Bobby for President (2018)

Title: Bobby for President

Year: 2018

Genre:  Biography | Documentary | Drama |

Season: 1|

Runtime: 245 min | 62 min/Episode |

Directed by: Dawn Porter

Starring:  Peter Edelman, Paul Schrade, William Arnone

 8,2/10

This four-part documentary series weaves together rare and exclusive footage of attorney general, U.S. senator, and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s.

Electing a country’s future leader is meaningful in so many ways, as this mini-series Bobby for President provides evidence for their audience. The documentary goes through the life of Robert Kennedy, brother of JFK and how he manages the presidential campaign that he was running during the late 60s.  John F. Kennedy is also included in the rare materials.  Much of what is presented in the documentary is just as relevant today, on how to change a struggling country for the better.  The mini-series doesn’t have a clear narration voice, which is a silent voice. instead, it relies heavily on archive material, interviews and animated stills with voice-over. The editing isn’t revolutionary. It considerably basic and most of the archive material doesn’t have that good quality.

The series covers John F. Kennedy just as it does with his brother and the docuseries points out that their act for nepotism was criticized by the time JFK was elected president and Robert was the attorney general. The music is fairly generic and doesn’t give much impact to the content. The documentary does also display some of the questionable action done by Robert Kennedy where the Civil Right movement was one of many actions he was involved with. The interviews are a beautiful shot and give the documentary a more exclusive feel. However, they don’t give much deep to the content of the story of the younger Kennedy.

As the archive material directs the narrative, it doesn’t really have a deeper tender heart of the story. Much of the documentary focuses on JFK and his administration.  Even if JFK is far more famous, Robert doesn’t feel like a front figure for the series. It much about the brothers but JFK  steals the spotlight. It also tries to present an alternative reality with another president of the Kennedy family if Robert Kennedy weren’t assassinated shortly after Martin Luther King, and this is presented in an untimely way of a conspiracy and the law enforcement covering up the murder.

Much of the series contain non-visible, horrible archive materials where it’s difficult to see what it is. Netflix has prior to this a record of doing well-made documentaries but this one didn’t make homerun all the way.