The Eleanor Roosevelt Story

Richard Kaplan's Oscar-winning documentary about Eleanor Roosevelt does a good job focusing on the major events in her life. However, there was a lot more on which they could have focused. You see, Eleanor was a political activist from early on. So much so, that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI started keeping a file on her. She wrote articles for The Nation indicting the injustices that thrived in the United States. Indeed, Eleanor was more ambitious about establishing the social programs than Franklin was. When John Kennedy published "Profiles in Courage", she said that he should've had more courage and less profile, referring to his friendship with red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy.

On its own, "The Eleanor Roosevelt Story" is a good documentary. I haven't seen any of the other documentaries that got nominated for Best Documentary Feature that year, so I can't compare it. Worth seeing.