Adventures on the New Frontier

Apparently, JFK first muttered "ask what the media can do for me" before his other famous quip. Well, they could create this promotional piece that shows the president as just a common man who happens to be sitting in the most important office in the world. It's much more of a puff piece than Primary (this steals about ten minutes of that documentary). Watching it then must have seemed like entering the sacred temple; watching it now seems like a "what could have been" question.

John Kenneth Galbraith and John Steinbeck deconstructing J.F.K.'s presidential inauguration speech in the immediate aftermath in the back of a cigarette-smoke filled car, sure does make for good television. The framing of Kennedy's staff as characters in some sort of Free World play is quite compelling, and no doubt shaped similar documentary films to follow.