Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 2, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates.

You’ve probably heard of DirecTV, but have you heard of Direct Cinema? This subgenre of documentary filmmaking evidently owes its genesis, or perhaps at least its moniker, to Canadians, but among its best remembered proponents were American Robert Drew and his so-called Associates, a group which also included future documentarian luminaries D.A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles. Drew and his cohorts revolutionized the American political documentary with a series of works that “starred” John F. Kennedy, first as a candidate in Primary, and then following him in his Presidency as he addressed various crises, including forced integration of schools. While perhaps not as pressingly “relevant” today as they were when they were originally released, the four films assembled in this set are remarkable achievements, and give a visceral peek into the freewheeling world of American politics in general and the Kennedy years in particular.

Fans of our current presidential primary season may recall that in a recent Democratic debate Senator Kamala Harris took Vice President Joe Biden to task for some of the comments and/or actions he made and/or took with regard to busing. What busing was supposed to address, namely segregationist practices steeped in "separate but equal" (at best), is at the core of the viscerally compelling Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment, a look at what was, in 1963, becoming one of the prime controversies of American life in general and the Kennedy presidency in particular. This is a really fascinating piece that includes lots of footage not just of President Kennedy, but Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and the alternately gregarious and then unrepentantly pugnacious governor of Alabama, George Wallace (who actually says "There were brave people on both sides of that battle" when discussing the Civil War, in what may unintentionally remind some of a more recent presidential statement). Caught in the middle are two black students trying to attend classes at the University of Alabama, both of whom comport themselves with unusual grace, dignity and decency.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Primary is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the transfers:

Primary, Adventures on the New Frontier, Crisis, and Faces of November are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. These new digital transfers were created in 2K resolution on a Scanity film scanner. Primary and Crisis were created from Academy Film Archive preserved 16 mm fine grain positives; Adventures on the New Frontier from an Academy Film Archive preserved 16 mm fine grain positive and the original Drew Associates 16 mm fine grain positive; and Faces of November from the original 16 mm A/B camera negative. Preservation of the three Academy Film Archive fine grain positives was done by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in collaboration with The Film Foundation. 2K digital restoration was undertaken by the Criterion Collection. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI's DRS, which Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise management, jitter, and flicker.

This transfer exhibits some of the same variability in grain thickness that is seen in other documentaries on this set, but this also is largely free of any major damage in the form of scratches at least. Occasional smaller bits of dirt and white flecks show up, but on the whole this is a nicely organic and decently detailed (given a 16 mm source) presentation. There's some observable flicker at times, but no real issues with regard to contrast. As with some of the other documentaries included here, the on the fly aspect of some of the shooting leads to understandable variances in sharpness and clarity. There is some slight emulsion damage. My score is 3.75.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All of the documentaries included in this release feature LPCM Mono tracks. Criterion's insert booklet contains the following information on the tracks:

The original monaural soundtracks were remastered at 24-bit. Primary was remastered from a 16mm magnetic track; Adventures on the New Frontier from a 16mm optical soundtrack print; Faces of November from a 35mm optical soundtrack print; Faces of November from a 35 mm optical soundtrack print; and Crisis from the original 35 mm soundtrack negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX 4.

While there's some attendant boxiness to the use of cues like "Dixie" or "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" here, in terms of narration and even most of the on the fly discussions that take place, the mono track included here suffices perfectly well. There are occasional variances in amplitude and even fidelity, typically related to things like broadcasts being shown as part of the documentary.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While kind of oddly not included under a submenu for this particular film, as is the case with some supplements tied to Primary, there are two bonus features included in the main Supplements menu which are directly connected to Crisis:

• Andrew Cohen on Crisis and its Outtakes (1080p; 46:23) offers an analysis by historian Andrew Cohen, followed by a selection of outtakes that didn't make the final cut of the documentary.


• Sharon Malone and Eric Holder (1080p; 26:15) is a fascinating piece featuring the sister of Vivian Malone, featured prominently in Crisis, with her husband, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Since the above supplements are obviously tied directly to Crisis, I'm including them as "scorable" in the Extras score, above.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For probably completely different reasons, this documentary and Faces of November are the two pieces in this set which will grab most viewers at a gut level the most strongly. This is both an uplifting and disturbing piece of documentary filmmaking, in about equal measure. This is in some ways the most "relevant" documentary in the set for contemporary viewers, and it continues to pack a pretty significant wallop decades after its premiere. Highly recommended.