Politics Goes to the Movies: "Going Upriver:
The Long War of John Kerry" and
"Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed"

By Esther Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic

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On the coattails of director Michael Moore's success with "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Bowling for Columbine," more documentaries that tackle political and social issues are being released in movie theaters. "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry" is in wide theatrical release, and several other documentaries are in limited release, or are scheduled for individual screenings. In this part, we will review "Going Upriver" and "Chisolm '72: Unbought and Unbossed."

"Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry"

The release of "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry," during in the heat of the American presidential campaign, forces this 92-minute documentary into the war of words of the election season—talk of swift boats, discarded ribbons, heroism and patriotism. And this likely pigeonholing is too bad. This film is far more important for sharing the horror of the Vietnam War from the perspective of the Vietnam veteran, than it is for detailing the start of Kerry's public service career.

If judged solely by its likely impact on the race, it is likely to be a help, rather than a hindrance, to the Democratic presidential nominee. Director George Butler, who is Kerry's longtime friend, weaves together a story of one war and one man, offering insight into how a deadly and pointless conflict shaped Kerry's time as a soldier, and then how, disillusioned by war, Kerry helped to bring the soldiers home. By its end, the Vietnam War claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans, and the lives of 3 million Vietnamese.

Through interviews with experts such as historian-journalist Neil Sheehan, this film covers the painful turf covered by many White Americans when they talk about the Vietnam War, or war in general. If even as a subtext, they are usually talking about the divide between those who believe that a good American citizen always supports their government during a war, and those people who believe that good citizenship includes dissent from, and protest against, the government.

But as people of color, against whom these wars of mass bombings and countless civilians deaths are fought, the war rift is also this: when does American citizenship involve including people of color in the definition of humanity? When the super power war machine goes into gear, who are the White people who will stand up and not fall under the mantra-talk of gooks, or towelheads, or sandniggers as the enemy? Who will have human decency and moral courage?

This film demonstrates that, as a soldier, and in leading a march of veterans on the national mall, Kerry had that moral courage. His testimony at the end of the protest before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was eloquent and moving. "….How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam?" he said to the senators. "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

By the end of this film, however, you might wonder how to reconcile Kerry's clarity about ending the Vietnam War with Kerry's indecisiveness about ending the war in Iraq. The film does not go that far or draw those types of comparisons. It asks a lot of relevant questions but, as it only hints of Kerry's life after the Vietnam conflict, it leaves us clueless about his evolution in thinking today.

Without direct comparison, and through the simple telling of history with archival footage and photographs, "Going Upriver" does provide eerie examples of how American political maneuvering and military atrocities during the Vietnam War so closely mirror those occurring today in Iraq. Just as Americans were led into Vietnam under the guise of defeating the so-called spread of communism, Americans were led into Iraq under the guise of defeating terrorism and destroying nonexistent "weapons of mass destruction." Just as American soldiers in Vietnam were told erroneously that they were liberating the Vietnamese people who welcomed them, soldiers today have been given similarly incorrect information about the sentiment of Iraqis.

Especially powerful and grim is footage of Vietnam veterans giving testimony at the Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and several anti-war artists, including Jane Fonda, Graham Nash, David Crosby and Donald Sutherland, in Detroit. Their stories ask us to consider what voices we hear, and how—then and now—we measure ideas of patriotism and citizenship.

"Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed"

The bold campaign for the U.S. presidency in 1972 by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-New York) is one of those facts of Black history that could easily be forgotten unless we tell the story. In the new documentary, "Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed," which is being screened around the country, director Shola Lynch does just that: in a taut, well-organized 76 minutes, she chronicles Chisholm's campaign and how it fit into politically turbulent times that still shape the United States today

When Chisholm announced her candidacy, she had already made history in 1968 as the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She represented New York's 12th Congressional District of New York in Brooklyn. At that time, she had broken a barrier not only in Congress, where she faced a cold shoulder and random insults from colleagues, but also in the Black Congressional Caucus, a boys-only club that included many representatives newly elected after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

She was a newcomer, a maverick and an outsider to the Washington establishment, including the media, so the announcement of her presidential candidacy was considered a joke. When Walter Cronkite announced her entrance into the race, he said that she'd thrown her "bonnet" into the ring. She was not taken seriously, except by the tens of thousands who gathered to support her around the country.

Through interviews with Chisholm volunteers, including Barbara Lee, now a Congresswoman herself from California (and the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization to go to war with Iraq), Lynch ably captures the energy and excitement of the campaign. She also details the opposition it faced from both ends of the political spectrum. Racists sent hate mail and Chisholm was even stalked by a man armed with a ten-inch knife. On the other hand, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, embodied by Sen. George McGovern, was very concerned about Chisholm siphoning away Black support. At some point, Chisholm was forced into court to get equal time in a presidential debate.

One of the most fascinating topics explored only in part by the film is how Chisholm did not enjoy full support within the Black community. Some, such as Congressman William Clay of Louisiana, were suspicious of Chisholm's motives or of her support from the White women's movement. Some were jealous, or may have felt that Chisholm,with her church lady wigs and wide wire-frame glasses, did not embody the Black aesthetic or rhetoric of the time. Some did not feel it was the "right time" for such a run. In the end, at the Democratic Convention in Miami, even those who had steadfastly stood by her, such as Representative Ron Dellums of California, threw their support behind McGovern, who went on to lose to Richard M. Nixon in a landslide vote. President Nixon was then forced to resign two years later under threat of impeachment due to the Watergate scandal.

Lynch is obviously sympathetic to Chisholm but she does offer time for Dellums, Walter Fauntroy and others to state their point of view. She also includes footage from the 1972 Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which Chisholm did not attend, and during which the delegates decided not to endorse any presidential candidate. Interviewed about the convention, poet and author Amiri Baraka said that by not going to Gary, Chisholm played into the hands of her enemies.

Lynch loses some of the strength of her film by not including more about the initial spark that motivated Chisholm's run, or details about Chisholm's plans for the country if elected. There is the hint that Chisholm was an advocate for government policies to strengthen families, including Head Start and day care, but there is little inclusion of her fierce opposition to the Vietnam War, or her championing of other social reforms. The absence of this information creates a void in the film that leaves Chisholm surrounded by questions, the same questions that dogged her campaign more than 30 years ago.

Related Sites:

• www.chisholm72.net

Iverem's reviews of "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry" and "Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed" also appeared on www.BET.com.

—October 8, 2004

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