Primary

Several things occurred to me last night while we were watching Primary.

1: The camera loves Jackie Kennedy. It was fascinating how much screen time she received compared to Humphrey's wife, who receives virtually none. I loved the shot of Jackie fidgeting with her hands in their pristine white gloves, as it seemed to communicate a vulnerability and innocence not often shown on the campaign trail. Interestingly, although we see her a lot on camera, we don't hear from her much at all. In this sense, her presence is similar to Humphrey's wife, who I believe never addresses the film audience, nor do we see her talking with a filmed audience (as we do with Jackie speaking Polish).
That leads me to point number 2: director Drew was much more interested in the Kennedys' physiques than the Humphreys'. He spends camera time focused on JFK's hands, too, and simply includes more shots that admire JFK and Jackie. In the scene in the gymnasium when Kennedy arrived late, and then he and Jackie stand on the floor shaking hands, has a shot with JFK's hand-shaking in the foreground, but Jackie in the background is clearly the focal point.
To that end, point 3: there are many shots of JFK interacting with a crowd, some even shot with the camera above his head. This is intriguing because a camera shot from below would seem to emphasize stature and authority--are the shots from above meant to humanize JFK? The overhead shots really show the adoration of the crowds much more. I wonder if there simply were no crowds who adored Humphrey in that way. Or was the documentary meant to be on Kennedy's side?

I've wanted to see this documentary for quite some time, and it was different from what I expected. I was surprised by how the director created tension on election night--although I knew the outcome, watching the candidates suffer through the early returns was quite gripping.