“THE PRESIDENT’S REALITY SHOW”

By Raymond Benson

Robert Drew was a pioneer who changed the way we think about the documentary film. As first a writer/editor at Life Magazine in the 1950s, and then the head of a unit that produced short documentaries for Time Inc., Drew knew how to tell a story visually. When he formed his own company, Robert Drew & Associates, he was the guiding force for other talented (and later, more well-known) filmmakers such as D. A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, Monterey Pop), Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter), and Richard Leacock, among others. Together they invented a novel way to present a documentary film, something historians coined “direct cinema.”

Documentaries had previously been scripted, usually shot to order, and more often than not, were textbook dull. Drew and his colleagues developed the you-are-there style of following subjects around as they did their business, capturing significant moments as they occurred. Like today’s reality television.

The team’s work featuring President John F. Kennedy in the early 60s was especially influential and lauded with international film and journalism awards, and much critical acclaim. The Criterion Collection’s new release features four of these short films and an abundance of supplements.

First up, the most well-known title, Primary (1960). This was made during the Wisconsin primary race between Kennedy and rival Hubert Humphrey for the Democratic nomination. Cameras follow both candidates around the state as they campaign in various halls and meeting places. Both Kennedy and Humphrey agreed to the project, of course, for they and their staff are exemplary at ignoring the cameras and pretending the filmmakers aren’t there. Surprisingly, there is no self-consciousness on the part of the subjects. Besides the historical significance of seeing a young presidential hopeful—whom we know will be dead within four years—it is striking to see how differently a primary race was handled in 1960 as opposed to today.

Adventures on the New Frontier (1961) captures a day in the life of the president, filmed around a month after Kennedy took office. We see how his day begins, who his close assistants in the White House are, how meetings are handled, and how he makes some tough decisions. The cameras also then follow the various men to whom the president has given orders, and we see how those missions are carried out. Most of the day’s concerns regard an airline strike and conflicts in Africa. At one point, JFK has to take a break in his busy schedule to sign a bunch of photographs—for his sister’s family.

Crisis (1963) is the most engaging film because it’s the most dramatic. There are cameras not only in the White House, but in Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s home and office, and the residence and office of Alabama Governor George Wallace... during a tense time in the history of the civil rights movement. Wallace is attempting to block two black students’ entry into the University of Alabama (even though the students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, had already been accepted by the school). A Federal court order has been issued to allow the students to attend, and Wallace is ready to stand fast. Will the National Guard be called out? Will the Feds have to arrest a standing governor? We now know, of course, who was on the right side, but watching the drama unfold in real time is fascinating. It’s also a kick to see that everyone is smoking—cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos... The clothing, furnishings, and automobiles truly capture those same years featured in Mad Men.

Faces of November (1963) is a very short montage of images from Kennedy’s state funeral, more of a poetic silent movie than a documentary. Again, recognizing the young faces of Jacqui, Bobby Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Peter Lawford, and even JFK’s children, is a remarkable experience.

The first three films are fifty-three minutes each, the fourth only twelve. There is also an alternate twenty-six minute cut of Primary, edited by Richard Leacock. No director is credited on any of the pictures—only cameramen, editors, and other technicians. The Blu-ray features new 2K digital restorations of all five documentaries.

Supplements include an audio commentary on Primary with excerpts from a 1961 conversation between Drew, Leacock, Pennebaker, and film critic Gideon Bachmann. Robert Drew in His Own Words is a new documentary with archival footage of the man at work; there’s a new conversation between Pennebaker and Jill Drew, Drew’s daughter-in-law and general manager of Drew & Associates today; Outtakes from Crisis is just that, discussed by historian Andrew Cohen, author of Two Days in June; particularly interesting is an interview/discussion with former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and Sharon Malone (Holder’s wife and sister of Vivian Malone, one of the students featured in Crisis); an interview with Richard Reeves, author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power, in which he points out the disparities between the worlds of Washington D.C. then and today; and footage from a 1998 event at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, featuring Drew, Pennebaker, Leacock, and Albert Maysles. An essay by documentary film curator and writer Thom Powers appears in the booklet.

The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates is a spellbinding look into the past with a microscope on one of our country’s most charismatic and eloquent presidents. The films provoke a sobering speculation of what the world’s history might have been like had the events of November 22, 1963 not occurred.

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