'Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry'
The documentary feature "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry," was directed by George Butler, a respected filmmaker and longtime friend of Sen. Kerry. Loosely based on Douglas Brinkley's book "Tour of Duty," Mr. Butler's film makes an eloquent case for John Kerry's courage, both during and immediately after his service in Vietnam. Watching his former shipmates testify to that courage, it's hard to reconcile their accounts with the naysayers of the swift-boat veterans commercials, unless you're willing to believe that the crewmen in this film were brainwashed en masse, à la "The Manchurian Candidate."
Conversely, watching Mr. Kerry's Washington appearances as a 27-year-old spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, it's easy to buy the film's notion that he jeopardized, quite consciously and thus courageously, a conventional political career. But how to reconcile the rhetorical style of those appearances -- impassioned, succinct, clarion-clear -- with the public speaker he's become? (This is being written before the presidential campaign's first debate.) Many blame the transformation on 20 years in the Senate, where bloviating is a way of life. I wonder if it isn't also the classic actor's problem of listening to one's self while speaking. Whatever the case, the young John Kerry certainly could bind spells.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109659734978833540,00.html?mod=weekend%5Fjournal%5Fsecondary%5Fhs
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