Redefining ‘Chappaquiddick’
Film examines Kennedy/Kopechne tragedy.
Distracting from the scandals all around us today, Hollywood has revived the Ted Kennedy-Mary Jo Kopechne Chappaquiddick tragedy of 1969 for a new generation.
For those moviegoers who aren’t Boomers, here’s what to know about the real Chappaquiddick before you see the movie Chappaquid
dick (in theaters nationwide Friday).
❚ Chappa-what? That was what first-time screenwriters and executive producers Taylor Allen, 34, and Andrew Logan, 35 asked themselves when they heard the word on Bill Maher’s show.
They knew who Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts was. But they had never heard of what historians have called the most famous and most documented car accident in American history, when Kennedy drove off a bridge into a pond on a Massachusetts island and his passenger, Kopechne, drowned in the submerged car.
“We Googled it but we misspelled it, so it took some time” to get the details, Allen says. But the facts are murky, obscured by myth, political partisanship, conspiracy theories and never-ending conflict between detractors and admirers of the Kennedy dynasty.
Chappaquiddick isn’t a documentary, so it’s difficult to parse how much of it is accurate and how much is fudged or the product of dramatic license.
No independent scholar has come forward to endorse or condemn this movie. Political journalists aren’t sure what to make of it, either. And the latest book on the tragedy has an entirely different theory, that Kennedy was actual- ly with another woman in the car and neither of them knew Kopechne was asleep in the back seat.
No one from the Kennedy family or the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston agreed to talk to USA TODAY.
The senator’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, “isn’t commenting on the movie, nor is his family,” family spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter told USA TODAY.
Kopechne’s relatives also did not call back, but her aunt and her cousin wrote a column for USA TODAY saying they’re happy with the “honest” movie and how it portrays her.
“Chappaquiddick is an honest recounting of American history, pivotal to understanding the lengths to which those in power will go to avoid accountability, protect their power and preserve their political viability,” Georgetta Potowski and William Nelson wrote.
“We were pleasantly surprised with the care the producers, writers and cast took when tackling this movie, and pleased with their portrayal of Mary Jo’s character and ambitions.”
❚ The basics: Chappaquiddick is a tiny island off Martha’s Vineyard. Late on July 18, 1969, an Oldsmobile driven by Kennedy, 37 (played by Jason Clarke), careened off the ramshackle Dike Bridge, plunging upside down in Poucha Pond.
Kennedy, a father of three with a pregnant wife, survived. Kopechne (Kate Mara), 28, a respected political operative, drowned. Her body was found the next morning in the back seat.
❚ The context: It happened the same week Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon — a historic story that dominated front pages and newscasts around the world.
It happened as Kennedy was under pressure to run for president.
❚ The source: Allen and Logan say they based their screenplay for Chappa
quiddick on the official record. They say it is neither pro-Kennedy nor anti-Kennedy, it is pro-Kopechne and pro-truth.
“Even though I can be very tribal and a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, at the end of the day, the truth has no political party,” Allen says.
Their film, directed by John Curran, seeks to reconstruct what can happen when scandal strikes in an era of three networks, no cellphones, no Internet or social media, and way more trust in authority.
❚ Why now? Allen says the screenplay “started out as a character study, became a thriller and finally became a way to honor a woman who was tragically underserved and misunderstood. We wanted to finally give her a chance to be a three-dimensional human being.”
Logan says Kopechne’s name has been “dragged through the mud for al- most 50 years. This will bring to life the promising future she would have had.” ❚ What happened after the crash? Kennedy called his actions on Chappaquiddick “irrational and indefensible and inexcusable and inexplicable.”
He said he escaped through an open window and tried to rescue Kopechne but couldn’t reach her.
The film shows him lying about whether he had been drinking. It also shows he delayed reporting the accident for hours.
❚ The cover-up: The movie shows how a posse of menhelp contain the scandal, boss around deferential local cops and school Teddy in Cover-Up 101. No autopsy, they decree, and so it goes.
The nation’s attention is focused on the moon while the clock runs out on newspaper deadlines and the PR team manipulates the press to “write what we want them to write.”
❚ The speech: A week later, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the accident scene; he received a two-month suspended jail sentence.
A year later, Kennedy ran for re-election. He won with 62% of the vote.