The Making of a President

With the political situation of the past few years (decades?) it’s hard not to be cynical when host T.H. White opens the first disc of this fascinating set by talking about the ‘noble art’ of politics. As an audience, we’re almost too jaded to not simply scoff and stop watching. But that would be a huge mistake, because the three presidential campaigns covered in the set — Kennedy Vs. Nixon in 1960, LBJ Vs. Goldwater in 1964, and Nixon Vs. Humphrey Vs. Wallace in 1968 — are among the most important of our lifetime. And that’s only partially because they are the birthplace of the kind of dirty politics that cause us to be so cynical today. The three films are not simply historical commentaries using archival footage. They were made during the actual campaigns and shown to audiences soon after, so there is a vibrancy to the stories they tell, minus any feeling of nostalgia, that makes them uniquely compelling.