Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Jackie

(2016)

For people of my generation, it is impossible to see that bloody pink dress with bits of JFK’s brains still on it without choking up. This is a fairly good telling of the assassination, death, and then the following four days of national mourning when Jackie was a rock, an iron lady, orchestrating every last detail of the state funeral, giving the nation something to remember as we dealt with our stunned grief. It seems to be pretty accurate, and even tells me some things that I didn’t know. The Secret Service shit a whole stack of bricks when Jackie insisted on a public walk behind the coffin. There were just an impossible number of windows overlooking the route, and no one could say for sure that Oswald acted alone. Maybe it was part of a plot. So it was a test of wills, and she won. And all the assembled heads of state, dozens and dozens of them, had to test their manhood by either walking with her or bussing it to Arlington. I’ll bet some of them were pissing their pants. Natalie Portman was nominated for the Oscar, losing it to Emma Stone. This was a fine performance, but the Academy chose rightly this time.