Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)
Drew Associates

Description

Having earned John F. Kennedy's trust with his 1960 campaign-trail film Primary, pioneering cinema verité documentarian Robert Drew expressed his desire to document a president in crisis. When African American college students Vivian Malone and James Hood prepared to enroll at the all-white University of Alabama in June 1963, governor George Wallace supplied the crisis, defying a federal court order and vowing to prevent the students' enrollment. Kennedy granted unprecedented access to Drew and his unobtrusive four-team crew, who used handheld cameras to cover both sides of the conflict.

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Chicago Reader | J.R. Jones

Nothing like it has been captured on film before or since.
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10 Amazon user reviews

Imagine George W. Bush allowing himself to be candidly filmed during a major crisis. Impossible you say. Yet less than fifty years ago, President Kennedy permitted just that as he dealt with the crisis of integrating the University of Alabama.
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9.2 The Onion A.V. Club | Nathan Rabin

Crisis chronicles, with thrilling intimacy, the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of the White House as it deals with good-old-boy segregationist Gov. George Wallace, who insists on physically preventing the integration of the University Of Alabama by two black students.
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8.8 DVD Verdict | Ben Saylor

The amount of access the filmmakers have to their subjects in Crisis is staggering; we get to follow Bobby walk up the path to right outside the Oval Office doors, and sit with the President and his advisors in the Oval Office itself.
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8.3 Fulvue Drive-in | Nicholas Sheffo

This was one of the all-time great moral victories won by any president. Crisis captures that unforgettably.
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8.0 DVD Talk | Chris Neilson

The level of behind the scenes access given by the Kennedy Administration to Drew's camera crews for Crisis has never been matched since.
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