A behind the scenes look at a great moment in American history

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2017)

I recently caught the movie Jackie on Netflix and couldn't take my eyes off the TV screen as it moved from a series of post-assassination interviews to the events that lasted from a Friday to Monday back in November 1963. It took me back to those days as a 15 year old and showed what could have happened behind the scenes as the assassination of President Kennedy and its aftermath unfolded on our television sets. Nicole Portman as Jackie, the President's wife, is totally believable as a woman overcome with the emotion of a sudden family tragedy who planned and executed a nationally televised wake and funeral. She managed to get what she wanted--a funeral where she, JFK's brothers and a hundred heads of state walked in a procession; a suitable location for a grave site; a role for herself and her orphaned children; and a funeral template used a hundred years earlier for Abraham Lincoln. I was impressed with how the movie showed a young woman of 34 who was able to immortalize, against all odds, her love for her 46-year old husband and do justice to the office he held. The solemn and dignified woman we saw on television at the time was going through a living hell in private and we see this in one powerful performance. John Hurt as the elderly and wise priest, who counselled Jackie in her darkest moments was splendid. (The only cleric I had ever associated with the Kennedy assassination was Boston's Cardinal Cushing.) I was impressed with the performance of Peter Sarsgaard as Robert F. Kennedy, the President's confidante and brother, who comforted, restrained and supported Jackie while his own world lay in ruins. Caspar Phillipson seemed a good double for John Kennedy in a short but key role. I was disappointed John Carroll Lynch wasn't given more scope. His performance as Lyndon Johnson didn't show the softer side of this formidable president. Beth Grant as Lady Bird Johnson, a great First Lady, also seemed rather stern. Max Casella as Jack Valenti was Lyndon Johnson's pit bull toward the Kennedys. Billy Crudup as the journalist who wrote Jackie's story for Life Magazine was forceful but fair as he occasionally sparred with Jackie over the story she wanted and which she would carefully control for her public image. At the end, as he loosened up, he admitted the funeral was a great spectacle. This movie adds to our appreciation of that great spectacle.