Gary Hart Movies

For the Baby Boomers, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy took on the same since of tragedy as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks did for Generation Y - not only for the effect that it had on a nation's morale but for the conspiracy theories that would follow in it's aftermath as well. In the aftermath of the assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson plunged the country into a divisive and questionable war in part due to paranoia, thus creating an atmosphere of distrust and disillusionment that would linger for decades to come. Later, following the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, President Richard M. Nixon's flagrant abuse of power seemed the final nail in the coffin of American idealism. In this documentary, acclaimed filmmaker Robert Stone (Guerrila: The Taking of Patty Hearst) speaks with such renowned figures as Norman Mailer, Edward J. Epstein, Tom Haynden, and Gary Heart in order to explore the lingering malaise that still linger in the wake of the Kennedy assassination while drawing telling parallels between that pivotal event and the aftermath of the September 11th tragedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In the spring and summer of 1972, George McGovern, a Democratic senator from South Dakota, achieved the seemingly impossible. Backed by a motley collection of Prairie populists, old-school liberals, and young people disenchanted with the war in Vietnam, McGovern overwhelmed longtime party favorites such as Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States. However, McGovern's triumph proved to be short-lived; after his initial running mate, Thomas Eagleton, was revealed to have a history of mental illness, the McGovern campaign went into a tailspin from which it would never recover, with the incumbent Richard Nixon winning the 1972 election by a landslide. However, McGovern's campaign is still remembered by many as one of the last examples of a candidate truly triumphing through the will of the people rather than working the party political machine, and given the scandalous downfall of Nixon following his re-election, many have wondered what America would be like today if McGovern, once described by Robert F. Kennedy as "the most decent man in the Senate," had won. One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern is a documentary which looks back at the McGovern campaign and explores what went right, what went wrong, and what was McGovern's true legacy. The film includes interviews with Howard Zinn, Gloria Steinem, Gary Hart, Frank Mankiewicz, Warren Beatty, Gore Vidal, Ron Kovic, and McGovern himself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide