Review of Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry (2004) by V H — 13 Oct 2004

Back in his 20's, John Kerry was tall, handsome, charismatic, and eloquent. He's still quite tall. But back in his post-Vietnam days, before his face had fully elongated to its present freakish proportions, before his artificial smile had been frozen in place, before he became so incredibly, confusingly verbose, he was really quite an impressive young man.

This film, a documentary with a suitably wordy title, covers Kerry from his athletic youth to his service in Vietnam and on through his days as a war protester, when he helped organize the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. There's an incredible amount of early Kerry footage. Kerry playing pick-up football, sailing with John Kennedy, on the swift boat in Vietnam, interviewing veterans for the VVAW, leading a huge protest in Washington, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Apparently, the filmmaker has known Kerry for 40 years and has been filming him for 35. What amazing foresight. If someone were to someday decide to make a documentary about my life, I don't think there's even a single minute of film already in existence. Or at least I hope not.

Before seeing this movie, I really didn't know very much about John Kerry. I knew he wasn't George Bush and I knew I was going to vote for him and I knew he was so stiff on Letterman that he didn't even read the top 10 list properly. But after watching this film, 27-year-old John Kerry is my new hero. He fought in Vietnam, he witnessed atrocities, and he came home and tried to put an end to it.

In 1971, the relatively clean-cut Kerry organized a huge protest of scruffy, long-haired veterans who marched on Washington, camped out in front of Congress, and finally, at the end of the week, walked one by one to a microphone, said a few words, and tossed their hard-earned war medals over the fence. This isn't a "Cops"-like reenactment or a made-for-TV movie. This is real footage of real veterans who were so disgusted with the war that they were willing to throw away their precious Purple Hearts and Silver Stars to make a point. It's a very emotional segment.

As is the scene of Kerry's heartfelt testimony before Congress which included this somewhat famous excerpt: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" When he'd finished speaking, the crowd burst into wild applause. If this were fiction or even a docudrama, I'd think the scene was hokey and contrived. But this isn't a crowd of Hollywood extras chanting "Rudy" as the collective eyes of the audience mist over; this is real life.

If everyone in the country saw this film, I think Kerry would win by a landslide. But sad to say, when I saw it, I was the only person in the entire theatre. When I began this review, I gave this film a rating of 7, but as I wrote about it and thought about it more, I upped it to 8. I'm fascinated by the late 60's/early 70's protest-filled hippie days -- the music, the passion, the idea that it was possible to change the world -- and this movie clearly fits that bill. But beyond that, I tend to give higher ratings to films that make me feel something or inspire me or change me. And because of this film, I switched from being anti-Bush to being pro-Kerry.

Don't forget to vote.