The Kennedys Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Kennedys Blu-ray Movie Review

Real life or reel life?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 14, 2011

Will there ever be a time in America when the Kennedy family is not front page news? After the death of Teddy a couple of years ago, you might be forgiven had you thought that the generations’ long brouhaha surrounding the family’s exploits would have similarly died. But public fascinations like America’s with the Kennedy clan don’t go gentle into that good night, and in fact just as The Kennedys arrived on my doorstep for me to review, none other than former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy was literally on the front pages of newspapers and many online sites as recently revealed tape recordings of her in 1964 being interviewed by historian Arthur Schlesinger were publicly released in conjunction with a new book documenting the conversations, a book sure to be a major bestseller. Strangely, it wasn’t always so, though for anyone younger than, say, 65 or so, it might not seem like it. Though patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy was certainly in the news quite a bit, not just for his business acumen but for his notorious stint as U.S. Ambassador to Britain where he espoused appeasement of Hitler, it wasn’t until the rise of John F. Kennedy that the public really seemed to be outright obsessed with the Kennedys. Even the death of John’s elder brother Joseph Jr. during World War II only made passing headlines at the time. But there was something so ineffably charismatic about Jack and Jackie and the dawn of the new decade of the 1960’s which they seemed to uniquely personify that made them cultural touchstones unlike any other First Family of at least the 20th century and perhaps much more than that. And of course once JFK was cut down in his prime, the legend only grew, becoming downright mythic with the added tragedies which seemed to fall like karmic dominoes after JFK’s tragic assassination: Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in Los Angeles in 1968; Teddy’s disastrous car trip in Chappaquidick; the various peccadilloes that haunted the next generation of Kennedys, including a death from drug overdose; and then the unbelievable and unexpected death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in a flying mishap.

In the recently released interviews with Schlesinger, Jackie comes right out and states that she felt that God was unjust, something of course understandable given the hideous tragedy she had then so recently witnessed. But even those with a more sanguine opinion about what or what not be the Divine’s motives may be given pause by the incredible string of personal disasters which have visited the Kennedy family from the epic (like the assassinations) to the sad but more mundane (the recent salacious events involving Maria Shriver’s soon to be ex husband Ah-nold). Can anything account for something like this? Did Joseph P. Kennedy in fact make some sort of deal with Devil, as cynics have long espoused? While The Kennedys doesn’t delve into metaphysical explanations, it at least gives us an up close and personal look at one of the most riveting father and son(s) relationships in American history, one filled with a roiling subtext of suppressed passion and even rage, unbridled ambition and, yes, unmitigated idealism.

It’s more than a little ironic that the controversy which has so often swirled around the Kennedy name should continue into the world of this miniseries, which was commissioned by and originally slated to air on The History Channel. The Kennedys got quite a bit of pre-air press, wanted or not, when History declined to air the series and it then looked likely for at least a couple of weeks that the show would never see the cable light of day. While Reelz ultimately picked up the show and got fairly good ratings for a cable miniseries, gossip welled up that the real life Kennedys had attempted—successfully, for a while at least—to put the kibosh on the series, so distasteful did they find its portrayal of their family. And while it can’t be denied that The Kennedys is often melodramatic and even soap operatic, at least at times, it also can’t be denied that those selfsame elements are part and parcel of the actual Kennedy story.

The Kennedys is at its core the story of a kingmaker father (Tom Wilkinson in an amazingly visceral performance as the titanic Joseph P. Kennedy) who sees his own Presidential ambitions dashed due to his support of the Munich Agreement (something portrayed in the first episode and one of the few elements of this miniseries which may be new to some viewers), and his troubled relationships with his sons Jack (Greg Kinnear) and Bobby (Barry Pepper). The entire miniseries plays through the three sided prism of these interrelationships, and everything else—all the famous events, all the tragic circumstances—plays out as tangential sidebars surrounding this central conceit. While the miniseries may be faulted for not exactly toeing an historically accurate line (something The History Channel claimed was the reason for its nixing of the series), The Kennedys offers a handful of absolutely amazing performances that helps it to overcome at least some of the qualms some viewers may have with it. While Wilkinson is unbelievably effective as Joe Sr., he’s matched by an eerily effective evocation of JFK by Kinnear. Not only is Kinnear remarkably similar to JFK in terms of physical appearance, he has JFK’s Boston cadence down to a science and he is one of the most convincing onscreen JFKs to ever approach the role. Barry Pepper is perhaps less physically suited to playing Bobby than Kinnear is to playing JFK, but he brings real nuance to the role, both in his “middle child” relationship with Joe as well as his overweening guilt at having perhaps unwittingly caused JFK’s murder. While Katie Holmes doesn’t quite have Jackie’s little girl voice down, she, like Kinnear, bears an uncanny resemblance to the real life character she’s playing, and she brings some of the sophistication and charm of Jackie to her portrayal.

