The Kennedys (2011)

I watched this 8 part mini-series last week. I have always liked JFK and have learned a lot about the Kennedy family on my own. I was curious to see if I would learn anything new while watching this mini-series. I have to say that I did not. That doesn't mean I didn't like the mini-series because I did.

I thought John White was a really good choice to play young JFK and that Greg Kinnear was an exact replica of the older JFK. Katie Holmes also looked and acted like Jackie. I didn't think that Barry Pepper looked like the real RFK though, but he did act like him. The guy who played Lyndon Johnson did a good job and portrayed him as the arrogant, unintelligent person he was. The same can be said with the guy who played Joseph Kennedy Sr.

The mini-series was split into 8 parts. The first part dealt with JFK's World War 2 experience as well as his elections to Congress and the Presidency. The second part dealt with JFK becoming President. Part three was about John Jr's birth and the Bay of Pigs invasion. The fourth part dealt with JFK's pain from his war injuries and the Soviet/East German building the Berlin Wall. The fifth part was about desegregation in the South. Part six dealt with the Cuban Missile Crisis. The seventh part dealt with Marilyn Monroe and JFK's assassination. Part eight was about JFK's funeral as well as the assassination of RFK.

The mini-series focused on most of the important events in both JFK and RFK's lives. I am glad that it did not focus at all on Ted Kennedy since he was not on the same high level as his brothers. Even with JFK's adultery I still believe he was a really great President (he never lied about it to the American people like a certain other President did.) I think it would have been very interesting to see what would have happened had JFK not been killed in 1963 or if RFK had not been killed in 1968 and had become President. I think many things would have changed for the better.

This mini-series was a good, basic summary of the Kennedy family's political ambition and how the American public viewed them.