Despite the potential for seaminess in the telling of this story, it is presented with tact and in a manner that is not disrespectful.
JFK’s behavior is, to some degree ascribed here to his challenges with Addison’s Disease, which affects the adrenal glands and the entire endocrinological system, causing chronic fatigue. The Mid-Century treatment for this was intramuscular injections of testosterone and cortisone – and it was known to have the side effects observed in the President by the insiders interviewed here.
This is a classy TV documentary about a story that I’ve never seen fully told – and this is largely because the media in the early 1960s behaved differently from the way they do today. They believed that public figures were allowed to have private lives, apart from their public lives.
Today, of course, nobody is allowed to have privacy anymore, so the film is interesting for the contemplation of that fact, alone.
There are those who would say that some of our current candidates make JFK look like a choirboy. We all kind of knew these things about the scion of America’s Camelot but I never knew all of these details. For JFK buffs and for those interested in seeing how much our culture has changed, this film will be quite compelling but it’s a well-made piece, overall and be of interest to just about anyone.
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