On the evening of Friday, July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne drove off from a party together, but soon after, Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a one-lane bridge into the water below. Although Kennedy was able to escape the sinking car, Kopechne was trapped in the submerged vehicle and tragically drowned. Controversy soon erupted when details of the incident were revealed, including that Kennedy didn't immediately call the police. The events of that night, and the ensuing scandal, have been brought to life in John Curran's CHAPPAQUIDDICK, which stars Jason Clarke as Ted Kennedy, Kate Mara as Mary Jo Kopechne, Ed Helms as Joe Gargan, Jim Gaffigan as Paul F. Markham, and Bruce Dern as Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Our own Chris Bumbray caught the film when it played at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, and you can check out his review right here.
The official synopsis for CHAPPAQUIDDICK:
The Kennedy dynasty had lost three heirs apparent by 1969, and Ted (Jason Clarke) was, at the time, the family’s last hope to carry their name and ambitions into the upper echelons of US politics. Kennedy patriarch Joe (Bruce Dern), however, always considered his youngest son a ne’er-do-well — and he never let Ted forget it. The party on Chappaquiddick reunited the “Boiler Room Girls” who had served on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, among them Mary Jo (Kate Mara). Ted whisks Mary Jo away for a reckless moonlight drive that ends in tragedy. But the more profound malfeasance begins after the drowning — itself dramatized here in harrowing detail — when a battalion of spin doctors gets to work on covering up the incident, using the Apollo 11 moon landing as a distraction.
CHAPPAQUIDDICK will hit theaters on April 6, 2018.
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