Way back in the day when I was in college (eons ago), I had a German Expressionistic film teacher that felt the need to show us Triumph of the Will, a Nazi propaganda film. It detailed the joy of becoming a Nazi, what it meant to be under the leadership of Adolph Hitler and how Jewish people were rats. It was the purist, most evilest form of propaganda in the history of mankind. That is no exaggeration. After seeing the film, I fully understood why people would buy into the most evil man in the history. This two hour display was cleverly crafted to make sure that people saw the best in the Nazi regime and nothing bad.
Why am I telling you this? Well, I’m not telling you this because I think Triumph of the Will is comparable to John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums; certainly not. Triumph of the Will was one of the worst things ever made with the worst intentions attached to them. I’m telling you this because propaganda films, no matter the circumstance, are just as bad (if not worse) than subliminal messages. And I’m not saying that John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums is a bad documentary in production style or how it was delivered, rather it’s bad because of the purpose behind it.
Having said all that on my giant soapbox, let’s dig into exactly what John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums is about.
The documentary starts off with the death of John F. Kennedy. You are thrown into a reminder of what happened to the man in November of 1963. The documentary basically runs on two timelines: 1. The funeral procession of President John F. Kennedy 2. What he did while he was in office. Each timeline is cleverly spliced together to show you all the good he did for the country/world and the end result of what happened to him because of it. It’s a clever way of doing things if you’re trying to get a rise out of his supporters. You get to see Kennedy’s election into office, various beautiful speeches he gave (such as the speech about the Peace Corps development) and everything leading up to his death. In between each segment, you get a piece of footage where his coffin is being moved to Arlington to his final resting spot. Imagine you’re getting good stuff, bad result, good stuff, bad result and good stuff with conclusive result. It’s very powerful and it certainly built some resentment towards Communists, USSR and Cuba. What’s incredibly interesting is how this government funded documentary completely points fingers towards these groups without placing actual blame on them. Again, pure propaganda.
This documentary was made in 1964 and released in 1965, so it’s a subject that was still incredibly fresh in the minds of Americans, therefore it would have been very powerful in the manipulation department because Americans were still mourning. Produced/funded by the United States Information Agency, the true intention of the film is pretty obvious.
Now with that said, the film does contain some pretty beautiful moments out of the man’s career. You get to see him make some remarkable speeches about the space program, the subject of civil rights and other beautiful milestones that President Kennedy didn’t get to see resolved. The documentary builds the man up pretty well and makes sure the viewers understand how much he was doing for the world. All of the positives in the documentary are certainly welcomed reminders of who he was during his tenure as President and life on earth.
Warner Home Video did a great job with preserving this documentary on DVD and should be commended for releasing it into the public, as it’s a rarely seen propaganda piece. The DVD does a fantastic job of preserving the gorgeous color film of President Kennedy giving speeches and appearing on television; footage that is rarely seen, but should be appreciated. The sound and the video is pretty clean for the DVD format, though I would love to see a Blu-ray version of this sometime in the near future.
