Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment

Crisis Behind a Presidential Commitment is a 1963 cinma vrit documentary film directed by Robert Drew. The film centers on the University of Alabamas Stand in the Schoolhouse Door integration crisis of June 1963. Drew and the other filmmakers, such as D. A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock, were given access to all the key areas, including United States President John F. Kennedys Oval Office and the homes of United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Alabama Governor George Wallace. The film first aired on ABC television four months after the incident. In 2011, it was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

They come up with a plan to quickly federalize the Alabama National Guard and return later the same day, if Wallace indeed refuses to step out of the way despite the court order. The plan works Wallace steps aside under orders from General Henry V. Graham, but is given the chance to save face and leave before the students enter the building. President Kennedy later gives a speech on equality on national television, and a third black student, Dave McGlathery, enrolls without incident.Although opinions on Crisis Behind a Presidential Commitment were sharply divided after the October 1963 broadcast, it is now considered among the landmark films of cinma vrit, or direct cinema. Peter von Bagh rated it ahead of Drews earlier work Primary, considering it the most touching and intimate portrait of the Kennedy brothers on film. Fred Kaplan, in a review of the films 2009 DVD release for The New York Times, wrote that though we now know the storys ending the students were finally let in the suspense is gripping. He dubbed it the first movie that Barack Obama should watch in the White House screening room. ........

Source: Wikipedia