LETTERS TO JACKIE : REMEMBERING PRESIDENT KENNEDY

To mark the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy  Oscar winning Director Bill Couturié (‘Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt’) has produced this tribute to the late President using some of the myriad of letters of condolences his widow received in the months after his death.  They had a lot to choose from …. some 800,000 in total …. a fact in itself that was an apt reminder of the days when people sat down and with due thought and consideration really corresponded with each other rather than just dash off a few careless sentences by email.

The letters were melded with some wonderful archival footage of some of the major events of Kennedy’s three years presidency such as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the Civil Rights Movement, and early stages of the Vietnam War.  Couturié gathered an impressive coterie of stars to read the letters …they included Jessica Chastain, Betty White, Frances McDormand, Allison Janney, Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Michelle Williams and Chris Cooper  …. which gave life to the voices of the countless strangers.

There were eloquent notes from articulate well-educated people, heart-felt pleas from schoolkids, grateful letters from African-Americans and even advice from a young polo victim on how the First Lady should get through her grief.  There was concerted anger at how the act of one solitary madman could rob the world of such a great statesman, and there was unfettered sympathy for Mrs Kennedy at being made a widow and a single mother of two very young children in the prime of her life.

Highly emotional, an extremely moving homage to the one Leader that every American feels impassioned about and deeply connected too.  Its a very touching tribute that when the final credits roll you realise that it has stirred a memory or two of your own of how he affected all our lives.

P.S. With months of his death a divided Congress, urged by President Johnson, honored his memory by joining together to pass the Civil Rights Act which is a centerpiece of Kennedy’s legacy.  

The movie has had a limited Theatrical release but will air on TLC in November in the US.

★★★★★★★★