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100Absorbing.
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100Potent and eye-opening documentary.
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88It's not a hasty, knocked-together promo job--though it is clearly pro-Kerry.
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88It's obviously meant to help his presidential candidacy - why release it a month before the election, otherwise? - and for the first 7 minutes, it plays like a campaign commercial about young John's integrity, hard work and humble roots.
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83It's a partisan campaign film, of course, but a subtle one.
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80It's hagiography, yes, but also powerful and poignant.
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80The most powerful and telling image is a black-and-white still of Kerry burying his face in his arms after he threw his ribbons onto the Capitol steps; it's a moment true enough to cost him the presidency.
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78Butler's film hopes to confront our national battle fatigue so that we may move on.
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75His film is pro-Kerry, yes, but the focus is on history, not polemics, and provides a record of the crucial role of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
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75Guaranteed to engage the decided and undecided alike, regardless of party affiliations.
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75Butler's film still manages to accomplish what the candidate's foundering campaign has utterly failed to do.
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75An unabashed paean to Kerry's character at a time in the presidential election when Kerry's character is being questioned. It's also a riveting film.
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75Begins and ends as a fulsome Kerry campaign bio along the lines of the famed Bill Clinton convention short, "The Man From Hope."
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75The older John Kerry, today's candidate, is conspicuous both by his absence (he's not interviewed here) and by the contrast between then and now, between the hero he was and the politician he's become. That contrast gives the film a nostalgic yet palpable sadness.
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70A clearly partisan effort -- director George Butler is a longtime Kerry friend and supporter -- the film is nonetheless bound to have some political impact, thanks to its powerful depiction of the young Kerry.
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70While the film is unabashedly pro-Kerry --Butler and Kerry are longtime friends -- it isn't simple hagiography; it's also a portrait of Vietnam War-era America.
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70Crisp, informative documentary.
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70When it steers away from campaign-ad testimonials and considers Kerry's moral awakening in Vietnam and beyond, Going Upriver features some tremendously powerful scenes.
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70I got a charge out of Going Upriver, but as more than one person has noted, the movie's ideal spectator would be Kerry himself.
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70Going Upriver is a small, valuable contribution to the continuing project of sorting out and making sense of Vietnam, a war that, among other things, opened a fissure at the heart of American liberalism that has yet to heal.
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70It's hard not to be impressed by Kerry's courage and calm leadership--and to wonder if that guy will show up again.
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70Makes an eloquent case for John Kerry's courage, both during and immediately after his service in Vietnam.
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70It's one view of Kerry that seems to have been lost in the present acrimonious shuffle.
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70A lucid, emotionally affecting portrait not just of one man but of his times.
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67Someone should send him (Kerry) a copy, if only to remind the senator of the days when he was willing and able to speak with the courage of his convictions, and when he had a lot less to lose.
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63Does an excellent job of telling Kerry's side of it.
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The film leaves the viewer with a more vivid sense of Kerry the man, portraying him as admirable, if not lovable.
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60Butler is in no way a hot-headed or contentious piece of agit-prop, unlike so many other election year documentaries; like Kerry himself, the film speaks to the mind, not the emotions.
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50It underscores, with ample footage from his rallying speeches and his 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, just how important it was for the antiwar movement to be represented by someone like Kerry.
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50The film won't likely change any minds, but there's a taut political essay beneath the blatant campaigning.
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50This is the biggest surprise of all -- it's hard to watch Going Upriver without wondering, frankly, what became of the young John Kerry, who comes off so exceptionally well in this film.