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Based on Richard Goodwin's book Remembering America, this film pushes the message that in its infancy, Television was to entertain first, sell product and then inform. Thanks to lack of oversight and regulation, companies soon cottoned on to the massive earning potential of the medium.
It's worth remembering that Goodwin was Kennedy's (and later Johnson's) speechwriter so his recollection of the 1950s might show signs of self-serving polish.
Be that as it may, the film itself does not claim to be accurate and as a visual and cultural feast it really does charm by showing us an America that was giddily spinning up after the war to become a superpower, economically and militarily. Living standards went through the roof and America became the wish-stone for the rest of the world.
The acting in this is very fine, but the visuals are the jewel. The Van Doren family picnic scene is just gorgeous (as is Shawn Batten) and warm and the interplay is believable because these people were, mostly, academics full of the charm and grace of their very comfortable lives.
I've seen this film many times and it never fails to charm. A real tonic, unlike Geritol.
"For $64,000 I hope they ask: 'What is the meaning of life?'."
8/10
