~ Mark Steyn, August 28, 2009
"Moses didn't leave a girl at the bottom of the Red Sea."
~ from the movie Chappaquiddick, April 2018
If you're going to lift a line from another writer to energize your movie script, you can't find a better source than Mark Steyn.
I've been planning to see the movie Chappaquiddick, but now I look forward to the experience with renewed interest. Critical reviews are largely positive, and at last the protective patina has largely worn off the Kennedy saga. It's about time.
When Chappaquiddick happened, I was a teenager. I remember watching Ted Kennedy give his televised version of what happened, several days after the accident. (By then, everyone in the Kennedy ranks had the party line memorized, and all were on the same page.) Ted Kennedy was wearing a spanking new neck brace and reading a script. As young as I was, I recognized a coward when I saw one and a lie when I heard one. Finally, a movie is presenting an unvarnished account of the horrendous event.
And if the writers felt the need to retrofit a quote from Mark Steyn in order to craft a more effective story, so much the better.
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| Senator Edward M. Kennedy leaves the Dukes County Courthouse in Edgartown, Massachusetts on July 25, 1969, after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal auto accident. Ted Dully / Boston Globe via Getty Images |