The fact that The Kennedys focuses on this triad of relationships is a two edged sword and accounts for at least some of the schizophrenic feel of the miniseries. On the plus side, there’s a lot of incredible interplay between the fine actors who portray Joe, Jack and Bobby, even if individual scenes tend to be overwrought at times. On the minus end of the spectrum, all of the incredible world shaking events kind of drift by like background noise, and one can’t help but think of other projects (like the excellent Thirteen Days) that cover at least some of this material. The miniseries can never quite escape from the shadow the real life Kennedys cast, especially since so many of these stories have virtually passed into the annals of American lore and legend. There is probably not a clan that is larger than life than the Kennedys, and The Kennedys in attempting to make them “everyday life sized” actually cuts down part of its own dramatic potential.

While the sometimes turgid dramatics get in the way of The Kennedys’ overall success rate, it’s impossible to ignore the often magnificent portrayal that inform the miniseries. In a perfect world, The Kennedys would have been able to more artfully balance the real life histrionics of the Kennedys with the nuanced acting which is fully on display throughout the miniseries. But that’s the problem with tackling subjects this iconic and whose history is so frankly unbelievable: it often seems unreal, even when the actors are virtual clones of the real thing.

The Kennedys Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Kennedys arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Director Jon Cassar and Director of Photography David Moxness favor an autumnal lighting scheme that casts many scenes in a soft amber glow which may give the appearance of softness at times. They also occasionally push contrast so that light penetrating windows assumes a slightly blooming effect. With those caveats in mind, The Kennedys offers well above average sharpness and clarity, with excellent fine detail apparent from the first moment of the credits sequence, when the fine stitching of the billowing American flag is completely apparent. The fine detail is especially noticeable in many of the costumes Holmes wears as Jackie, notably that famous pink suit and pillbox hat which became iconic after the tragedy in Dallas. One minor flaw of this presentation is a tendency toward minor crush in many of the interior, darkly lit scenes, especially those in Hyannis Port in the Kennedy compound. There are some minor usages of stock footage, both old newsreels in black and white and a couple of establishing shots in color that suffer from age and graininess as well as abundant damage. Otherwise, though, this is a nicely detailed presentation which offers excellent color with very good saturation, extremely fulsome black levels and a very appealing looking image.

The Kennedys Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Kennedys is presented with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that is excellent, though which doesn't really offer consistent opportunities for involving surround effects. The surround channels do come into play in several of the campaign and election day and night sequences (The Kennedys repeatedly ping pongs back to Election Day and Evening 1960), where crowds have assembled or the various Kennedys are running around the Hyannis Port compound. Even without consistent surround activity, this is a great sounding track, with excellent fidelity and nice dynamic range. Dialogue, effects and the elegiac score are all prioritized nicely in the mix and while this isn't a showy track by any stretch of the imagination, it's very artfully rendered and presented in lossless audio on this Blu-ray.

The Kennedys Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Behind the Scenes: The Kennedys From Story to Film (1080i; 45:04) is unfortunately a pretty standard EPK-fest, with the actors talking about their roles and various crew members discussing the project. This could have been the sort of fascinating comparison between real life and reel life that airs on, well, The History Channel. Instead it's a real missed opportunity.

The Kennedys Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is The Kennedys a documentary? Obviously not. Is it even relatively accurate history? Maybe in the big events it portrays, maybe not in the private worlds it claims to divulge. But is it fascinating? Absolutely, mostly because of the incredible performances by Kinnear and Wilkinson, both of whom are Emmy nominated for their work in the miniseries (my bets are on Wilkinson to walk off with the award). If you take The Kennedys with a grain of salt and can get past its tendency toward histrionics (albeit histrionics with that famous stiff Kennedy upper lip), there's a lot to enjoy here, especially with regard to the uncanny way Kinnear and Holmes resemble their real life characters. It may not in fact be history (or even History), but it's certainly interesting enough to come Recommended.