It’s not only a matter of taste but of tolerance.
When is enough enough?
– When Joseph Kennedy Sr., tells his son Jack, “There’s sex and there’s marriage and the two have nothing in common,” in “JFK: Reckless Youth” (8 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday, ABC-Ch. 7)?
– When Dan Rather listens to a technician point to a slow-motion slice of the Zapruder film and say something about Kennedy’s splattering “brain matter” in “Who Killed JFK? The Final Chapter?” (8 p.m. Friday, CBS-Ch. 2)?
– When the Walton clan returns and an otherwise sentimental and nostalgic gathering is spoiled by the heavy-handed subtext of the assassination of JFK in “A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion” (8 p.m. Sunday, CBS-Ch. 2)?
– When Larry King interviews such important figures as actor Michael Douglas and Twist King Chubby Checker about what they were doing on “November 22, 1963: Where Were You?” (7 p.m. Sunday, TNT cable)?
The 30th anniversary of JFK’s assassination is getting ugly.
And a bit frivolous, as witnessed in “JFK: Reckless Youth,” based on Nigel Hamilton’s best seller, less serious biography than soap opera.
The film covers the future president’s life from age 3 to his entry into national politics as a young Navy veteran in 1946. We get all the familiar stops, from childhood illnesses to prep school pranks.
The movie casts JFK as the son that Joseph Sr. couldn’t control but whom he was undeniably responsible for molding. Having lavished most of his energy, ambition and whatever strange form of love he was able to muster on his eldest son, Joe Jr., Joe Sr. (Terry Kinney) had to set a new course when Joe Jr. was killed during World War II.
Transferring his dreams to Jack (Patrick Dempsey) wasn’t easy, because the relationship theretofore consisted mainly of the old man’s meddling.
Central to the tabloidish tone of this mini-series is Jack’s passionate love affair with Danish journalist Inga Arvad (Yolanda Jilot). An older woman, still-married, Arvad is seen by Joe as a devastating threat to Jack’s future political career, even though the son hadn’t yet given a thought to politics.
Father does all he can to ruin the romance: trying to convince Jack that Arvad was a spy for the Germans and, the movie implies, having the FBI record Jack and Arvad making love.
Jack remained a frivolous sort, even when he became a Navy ensign during the war. But he changed as the result of the sinking of his ship PT-109, nicely dramatized here. He saved his own life, the lives of his men and kept everybody in relatively good spirits until they were rescued. In the process, he became a man.
Though there is much evidence elsewhere to suggest that Kennedy remained romantically reckless for the rest of his life, the PT-109 incident changed not only his course but his attitude toward his father. Catapulted into politics, Jack eagerly accepted the old man’s help, influence and money, but no longer his advice.
This is a slick take on the famous clan but it is not as lousy as it might have been, thanks primarily to some solid acting from Dempsey who, though looking little like Jack, captures the man’s mannerisms and style, and Steppenwolf Theatre’s Kinney, who is reptilian and slightly sad as Joe Sr.
On the documentary front, “Who Killed JFK? The Final Chapter?” (8 p.m. Friday, CBS-Ch. 2) has Dan Rather anchoring what purports to be an investigative report but is actually a rehashing of old facts, newsreels, speculation and we’ll-never-knows. It is a pale comparison to the “Frontline” investigation on the same matter that aired on Tuesday, and is shamefully notable because it provides painstakingly gruesome analysis of the Zapruder tape to figure out exactly where JFK’s brains were blown.
Equally upsetting if less blood-splattered is “November 22, 1963: Where Were You?” (7 p.m. Sunday, TNT cable), a ghoulish trip with the increasingly ghoulish-looking Larry King through interviews with such celebs as President Clinton, Rather, Sean Connery, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Ted Turner, King’s boss, about where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news of JFK’s death.
I know where the Waltons were: in the midst of the “Walton Thanksgiving Reunion” (8 p.m. Sunday, CBS-Ch. 2) set in 1963. It’s nice to see this homespun bunch again and learn what they’ve been up to. John Boy (Richard Thomas) didn’t grow up to be a writer-he’s a TV commentator; Ben (Eric Scott) stayed home and cuts wood with dad (Ralph Waite); Jason (Jon Walmsley) is a musician, Erin (Mary McDonough) a teacher, Mary Ellen (Judy Norton), a doctor. Unfortunately, all must operate under the cloud of the Kennedy assassination, an unnecessary and distasteful deus ex machina.
Channel hopping
You’ll have to dig deep into “Fugitive Nights: Danger in the Desert” (8 p.m. Friday, NBC-Ch. 5) to find the sort of dissolute character we’ve come to expect from Joseph Wambaugh. Wambaugh wrote the screenplay for this film from his best-selling novel and he plays it playful. That, combined with Gary Nelson’s carefree direction, makes this a frothy romp.
It has Teri Garr uncomfortably cast as Breda Burrows, a former L.A. cop beginning a career as a Palm Springs private eye and teaming up with boozy police detective Lynn Cutter (Sam Elliott) to investigate what appears to be the simple case of a cheating hubby.
There is much banter between the two; a young, eager cop along for the ride; a mysterious Mexican who eventually becomes the focus of the investigation; a convoluted plot; and, finally, in the person of Jack Graves (Raymond J. Barry), a Wambaugh creature.
Living in a trailer in the desert, this former cop is so wracked by guilt over his accidental shooting of a child that he is physically mutilating himself. Though most viewers will barely notice the man’s pain, he is nevertheless the most interesting character in this otherwise surprisingly ditzy dish.
– “Bill Moyers’ Journal: The New Holy War” (9:55 p.m. Friday, PBS-Ch. 11) travels to Colorado Springs, where we listen to advocates on both sides of Amendment 2 to the state’s constitution-passed by voters, it denies gays and lesbians the right to claim discrimination-share their views. Some of those voices are smart, some stupid but as the argument-the constitutionality of Amendment 2 has been challenged-moves toward a likely Supreme Court showdown, this is a battle that is just getting heated.
– Stories of abuse are now so common as made-for-TV fare that when another comes along it usually turns up the visible violence dial in order to fuel our emotional fires.
That’s not the case with the very good “A Family Torn Apart” (8 p.m. Sunday, NBC-Ch. 5). With a sensitive script by Matthew Bombeck and Craig Baxley’s supple direction, the film is further enriched by splendidly textured performances by Neil Patrick Harris and Johnny Galecki as Brian and Daniel, the adopted and abused sons of Joe and Maureen Hannigan (John M. Jackson and Linda Kelsey) who are discovered one morning brutally murdered.
Police attention is immediately drawn to Daniel who has a history of bad behavior. But the family’s lawyer (Gregory Harrison) starts to dig for the truth and eventually uncovers the sordid details-dramatized in admirably restrained flashbacks-of this seemingly happy family.
