Primary



Primary is a 1960 direct cinema documentary film about the 1960 Wisconsin primary election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey for the United States Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States.

Produced by Robert Drew, shot by Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles, and edited by D. A. Pennebaker, the film was a breakthrough in documentary film style.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It charted new territory in documentary making. This documentary uses lighter, more mobile cameras and sound equipment, allowing the filmmakers to achieve greater intimacy with their subjects, following on their heels as the candidates wound through packed crowds and hovering like gnats to capture their more private moments.
 * 2) This is one of the films that had launched a new documentary genre called "Cinéma vérité" or "direct cinema": A manner in which a story is captured onscreen and usually doesn't have a narrator's voice-over like most documentaries. It's a style of filmmaking characterized by realism, which avoids any artificial or artistic embellishments. It's not just another "man in the street" interview with "bystanders" recorded and photographed like a feature film, it catches people off guard, in truthful poses, speaking from their hearts unscripted.
 * 3) The film gives an interesting look at the events leading up to the 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey -- one of his competitors -- in a way that doesn't glamourize either of the men and puts them in a fair light.
 * 4) *Humphrey's campaign song was a corny reworking of the "Ballad of Davy Crockett" while Kennedy had Frank Sinatra's doing a revamped version of High Hopes. Still, the filmmakers had a grudging respect for Humphrey, an affable, straight-talking pol wins over anyone who bothers to listen.
 * 5) The first time Kennedy's seen in the documentary, there's a single 30-second take where the camera follows him through a surging crowd of well-wishers, through a side door and up a short flight of stairs onto a stage, where he joins his wife and then turns to an ecstatic audience. Nobody had seen footage like that before. Not only did it change how documentaries were made, it also helped alter politics, forcing candidates to make their appearance part of their campaigns.
 * 6) There's an iconic shot where the camera trails Kennedy through hundreds of supporters in a hall in heavily Polish Catholic Milwaukee, and the crowd breaks into his campaign song -- the revamped version of High Hopes.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) The documentary's weaknesses are largely due to the technical limitations faced by the filmmakers; The sound is poor throughout, and is noticeably out of sync in many shots. The filmmakers were limited by how noisy their cameras were, and how large the equipment was.