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Chappaquiddick Review

Chappaquiddick would probably be up there with Watergate in terms of political scandals if it weren't so hard to spell. For those who not might be familiar with it, some decades ago, just as we were landing on the moon, Ted Kennedy got drunk one night and drove his car off a bridge and into a pond. He walked away from the accident just fine, but his passenger, a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne, was not so lucky.

Unlike the heir to the Kennedy castle, Mary Jo slowly suffocated over a period of three to four hours, having been left trapped within an air pocket inside the submerged vehicle because Kennedy was too concerned about his political future to report the incident until he was forced to the next morning when civilians discovered the car.

Then he and his political fixers massaged the story just enough so voters desperate to see the Kennedy dream realized at last could look the other way and not feel bad about him going essentially unpunished for killing this young woman.  As a result rather than spending the rest of his life in jail for manslaughter, he spent it being repeatedly reelected to the Senate for so long that they still refer to it as "Ted Kennedy's seat" even though he's dead now.

Seems like it could make quite the captivating drama, doesn't it? I guess with all the properties from my childhood getting reboots anyway, somebody out there in Hollywood figured it was about time this story got told too.

To be frank, I was incredibly wary of this movie before heading in because Hollywood is not known for telling the complete truth about liberal heroes like the "Lion of the Senate."  Fortunately, for once, they played it pretty straight.  Let's talk about why you should see Chappaquiddick if you have any interest in correcting the historical record:



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