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69% Critic Match
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment
6.9 / 10• 1963• 52m•NR• English
Documentary
Storyline
During a two-day period before and after the University of Alabama integration crisis, the film uses five camera crews to follow President John F. Kennedy, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Alabama governor George Wallace, deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and the students Vivian Malone and James Hood. As Wallace has promised to personally block the two black students from enrolling in the university, the JFK administration discusses the best way to react to it, without rousing the crowd or making Wallace a martyr for the segregationist cause. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1999.
Cast & Crew
JL
James Lipscomb
Narrator
Lead
John F. Kennedy
Self
George Wallace
Self
Robert F. Kennedy
Self
VM
Vivian Malone
Self
JH
James Hood
Self
Nicholas Katzenbach
Self
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Robert Drew's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
3.0
“Every frame feels alive. Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
