In-Class Write

What important knowledge and understanding about the history of the United States can a person learn from watching your film?

The film Jackie is full of lots of historically accurate information and there are many things that can be learned from watching it. The majority of this information focuses on Jackie's grieving period and trauma in the days after the assassination of her husband. When preparing to play the role of Jackie, Natalie Portman got very into character and even learned how to eerily replicate Jackie's voice and facial expressions. She also used quotes that were said word for word when this important historical event took place. A well-known example of this takes place towards the beginning of the movie, almost immediately after JFK was shot and killed. Jackie famously refused to take off her blood-stained clothes. "Let them see what they've done" Jackie says. This is an important lesson for the viewer because it shows how deeply this affected Jackie. This allowed for a more authentic viewing experience and caused a blur between what was the real historical event and what was recreated. This movie allows the viewer to get inside Jackie's head and feel the emotions that she was feeling at the time. This teaches the audience of the film how to empathize with Jackie. The trauma for this event lasted the rest of her life, in the form of PTSD. This shows a deeper level of understanding of this incredibly relevant event in the history of the United States. 

This film shows a very in depth analysis of Jackie's attempt to redecorate many rooms in the White House. She believed that it should be rich with American history and culture. Switching back and forth from Jackie's tour of the White House to the days after the assassination shows how much changed in just a few days. It was said in the film that the White House was a place of "profound legacy", and that it was important to fully represent that. This movie portrays how this endeavor was considered somewhat controversial at the time, with Jack not wanting to spend money on "silly knick-knacks" and even saying "your little vanity project is going to bankrupt the federal government". While others contradict this saying "people need to know that real men lived here" and "what you've done here (in the white house) matters". This shows how everyone did not agree with the decisions that were made by the Kennedys at this time. This shows the flaws in their administration, but from Jackie's point of view. It was not necessary to add these scenes into the film, but I believe the filmmakers did in order to bring in a more historically accurate viewpoint and to teach the audience more about what the Kennedy administration was like from the inside.

What important historical facts and/or historical context will a person NOT learn just from watching the film?

While this film does show an interesting viewpoint of the Jackie's life, it does leave out a lot of historical context. I believe that this is because it takes place over such a short period of time. The film only focuses on the events shortly before the assassination and the few weeks after. There are a few flashbacks to the past but these are very minimal and do not add much historical information to the story. This film is more of a psychological analysis of Jackie's mental state at this time, so it really does not have as much history as other films do. Because the film hardly has more than a few seconds where Jackie is not present in a scene, there is not much room to add historical context because it is so focused on her emotions and reactions at the time. It does portray the events before and following the assassination in a shockingly accurate way, yet seems to fall short when adding other contexts involving the time period. 

The film does not add much to show what the Kennedy marriage was like. In my research, I learned that Jack's infidelity caused Jackie much distress, yet the film chose not to focus on this aspect of their lives and time being married to each other. I believe that adding this one small detail would have added much more weight while showing Jackie's mixed emotions after his death. This would have educated the audience more about the details of their lives. Jackie speaks of Kennedy's administration after his death saying "will he be remembered for solving the missile crisis or creating a crisis he was then forced to solve?'. This is one of very few relevant references to his efforts as President of the United States, and a large majority of the film focuses on what his legacy will be. Jackie plans a very elaborate funeral procession inspired by that of Abraham Lincoln's. This shows how important his image is to her, yet the film does not show the viewer what all he did in his time in office. This is most likely because it is understood that the audience would have some preconceptions about this, but the film still fails to touch on this in detail. 

Imagine that the person who made your movie was free to add another 20 minutes of time to it without worrying about losing the audience's attention. What historical events, people, details, condition or context would you suggest that the filmmaker include, and how would you suggest he/she do it, in a way that fits in with the actual flow of story and scenes in the film, as it exists, and potentially make the film better. 

I really enjoyed this film. I believe that it did a great job of showing an accurate portrayal of Jackie's anguish, while being educational and captivating at the same time. Because of this, there are only a few minimal changes that I would make if I could. The first change that I would make is to add a scene showing the journey from the motorcade to the hospital after JFK was shot. I believe that these few minutes traveling most likely felt like the longest of Jackie's life. The film goes into extreme detail about Jackie's efforts to save his life, holding his head together to prevent blood loss and even crawling onto the back of the car to retrieve a piece of his brain because she believed that the doctors would be able to put it back. I think that a long scene showing this time would add a lot to the film, and showing just how heartbreaking this moment was. This addition would add to the hopelessness shown shortly after he was pronounced dead. Another thing I would add to the movie was mentioned earlier in my writing. I think having more references to JFK's infidelity would add more layers and show that their marriage was not as perfect as some believe. I believe that these scenes would add a lot of depth to the film, and I believe that they are important because they allow the viewer a stronger insight into these important moments in history.