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Vet Management

By Scott Renshaw
Salt Lake City Weekly | September 24, 2004
I suspect that the reaction to Going Upriver director George Butler was hoping for was not how much more passionate and articulate John Kerry was 30 years ago. A veteran documentarian who introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world in Pumping Iron, Butler crafts a feature-length campaign ad for Kerry from Douglas Brinkley book Tour of Duty, letting friends and brothers-in-arms describe their recollections of his student days, his swift boat service and his activities as spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Political partisans would likely bicker over the versions of events portrayed here, but it’s hard not to see a primary goal of this awkward film as answering critics’ charges: “Here’s what he meant by throwing away ‘ribbons’ vs. ‘medals’! Here’s how he could be both a war hero and an anti-war crusader!” Yet once you get past the boosterism that makes it seem like Kerry single-handedly ended the Vietnam War, you do get compelling period footage of him as a smart, deeply committed leader and mesmerizing public speaker. If that John Kerry were campaigning today, it’s hard to imagine how he could lose.
Tags: George Butler, Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry

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