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Dominican Rep. Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
- Original title
- Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
- Year
- 2004
- Running time
- 90 min.
- Country
United States- Director
- Screenwriter
- Cast
-
Documentary, Self: John Kerry
- Music
- Cinematography
- Sandi Sissel (B&W)
- Producer
- Genre
- Documentary | Politics
- Synopsis
- A documentary on Senator John Kerry's Navy tour of duty in Vietnam, his contributions to the peace movement that followed, and the ultimate shape of his future political career.
Filmmaker George T. Butler has a keen eye for political talent. In 1972, he began photographing a rising star on the bodybuilding scene named Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding," the resulting book - and later, documentary - helped to establish now-Governor Schwarzenegger's film career, and then his ascension to Governator. Just two years earlier, Butler had handled media duties for a young congressional hopeful: John Kerry.
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry is the culmination of a forty-year friendship between Kerry and Butler. They first met in 1964 and published a book together ("The New Soldier," about Vietnam vets) in 1971. Butler has documented Kerry's political career with thousands of photographs; Kerry is godfather to one of Butler's sons. This film, then, has a mission: it hopes to be a profile of the next President of the United States.
Yet, while hardly non-partisan, Going Upriver is neither callow hagiography nor rote campaign film. Kerry, as you may have heard, was a naval officer in the Vietnam War, where he captained a "swift boat" on dangerous river patrols. Having served with distinction, Kerry returned home and led a soldiers' peace movement, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Going Upriver focuses specifically on this period in Kerry's march toward Washington, melding an array of stellar period footage and interviews with contemporaries of the presidential candidate.
The notions of consciousness-raising and dissent among soldiers seems particularly relevant - if impossible - today and the striking portrait of the VVAW movement offered here is truly revelatory. As this is Kerry's defining moment to date, it is clear why Butler would choose to focus his attention on what this film convinces us was "one of the most astonishing feats of public leadership." It may be easy to be cynical about this film's purpose, but in an era in which votes are forged from sound bites, a full, nuanced account of Kerry's Vietnam service and activism is as welcome as it is necessary.
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