Taking on the Kennedys

Joshua Seftel's amusingly understated if technically ragged 1996 documentary chronicles the 1994 race that Republican Kevin Vigilante ran against young Patrick Kennedy for a Rhode Island congressional seat. Seftel, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat in the audio commentary offered as a bonus on the DVD, obtained permission from Vigilante, a dedicated physician with an impressive history of community service, to cover his campaign from the inside with few if any restrictions, and the finished product depicts the candidate as a hopeful idealist forced into tactics with which he is clearly uncomfortable by the hardball methods of the machine arrayed against him. Kennedy, on the other hand, emerges as a likable lightweight who wouldn't have a prayer of winning (and probably no ambition to run) were it not for his dynastic connections. As an account of a single campaign, Taking on the Kennedys is engaging enough, but it ultimately takes on broader significance as a portrait of the ways in which the American political process has been corrupted by the pursuit of victory above principle. In addition to the director's low-key commentary, DVD extras include the original television commercials of both Vigilante and Kennedy; an outtake of election night from Vigilante's perspective (he lost, of course); a humorous “making-of” short from 2004, featuring Seftel's parents; a brief 1996 interview with the filmmaker made for the PBS P.O.V. series; and a wry piece Seftel directed for CBS in 1996 about presidential candidate Bob Dole's hometown of Russell, Kansas (never broadcast, it remains unfinished). Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)