Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived Reviews
Top Critic
Fascinating stuff, but after a while the film runs out of things to say and falls back on clichés.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Director Koji Masutani has masterfully assembled a wealth of archival footage, photos and audiotapes, some of which has been recently declassified.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Despite its title, Virtual JFK doesn't imagine a world where JFK survives the events of Dallas and goes on to win a second term as U.S. president. That would be a whole other movie, and a fascinating one at that.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The film is a seductive immersion into an early sixties zeitgeist and Cold War cool.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
The word Iraq is never uttered, but there's no avoiding it as Kennedy asserts during the Bay of Pigs crisis that to attack Cuba, a country that hadn't attacked the United States, would be contrary to our national tradition.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The controversial process of counterfactual history gets a captivating workout in Virtual JFK.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A compelling history lesson that offers an insightful primer on the Kennedy presidency even while proving sadly germane to our current times, Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived spells out its provocative premise in its title.
Virtual JFK -- directed by Tokyo-born, US-educated Koji Masutani -- doesn't bring up Iraq per se, but the parallels are clear.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Koji Masutani and Blight methodically examine how John F. Kennedy's stalwart authority and nuanced judgment preserved an unambiguous, if fragile, peace at six different inflammatory moments during his presidency.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/6
The title of the documentary Virtual J F K: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived pretty much says it all, though the movie itself says not nearly enough.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
The question: Can an individual leader take a nation to, or keep it from, war? The conclusion: Individual temperament matters, and John F. Kennedy's example proves it.
Virtual JFK reps an extended glimpse into a bygone era of statesmanship.
With its fascinating central question (What if ... ) and well-chosen, nostalgic footage of John F. Kennedy in his prime, this well-played documentary manages to escape the fate of other dry historical overviews.
