Produced by: Robert Drew
Crisis brings Drew Associates and the cinema verite audience back to a family featured in two of their earlier films: the Kennedy family. The focus however is on Attorney General Robert
Kennedy as he faces off against Governor George Wallace of Alabama over the issue of university integration. A federal court order required Governor Wallace to permit black students to enroll at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, but Wallace has no intention of letting them enroll. Wallace sees the court order as a violation of states' rights and threatens to physically block the students from enrolling. The situation is volatile and Kennedy seeks the advice of his brother the President. A plan is devised to attempt to reason with Wallace, but when that fails President Kennedy must send in the National Guard to convince Wallace to leave the campus. President Kennedy's decision is a difficult one, because fully backing integration could further alienate the conservative south, but he makes it anyway and ends the film with a rousing speech about civil rights and equality.Crisis provides an intriguing and intimate look into the life of President Kennedy and his brother Robert in a circumstance much different from that of Primary. The pressures of his office show on President Kennedy's face, especially during one of the most surprising scenes: a meeting between President Kennedy and his top advisers in the oval office. Another interesting and equally talked about scene is when Robert's daughter speaks on the phone with one of the Assistant Attorney Generals who had been sent to Alabama. By pure luck, the filmmakers were present at both locations and filmed both sides of the conversation, which turned into the first phone conversation in a documentary to be parallel edited.
4 out of 5 stars
Viewed February 1, 2012
