Going Upriver

Director George Butler is allowing the film, GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY, to be downloaded for free at Going Upriver. It should be viewable on most platforms using QuickTime, mplayer, MooVId, or any other player which supports MP4. The file is approximately 650 megabytes and should take about two hours +/- to download through a cable modem or a fast DSL connection (not recommended for dialup connections). I recommend downloading it via a BitTorrent client (there are several available at SourceForge.net). After you see GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY, please visit the movie’s website http://www.goingupriver.com/, and consider ordering a copy on DVD. A lot of information and reviews about the movie and a list of theatres across the U.S. where it is now playing, as well as image downloads, are posted there.

“An exceptional film. A calm, well-researched and thoughtful portrait of both a man and an era. It never rings misleading or untrue. Full of riveting interviews and remarkable archival material - that anyone who intends to vote this November should make every effort to see. Going Upriver would be a fascinating American documentary at anytime. But coming as it does now, amid the storm, thunder and vicious mud-slinging of one of the most heated presidential campaigns ever, this highly dramatic portrait of the first 29 years of the current Democratic presidential candidate�s life - focusing on his successive careers as Vietnam war hero and anti-Vietnam war protestor - is almost essential viewing.” — Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

I’m in the middle of watching it right now.

Synopsis : Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry is a feature length documentary about character and moral leadership during a time of national crisis. Loosely based on the best-selling book Tour of Duty by Douglas Brinkley, Going Upriver examines the story of John Kerry and the key events that made him a national figure and the man he is today. The film places particular emphasis on his bravery during the Vietnam War and his courageous opposition to the war upon his return.

The film traces Kerry�s early life as a young man who chooses to enlist in the Navy and to go to Vietnam. The film reveals intimate, first person accounts of Kerry�s war service through his own private letters, his eloquent journal, and the vivid memories of the men who served at his side. When Kerry came home disillusioned by the war, he and his fellow Vietnam Veterans challenged Congress and the Nixon administration. As Kerry became a nationally known anti-war activist, the Nixon White House plotted to discredit his leadership, but significantly could find �nothing on him,� as Colson reveals via Watergate tapes. Despite Nixon�s attempt to undermine John Kerry�s political career during his 1972 unsuccessful run for US Congress, Kerry persevered, eventually winning election to the Senate and receiving the Democratic nomination for president in 2004.

Going Upriver director George Butler (best known for his highly acclaimed films Pumping Iron, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Endurance: Shackleton�s Legendary Antarctic Expedition) first realized Kerry�s importance to his generation and began documenting his journey in photographs in 1969, covering Kerry’s leadership of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), his early political campaigns, as well as intimate moments of his personal life. The film weaves together Butler�s extraordinary photographs with archival film, interviews with Kerry�s closest associates, and more contemporary images of the Senator at home and abroad.

As a Vietnam War hero and anti-war activist, Kerry�s story is at the center of a defining era in American history. More than a biography of John Kerry, Going Upriver is the story of an American generation that came of age in the tumultuous sixties and that has now come to national leadership at the beginning of a new century — when issues of war and morality once again hold center stage.

**Update 9 Oct : After viewing the movie again tonight, this time with my two teenage sons, I barely choked back tears as my oldest son said, “Mom, he’s got to be president, he’s fought for all of us… he is what he says he is.” And I think so too. Smart kid I’ve got. You can’t fool kids, they see right through it. Get your hands on this documentary, or go see it in theatres, or buy the DVD… you’ll see what we mean.

*Update 10 Oct : Roger Ebert’s review. “Of all the dirty tricks in this unhappy presidential campaign, the most outrageous has been the ad campaign by the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” attempting to discredit John Kerry’s service in Vietnam. Supporters of the malingering Bush have shamelessly challenged the war record of a wounded and decorated veteran. Their campaign illustrates the tactic of the Big Lie, as defined by Hitler and perfected by Goebbels: Although a little lie is laughed at, a Big Lie somehow takes on a reality of its own, through its sheer effrontery. […]”