Jackie: Behind the Myth

Like most Americans in my age group, I've known Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis all my life. Well, "known" is perhaps too strong a word: I was familiar with the broadest details of her life, but until I saw this PBS-broadcast video, I didn't realize that I had never even heard her speak aloud, let alone appreciated that she was a poet, illustrator, fashion consultant, historian, book editor, and cultural activist. In this fine effort, Jackie's poetry and journal entries are interwoven with photos, newsreels, interviews, and home movies to illuminate the pivotal events in her life, including a childhood of privilege, her junior year in France, photographer position at the Washington Times-Herald, marriages to JFK and Onassis, triumphant overseas visits, interest in the arts and the White House itself, activism with the Grand Central Station's survival and refurbishment, two decades at Doubleday, and, above all, motherhood to her children. Although we could have survived the two hours had some of the gloss been less liberally applied, and Vinessa Shaw was a less than stellar narrator, this positive portrait of a woman of amazing foresight and conviction is highly recommended. P.S.--her voice? A lot like Marilyn Monroe's. Aud: P. (K. Glaser)