JFK: A Presidency Revealed delves unflinchingly into the presidency of John F. Kennedy, examining the political crises, social unrest, and personal intricacies that marked his administration. What makes this three-part series stand out is its willingness to admit Kennedy's faults--in particular his troubled marriage, his infidelities, his illnesses, and his sometimes-excessive use of painkillers to cope with the pain of his bad back--as well as the missteps of his presidency, providing a strikingly balanced and human portrait of this all-too-often-mythologized president. Particularly revelatory is how the inexperience that resulted in the bungled Bay of Pigs operation led, in turn, to a far more skilled and careful handing of the Cuban missile crisis, in which the world came closer to nuclear war than ever before and perhaps ever since. A wealth of film, video, photographs, and previously unreleased secret recordings provide new insights into Kennedy's political and personal life (Kennedy was, as this documentary makes clear, the first president to really use the media to achieve his goals, launching an entirely new political forum). Accompanying JFK: A Presidency Revealed are two episodes of A&E's Biography series--one a considerably more hero-worshipping profile of Kennedy that nonetheless provides worthwhile background information about his childhood and early career; the other a profile of JFK's father Joe P. Kennedy that explores the drive and ambition that set the entire Kennedy family on its political path. All in all, a valuable and informative document. --Bret Fetzer
Price: $19.95
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