Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
by Koji Masutani
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DVD details
Actor: James G. Blight, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. JohnsonDirector: Koji Masutani
Brand: New Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-10-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: NEW VIDEO GROUP
Product features:
- VIRTUAL JFK (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
DVD Review: Absolutely Riveting
Summary: 5 Stars
Of all the films made about President Kennedy, none has ever given me a more intimate and almost visceral feel for the great and relentless burden upon his shoulders. Nor have I ever admired him as greatly as I do after watching Virtual Kennedy, after appreciating how steadfastly he resisted the push by his military advisers, the Republican Party and the media to go to war. A position which I believe clearly resulted in his death.
Six times he resisted the drums of war, in just a thousand days. Having told the Joint Chiefs of Staff that he plainly and simply was not going to commit ground troops to Vietnam, period, this film makes the argument (along with recent books who look at the question) that it's almost inconceivable to imagine Kennedy sending in troops... it would have flown in the face of everything this man had stood for, had expressed both publicly and privately, and it would have gone against his very deep knowledge of international affairs, world history... not to mention his understanding of battle, having been there himself.
A beautifully produced film with an ocean of press conference footage seldom if ever seen, and presented in long pieces so as to appreciate the President's body language, facial expression and most of all the anguish in his eyes as he attempted to answer questions from the media without giving details that he knew he could not reveal.. No flash-pow MTV editing here - this film was made by grown-ups.
If you're looking for the usual fawning, celebrity idolatry of Camelot, this film is not for you. But for those who seriously want to understand the man and why he was taken from is, Virtual Kennedy will be an essential part of your video library. And it will leave you with an unusually profound sadness, not simply as is usually the case over his death (we don't need another video to open those wounds again, in that for most of us of a certain age those wounds have never healed.) Instead one is reminded of and mourns the horrendous price we paid as a nation for our ego and our ignorance.
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Description of Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
In the era of nuclear confrontation, John F. Kennedy attempted to prevent war six times during his short tenure as president. He didn't live to face a seventh. Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived takes up one of America's controversial what-if scenarios, examining the question: Would the U.S. have escalated the war in Vietnam if Kennedy was not assassinated in 1963? With insight and erudition, the film traces JFK's presidency a 1,000-day term plagued with tense political stand-offs through rare and previously-unseen archival footage, offering nuanced accounts of the former president's political decisions and, by extension, his probable response to the escalating conflict in Vietnam.Featuring unprecedented access into the leadership style of one of the nation's most important leaders, Virtual JFK sheds new light on the man who helped avoid war in six crises and did not live to save America from the devastating war in Vietnam.
Q&A with Virtual JFK director Koji Masutani
What do you think virtual history can teach us that the more traditional study of history can't?
We identify our film as a work of "virtual history," a term coined by the Harvard historian Niall Ferguson. Virtual history, Ferguson explains, involves the study of "what if" questions: the investigation of how the past would have unfolded had precipitating events or the underlying conditions been different. In the case of Virtual JFK, we ask what if Kennedy had not died in 1963? Would he have chartered a less-disastrous course in Vietnam than his successor, Lyndon Johnson? The approach is controversial. The Cambridge historian of Soviet Russia, E.H. Carr, described counterfactual narratives as a "parlor game." History, he insisted, is "a record of what people did, not what they failed to do." Yet, historical analysis, by its nature, presupposes consideration of roads not taken. We believe that virtual history can teach us (or remind us) about the contingent aspects of history that more traditional history does not emphasize.
What drew you to JFK's presidency as a subject?
My formal background in International Relations attracted my attention to JFK's presidency?particularly within the framework of foreign policy issues. Virtual JFK represents the synthesis of more than forty years of debate, much of it acrimonious, over what Kennedy would have done in Vietnam had he not been assassinated. Although I grew up outside the United States, I have always been keenly aware of the enduring debates over what JFK would have done, and the parallel debate over who or what was behind JFK's murder. Oliver Stone's 1991 film, JFK, integrated these two issues into a single and conspiratorial hypothesis. In Virtual JFK, we deal decisively with what JFK would have done, and leave it to others to debate whether, as Stone believes, Kennedy was killed because he had decided to withdraw the U.S. from Vietnam. However the debate about the motives behind JFK?s assassination may evolve in the future, we believe, on the basis of considerable evidence, that if JFK had lived, he would have withdrawn the U.S. from Vietnam.
Can you discuss your collaboration with producer Peter Almond, who produced Thirteen Days, the Kevin Costner film on the Cuban Missile Crisis?
As a young filmmaker who is constantly setting foot on new terrain (by default), I require--without exception--a highly experienced producer. As in any industry with more than one member, when newcomers arrive they are bound to encounter an infinite array of personalities, conduct, and intellect. So being able to find and connect with a producer who demonstrates first-rate efficiency, responsibility, and perceptiveness has been critical to my learning curve. The task of delivering the film to an audience would have been a wildly different and impossible operation without a producer like Peter Almond.
How did your collaboration with the authors of Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived: Virtual JFK (Rowman and Littlefield) come about? Was the origin of the project the book, or the film? How do you think the two complement each other?
I was fortunate to cross paths with two dynamic professors/authors from the Watson Institute for International Studies (at Brown University) almost immediately before graduating from college in 2005. I kept up a rigorous correspondence with them over email the summer after I graduated and, very quickly, we discovered that we had a team to be able to simultaneously produce a book, film, and a teacher's guide. The book and film?in particular?were produced side by side, and they complement each other in that one strengthens and enhances the other. There is only so much information that can be conveyed in an 80-minute documentary, and there is only so much that a reader can do to participate vicariously reading a book.
The project as a whole was not necessarily conceived within a narrow disciplinary framework, because the question of what JFK would have done in Vietnam long ago overspread disciplinary boundaries. Many people, from diverse backgrounds and professional allegiances, believe they have a stake in this question: government servicemen, journalists, archival researchers, historians, political scientists, economists, psychologists, novelists, poets, filmmakers, and songwriters. However, the specific origins of the Virtual JFK project lay at the intersection of three disciplines: Cold War history, diplomatic history, and the various branches of political science that deal with decision-making.
The Kennedy family continues to make news and capture our imagination as a nation. What do you think it is about the family and JFK in particular that we find so compelling?
To his admirers, JFK represented a presidential era of glamour, intelligence, wit and possibility. In my mind, this combination of assured traits plays well to the American attitude toward history, one where "personalities have always been more interesting than facts" (to quote Kennedy himself). This attitude toward history (and politics) possibly explains the receptivity to and appetite for all things Kennedy. To those interested in U.S. foreign policy history, of course, JFK and his assassination fuel interest for another reason: November 22, 1963, was the single most significant day in the history of the Vietnam War.
The film includes some incredible footage and audio recordings that were recently declassified and never seen or hear before. How did you go about tracking down these recordings?
For three years, we researched every possible source for footage and secretly recorded audio tapes revealing internal deliberations from the Kennedy administration. We conducted rigorous research via the National Archives, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and the Miller Center of Public Affairs (particularly with help from Professor Marc Selverstone and his team). We conducted research for 36 months (uninterrupted) and we even tracked down JFK's family friends who--to this day--have been in possession of rare footage.
In addition to footage that would have otherwise been locked in vaults for decades longer, and in addition to recently declassified materials in the form of documents and audio tapes, Virtual JFK proudly features 30 entire minutes of Kennedy's press conferences--revealing moments of dismay, suspense, and outrage. Half a century after his abbreviated presidency, Americans are still trying to figure out who Jack Kennedy really was, and we invite viewers to get to know Kennedy directly--without talking heads or experts speaking on behalf of Kennedy.
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