnear looked so miserable throughout the show that you did not see what JFK managed pulled off with his public persona. I was as shocked, years ago, to learn of all the pain he was experiencing and all the drugs he was taking, as the previous generation was by FDR's carefully concealed paralysis.
The devices with which the writers tried to lubricate the scenario were not so much scandalous as laughable. Not so much the showdown with Marilyn Monroe or the scenes of the President philandering, but certainly the scenes with Joe Kennedy, Sam Giancana, and Sinatra. Old Blue Eyes was portrayed as a mob broker with all the charisma of a wet weasel.
It also seemed to me inconceivable that the docudrama would purport to provide a comprehensive portrait of the family and never once, as far as I could see, mention Teddy, his stepping up to sustain the family after Bobby was assassinated (just as RFK did after JFK was assassinated), his struggle for redemption after Chappaquiddick, his ambivalent run against Carter, his boozing, his rehabilitation, and his turning into one of the most effective and longest serving liberal legislators in American history. Even now, it seems, Teddy just can't get no respect.
After reading all the historians' critiques (most based on a reading of an early draft of the script), I was prepared to be appalled by the whole thing, but there were some aspects I liked, most especially Greg Kinnear's eery resemblance to JFK, Katie Holmes's Jackie impersonation (she's the first actress to catch Mrs. Kennedy's way of raising her right eyebrow when she emphasized something), Barry Pepper was a perfectly reasonable facsimile of RFK in all his choirboy earnestness if not his charisma (though in some scenes he looked more like Dennis Hopper and sounded more like Bugs Bunny). And Tom Wilkinson and Diana Hardcastle made a splendid Joe and Rose Kennedy.
That they were entirely wasted on a terrible script should not be held against them. In fact, it seems to me the writers squandered a great opportunity with such a promising cast. Writing The Kennedys for the History Channel must have been very difficult, for the production has a nickel-and-dime feel to it worthy of that network, but they owed the Kennedy family better.
And so did Jon Caesar, the director, who should have at least given Kinnear more guidance. The actor could have delivered a terrific performance, but his portrayal lacked JFK's veiled, dry charm, dazzling smile, and confidence in his own intelligence. Someone should have told him that JFK modeled himself on Cary Grant, and always kept up appearances. Instead, Kinnear looked rather anxious and afraid, emotions JFK never publicly betrayed even when he presumably felt them. (Only in the Cuban missile crisis scenes did Kinnear strike the right note of his exasperation and his searching intellect.)
The show failed to show the stark contrast between the ailing private man and the vigorous public figure. The contrast should have been shocking, but Kinnear looked so miserable throughout the show that you did not see what JFK managed pulled off with his public persona. I was as shocked, years ago, to learn of all the pain he was experiencing and all the drugs he was taking, as the previous generation was by FDR's carefully concealed paralysis.
The devices with which the writers tried to lubricate the scenario were not so much scandalous as laughable. Not so much the showdown with Marilyn Monroe or the scenes of the President philandering, but certainly the scenes with Joe Kennedy, Sam Giancana, and Sinatra. Old Blue Eyes was portrayed as a mob broker with all the charisma of a wet weasel.
It also seemed to me inconceivable that the docudrama would purport to provide a comprehensive portrait of the family and never once, as far as I could see, mention Teddy, his stepping up to sustain the family after Bobby was assassinated (just as RFK did after JFK was assassinated), his struggle for redemption after Chappaquiddick, his ambivalent run against Carter, his boozing, his rehabilitation, and his turning into one of the most effective and longest serving liberal legislators in American history. Even now, it seems, Teddy just can't get no respect.
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