The Kennedys rally to put Jack in the White House, but their difficult past illuminates a deeper struggle.

“People talk about the curse that seems to echo down the generations of the Kennedys and in a certain sense it’s true,” says Tom Wilkinson. “And if you are going to see it in the kind of Greek tragedy sense, there isn’t a better sort of patriarchal figure than Joe Kennedy because his world view was extreme. His world view was: ambition, money and family. It’s almost medieval in its simplicity … but almost everything else went by the boards.”

-Tom Wilkinson