Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Primary 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.

Watching the difference in crowd reactions to the then nascent 1960 candidacies of John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey is a bit like watching the difference between teen girls reacting to Elvis and, say, elderly matrons reacting to Lawrence Welk, if I may be permitted to reference two musicians who were popular during this era. Kennedy was in essence the first of the rock star candidates, and it shows in the excited tittering of the crowds he attracted, while Humphrey, as jovial and decent as he obviously was, comes off as your average insurance salesman on a trip through Wisconsin to make sure your coverage is adequate. Primary kickstarted Drew’s long relationship with Kennedy, but it provides good looks at both Democratic candidates, offering insight into their differing styles and in some ways even their different policies.

Primary 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

While this presentation evidently underwent some restoration, as outlined above, this is still a somewhat variable looking transfer that still has a fair amount of damage. Interestingly, the Leacock edit is generally sharper, with a finer grain field and with at least a little less damage, than the original version. Both versions have occasional rather large and long lasting scratches the can run the entire length of the frame. In the original version grain is pretty widely variable, at times resolving rather nicely, but often looking extremely thick and gritty, to the point that it can mask fine detail. Contrast is generally excellent. This was obviously shot on the fly, and includes expected anomalies like some iffy focus pulling, and as such clarity and general detail levels can also vary.

Primary 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.

There are occasional amplitude fluctuations here, and the on the fly recording aspect means some voices don't really get caught all that well, but a lot of the direct to the camera speeches the candidates give are presented with decent fidelity and no real dropouts or distortion. Some of the kind of goofy campaign music that is included can sound a tad on the boxy side.

Primary Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Version (1080p; 53:22)


• Commentary is available under the Original Version submenu and is actually an edited 1961 conversation between Robert Drew, Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker discussing the documentary, which was then under production.


• Leacock Version (1080p; 26:53) was a redacted version quickly crafted by Richard Leacock in the hopes of securing a broadcast slot for the piece.

Primary Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kennedy's campaign song was a riff on the then popular Sinatra hit "High Hopes", and indeed Primary depicts a candidate with just that — hopes for the future. What ultimately happened of course gives this fascinating piece a somewhat bittersweet edge. Technical merits are generally solid, with an understanding of the 16 mm source and the fact that there's still some pretty substantial damage that can be spotted. Recommended.