Chappaquiddick follows the true story surrounding the events of the tragic accident involving then Senator Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old campaign strategist and family friend of the Kennedy family. On July 18, 1969 while vacationing on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy and Mary Jo get in a car accident following a night of drinking and end up submerged in water. The Senator survives and walks away but Mary Jo does not and the ongoing investigation changes both his life and political legacy.
Chappaquiddick is a portrait of a man in crisis. The Ted Kennedy that the audience is presented with is not the “Lion of the Senate” younger viewers are accustomed to, but one who is still grieving and in mourning of his older brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In the wake of their deaths, Ted is left to battle both national and, more importantly, familial expectations surrounding his pending Presidential run while also having to juggle being the little brother standing in his more accomplished brothers’ shadows. The pressures of accomplishing what his brothers either hadn’t done or hadn’t had the chance to finish, combined with his still fresh, unaddressed grief, created a man who was a shell of himself and vulnerable to mistakes that could lead to the tragedy that eventually occurred. The tribulations of Ted Kennedy presented in this film are an interesting examination of family dynamics and hierarchies as well as the pressure to live up to expectations that we all have dealt with at one time or another.
Throughout his life, Ted had been the younger brother of whom not much was expected. As he explains in the film, Joe Kennedy Jr. had been the favorite son, JFK the charmer, and RFK the brilliant one. No archetype or identity was left for him, or bestowed upon him by his father Joe Sr., except for the resulting lack of expectations. Growing up in this shadow undoubtedly had an effect on Ted’s self-identity and worth until pressure arose from the opposite direction; being expected to step in and replace his brothers’ brilliance and potential, after their deaths. What Joe Sr.’s neglect created in his youngest son was a little boy who only wanted to show his father that he had a reason to be proud of him. As we see in the film, even as a highly respected Senator to whom others would look to for guidance and a reason to believe, Ted would revert to a heartbroken child yearning for appreciation after turning to his father when faced with pressure. Joe’s emotional abuse of his son only lead Ted to making decisions that went against his baser instincts and only served to fulfill the Kennedy patriarch’s wants and desires. While this doesn’t excuse the choices that Ted made that fateful night and the days that followed, it does help to paint a more complete picture of the circumstances surrounding his life at the time that led to what happened and how a man who accomplished what he did throughout life ended up in such a precarious situation during this particular stage.
Chappaquiddick helps to clear the air for the younger people in the audience who may not have been aware of the full backstory on what happened that fateful night. Even as a person more curious about history than the average person, it always seemed curious to me how Senator Kennedy survived the scandal, particularly as I come of age in an era where one false tweet or statement can seemingly result in a notable person being ostracized for an extended period of time. This film does well in explaining how small decisions made by Ted Kennedy and those within his inner circle, as well as the international developments at the time, led to him not facing the harshest of consequences. The first light bulb moment came when I realized that Joe Kennedy Sr. was still alive and that Ted sought his counsel on the night of the incident. Following the late night call (memorably delivered by the great Bruce Dern as a post-stroke Joe Sr. struggling to let out a breathy “alibi!” after his son asks what he needs to do to survive the impending trouble) to his dad for help, we see the extent of the same Joe Sr.’s connections that won JFK Illinois in 1960 work to keep his youngest son out of jail and in the Senate. Every conspiracy theorist’s warning plays out on screen, a crisis management team consisting of old white men in suits sitting in a smoke-filled room, pulling strings and calling in favors from friends in institutions to keep those close to them in power. Another revelation during my viewing was learning that Chappaquiddick occurred on the same weekend of the moon landing. Having such a potentially devastating scandal overshadowed by perhaps the greatest achievement in human history at the time was a stroke of luck for Ted Kennedy and context not often provided when this tragedy and the lack of extensive consequences for the Senator are discussed. Seeing Chappaquiddick within its full historical context helped me to better understand why it played out the way that it did and will provide the same for many younger viewers.
Chappaquiddick is an interesting film that focuses not just on the salacious parts of a scandal or embarrassing a political figure. The film comes across as a straightforward retelling of a notable event in American political history that attempts to focus solely on the facts and providing context and background on all of the players involved while leaving the audience to draw its own conclusions and pass its own judgement. The film is well-paced and keeps you engrossed as you watch the story and fallout develop and as we see Ted and those around him faced with various forks in the road as they’re left to decide how they will respond to the moral questions that continually arise in front of them. Chappaquiddick succeeds in bringing to light not just the story behind this specific tragedy, but how those in power seek to preserve their possession of it, how pressure can affect the human psyche, and how the combination of these challenges can lead to great moments of either moral failing or triumph.
Image: Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
