I remember Moynihan from my high school years in the mid-70s (he served in both LBJ and Nixon administrations) and he was later a Senator from NY (replaced by Hillary Clinton in 2001); he died in 2004. He was an example of self-recreation, from poor/broken family, worked on docks while going to City College for free at night, ended up in military which paid for his PhD at Tufts, later served multiple presidencies and Harvard.
Was reminded many times of Shakespeare's observation, "What's Past is Prologue." Here are a few themes from Moynihan's life :
(1) Early case study in the pile-on phenomenon re political correctness, re his 1965 white paper on the Negro Family and broken households leading to "blaming the victim" accusations.
(2) Close to idea of Universal Income with Family Assistance Program (FAP) (not passed) and later Earned Income Tax Credit (IITC) which did pass. This is still a theme in 2019 Democratic debates.
(3) Theme of "democracy in crisis" was fully voiced in 60s, as it is in 2010s. In UN speeches, he said that democracies were about 25 of 140 nations, and there were "sharks in the water" for the rest.
(4) He was criticized as being an embarrassing and loud nutcase in his representation of US at UN, and saying too much, and in the wrong way, leading to worsening of situations.
(5) Ethnic groups vs melting pots. In writing Beyond the Melting Pot, he talked about the preservation of ethnicity in US, still a big theme today (balance of ethnicity vs melting pot; foreign language in public schools, etc). Similarly in US and Europe re: integration or isolation of Muslim cultures.
Film Website
http://danielpatrickmoynihan.com/
Hollywood Reporter Review
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/moynihan-1149047
LA Times Review
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-capsule-moynihan-review-20181011-story.html
Rotten Tomatoes
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/moynihan
Amazon (both DVD & VOD)
https://www.amazon.com/Moynihan-Daniel-Patrick/dp/B07MWQ9CMB
Trivia
Henry Kissinger is still around (96 in 2019) and is interviewed several times in the film. (So is George F. Will). For a very rare clip of Kissinger interviewed in German (2014), on Youtube, here.
