JFK - Reckless Youth (1993)

A good film, with Dempsey as a believable young JFK

The now complete miniseries originally aired on ABC the week leading up to Thanksgiving 1993. It does the Hamilton book almost perfect justice.

A freewheeling, intellectually engaged and winning young Jack Kennedy is pushed by an ambitious father and ignored by a remote mother despite precarious health because "Kennedys are...winners!" The film covers many milestones in the future president's life: his near expulsion from the Choate School; his withdrawal from Princeton in the wake of what was assumed to be Leukemia; his studies (and skirt chasing) at Harvard, culminating in the thesis which became "Why England Slept;" his Navy career and fling with Inga Arvad, the Dane suspected by the FBI to be a Nazi spy (she probably wasn't); and his election to Congress in 1946.

Though the film is candid about JFK's family, health and active social life, I have a few quibbles. It says his first book "hung the old man out to dry," attacking his father's policies of appeasement. Yet its publishing and even some passages of the final work were written by his father and Arthur Krock (though JFK wrote most of the volume). It portrays JFK as a starry eyed idealist in '46, hurt that his grandpa can't campaign for him, unwilling to mention his dead brother for votes or to work with anybody but his "junior brains trust" of Ivy League and Navy pals. None of this is true. I prefer the book's amusing opening to the 1946 race...Kennedy impregnating a secretary. JFK understood his abilities and his obligations to his family, and went "flat out, all out" to win the first race in 1946. If it meant looking the other way while his father strong-armed opponents out of the race, so be it. For this, the volume itself is the best resource...that or Kennedy vs. Nixon.

At any rate, this is a great dramatization of Jack Kennedy's early life, lots of fun to watch, and I'm no Grey's fan, but I always told people about this movie and how sensational Dempsey was in it. No better person existed for the role then, and doesn't now. December 29, 2007

Great film and story of young JFK

Though the casting for JFK was not physically similar, the actor doing the part made up for it with his work on the screen.Picture maintains your interest throughout. Great for history buffs. November 24, 2007

Patrick Dempsey's JFK

I purchased this DVD in the beginning of this year [2007] and -lucky me- the former incompleteness was already corrected. I watched this miniseries about fifteen years ago and I never forgot the brilliant performance of Patrick Dempsey as the young Jack Kennedy. Since then the two are inseparable in my perception of JFK and I have been quite amazed for a long, long time that Dempsey didn't reach star-status or at least became a sex-symbol. Of course this is history now since the succes of Grey's Anatomy and he acquired both, strangely enough at roughly the same age that JFK became president...

I believe that this production paints also one of the most accurate pictures of the [Joe and Rose] Kennedy household that I have ever seen: a strange blend of conservatism and modernism, freedom and discipline. Probably some of the ingredients that made the future president, his wife and brother such enigmatic and fascinating personalities.

Thumbs up for the wardrobe-department too: the clothing of the individual characters is impeccable and completely in line with the period. November 22, 2007

The DVD is now the complete movie - it's been corrected

I bought the DVD when it first came out and just got around to watching it (it IS 3 hours, and I'd seen it when it originally aired), and discovered I had a defective DVD. Thanks to reading the below comments, I knew it was a manufacturer's error and contacted the manufacturer's customer service, asking if the problem had been corrected and, if so, would they exchange it. Within the hour, they sent me an email requesting an address to replace the disc. I've just watched the new and improved DVD, so buy with confidence! (And the movie is really well done.) March 23, 2007

Misleading--this is only the second half of the series.

This series was originally on public television, and the original story encompassed JFK's life from childhood through his election to Congress. This DVD was a disappointment as it begins at the period just prior to WW2, leaving out some fascinating material dealing with Old Joe's ambassadorship to Great Britain, which was a fiasco, and other interesting components of JFK's early life.

Setting that aside, this one is worth owning and viewing. It gives a balanced view of the famous "PT109" incident, as well as of JFK's first run for Congress. Just know that this DVD is not the complete "JFK: Reckless Youth" series. December 24, 2005

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