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This article was first published during the Toronto Film Festival.
Two of those events were incredibly public, happened on camera, and changed the course of history.
People under 30dont even know aboutthe Tonya HardingNancy Kerrigan incident from 1992.
Why would they know about a car crash in 1969?
But maybe they should.
The similarities between that era of political doublespeak and this one are striking.
Its a telling prelude that sets the stage for all that follows.
Were the Kennedys consulted on the project?
I dont think they want anything to do with it, Clarke told me at the post-screening party.
when his son calls to tell him that hes made a mistake.
All six men at the party were married; all six women were unmarried and under 28.
Mary Jo, in particular, had been so bereft over Bobbys death, shed left Washington.
Who knows anything between all the cover-ups and the cover-ups of the cover-ups.
Chiefly, how did the accident happen?
And what happened in the ten hours before Teddy reported it?
Mara, too, is memorable in her limited screen time which is the point.
She always gets erased from the narrative; that cant be helped, Curran told me.
But we wanted to be honest about who she was.
All those girls were highly educated, independent, ambitious, and integral to Bobbys election campaign.
History has sort of relegated her to being a footnote, just a secretary and they were sleeping together.
Theres no evidence that they had a relationship.
Even if they did, thats not what matters.
Among them:
Pulling himself from the car, but not Mary Jo.
Not immediately running for help.
(Not in the movie.)
Still not reporting the accident, despite Gargan and Markham, both lawyers, insisting he had to.
(The movie suggests this was bullshit, and Gargan and Markham had taken Teddy by rowboat.)
Complaining about a noisy party at his hotel.
Dressing in a suit to call his father from a pay phone and still not calling the police.
(This may be the movies conjecture.)
Getting breakfast at the club with friends the next morning.
Taking a ferry back to Chappaquiddick to make calls from a pay phone to friends asking for PR advice.
Still not calling the police.
Instead these are facts someone else found the car and made the call the next morning.
This is the part where youll want to throw your popcorn at the screen.
Within two days, the Armstrong moon landing had pushed it off the front page.
Didnt we just go through this?
a friend at the screening asked me.
Teddys crime was more severe, but he also admitted far more responsibility for what hed done.
Ignore anyone who says this movie has no relevance to today.
People need to understand that were not in new territory, said Clarke.
Who knows how the political climate wouldve evolved in the last half of the last century?
So I think the accident is definitely worth looking at and talking about.
I think it raises the question of, what if Bill Clinton had resigned?
Like you do in any other job, you recuse yourself.
Where would we be on the environment?
Not hide from the things weve done.
