In League with Extraordinary Gentlemen

Filmmaker George Butler has made a career of profiling extraordinary men. One of his documentary subjects became famous as a result of his first film and is now governor of California. Another survived 18 months stranded in the Antarctic, crossing an ice shelf on foot and returning to save his entire crew. The latest is a longtime friend who is currently running for president.

"You can't understand John unless you understand what Vietnam is to him and to his life. It is absolutely essential to understanding him."

That's the first line of "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry," Butler's recent film – spoken by an unattributed narrator. The second, spoken by a second narrator, gives the thesis. "It's one form of patriotism to go, which he did. Then if you see that what's happening is wrong, you also have a patriotic duty to speak out about it."

At the time of our interview, Butler is putting the finishing touches on the film, an adaptation of "Tour of Duty," Douglas Brinkley's account of John Kerry's Vietnam experience and subsequent role in the anti-war movement. "Going Upriver" opens in theaters on Oct. 1, as the 2004 election has come dangerously close to being a referendum on John Kerry's service during the Vietnam War. The documentary will surely be punditized and politicized, spun by the right and defended by the left until the public perception is far removed from the filmmaker's intentions.

However, the filmmaker, despite literally being a publicist for Kerry at a crucial time in both of their lives, has infused the film with honesty and authenticity that can only be gained through years of observation and interaction with his subject.

Butler conceived of a film about Kerry's Vietnam experience in 2002. Brinkley's book, published in 2004, would later provide a structure for the narrative. Butler, however, corresponded with Kerry at the time of his service and had observed Kerry's anti-war activities first hand. Butler is a good storyteller – albeit one with an unavoidable subjective bias – and artfully weaves Vietnam footage with his own stills and interviews.

Yet Butler might have never put his eye to a camera lens had he not learned how to live in Detroit on less than a dollar a day. Butler was a University of North Carolina undergrad when he met Yale-educated Kerry through a mutual friend. Harvey Bundy, the nephew of Johnson administration advisors William and McGeorge Bundy, had invited both Butler and Kerry to a family gathering in June 1964. Butler recalled the meeting in "John Kerry: A Portrait," his recently published collection of photographs: "A tall figure, rail-thin and Lincolnesque, came across the grass. 'Hi, I'm John Kerry,' he said simply."

The two hit it off immediately, and maintained correspondence throughout college. William Bundy inspired Kerry to serve in Vietnam; Butler was not swayed. Instead he joined VISTA, and was assigned to Detroit with an allowance of $5 a week. He published a community paper in a high-crime neighborhood, using the experience to sharpen his skills as a photographer. John Kerry would give him his first extraordinary subject to shoot.

Upon receiving his discharge, Kerry made an unsuccessful run for Congress for which Butler served as a publicist. Kerry gravitated toward the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and quickly took on a leadership roll. In 1971 he participated in the VVAW's Winter Soldiers Investigation meeting in Detroit as an observer, and took the occasion to call on his friend Butler. The testimonies – personal accounts of atrocities committed and witnessed – given by the Winter Soldier participants would be summarized by John Kerry several months later when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "I had never heard anything like this before in my life," recalls Butler in his barely-a-whisper voice. "It was pretty stunning stuff."