| Blood Feud | |
|---|---|
 Promotional image | |
| Screenplay by | Robert Boris |
| Directed by | Mike Newell |
| Starring | Robert Blake Cotter Smith |
| Theme music composer | Fred Steiner |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producers | Joel Glickman Daniel Selznick |
| Production locations | 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California |
| Editor | John Farrell |
| Running time | 210 minutes |
| Production company | 20th Century Fox Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndication |
| Release | April 25 (1983-04-25) – May 2, 1983 (1983-05-02) |
Blood Feud is a 1983 American two-part, four-hourmade-for-televisioncrimedrama film centering on the conflict betweenJimmy Hoffa andRobert F. Kennedy in an 11-year span from 1957 until Kennedy's assassination in 1968. The 210-minute film was directed byMike Newell and written by Robert Boris. It starsRobert Blake as Hoffa andCotter Smith as Kennedy withDanny Aiello andBrian Dennehy in supporting roles as union associates of Hoffa's.[1]
The television film was distributed byOperation Prime Time, a syndicated block of television programming offered to mostly American independent stations.[2]
Blake was nominated for anEmmy andGolden Globe for Best Actor for his performance as Hoffa.
It is the mid-1950s. Wealthy youngRobert F. Kennedy is beginning to make a name for himself in Washington, D.C., as is his older brotherJohn F. Kennedy, a United States senator fromMassachusetts.
Also on the rise isJames R. Hoffa, an intensely dedicated member of theInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters union whose ambition is to become a force in the American labor movement. Jimmy Hoffa makes an attempt to ingratiate himself with Bobby Kennedy the first time they meet, but Kennedy is investigating corruption in labor and is already suspicious of Hoffa's possible ties toorganized crime.
Kennedy exacts a promise from his brother to be part of a Senate committee investigating crime syndicates and their illegal ties to union executives and pension funds. FBI directorJ. Edgar Hoover is unwilling to focus on organized crime, or even acknowledge that such a thing exists.
AfterJFK is elected President of the United States in 1960, he appoints Bobby to be hisAttorney General. Hoffa, already feeling persecuted by the younger Kennedy, begins to feel the pressure even more. Longtime associates such asEdward Grady Partin and Randy Powers can see how Hoffa's bitter feud with Bobby Kennedy is affecting him, but they stand by loyally as Hoffa becomes the president of the Teamsters, his power growing by the day.
Hoffa is acquitted by juries several times after investigations led by Kennedy and his right-hand man, Phil Wharton, result in charges against him. He gloats about his victories and publicly taunts Bobby in committee hearings, in the press, even in a courtroom while attorneyEdward Bennett Williams portrays Kennedy as a millionaire with no regard for "the working man."
The assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963, is a horror to most Americans, but not to Hoffa, who acts as if nothing matters to him other than union business. The new president,Lyndon B. Johnson, surprises and disappoints Hoffa by retaining Bobby Kennedy as his attorney general.
Hoffa's paranoia grows. He is obsessed with finding informers within his organization and listening devices in his office. After one of his loyal allies, Partin, betrays him with federal authorities and testifies against him, Hoffa is convicted in 1964 of attempting to bribe a grand juror. He later is found guilty of misuse of a union pension fund. Appeals allow Hoffa to postpone incarceration for several years while Bobby Kennedy leaves LBJ's administration to become a U.S. senator representingNew York.
Hoffa alternately implores Kennedy for mercy and threatens him with vengeance. He begins his sentence behind bars in 1967. The personal animus between the two men ends with Bobby's assassination in Los Angeles in 1968. Hoffa is granted an early release in 1971 after an arrangement withRichard Nixon results in a pardon, but he is unable to regain his Teamsters presidency upon being released. He mysteriously disappears in 1975, never to be seen again.
When the film was first aired,The New York Times television reporter, John Corry lauded Robert Blake's acting, writing "Mr. Blake's Hoffa is infinitely more interesting than Mr. Smith's Kennedy. This Hoffa loves the Teamsters; whatever his sins, he really did get his head busted on picket lines. Mr. Blake, hair slicked back, squinting, oozing muscular energy, is, if not a charismatic figure, at least a commanding one. When he's angry, you know he's angry. He seethes...WhenBlood Feud does rise to drama, it's almost always Mr. Blake's doing. When Hoffa's world comes crashing down, Mr. Blake thrashes like a spent, hooked fish, a large one. When he tries to make a deal with Kennedy, there's authentic desperation. His Hoffa has all the passion. He's the only participant in the feud."[3]
