Blood Feud (1983 film)
Encyclopedia
Blood Feud is a 1983 television miniseries surrounding around the conflict between Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader....

 and Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

 in a 11-year span from 1957 until Kennedy's assassination in 1968. The 210-minute film was directed by Mike Newell
Mike Newell (director)
Michael Cormac "Mike" Newell is an English director and producer of motion pictures for the screen and for television. After the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005, Newell became the third most commercially successful British director in recent years, behind Christopher Nolan...

 and written by Robert Boris. It stars Robert Blake
Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...

 as Hoffa and Cotter Smith
Cotter Smith
Cotter Smith is an American stage, film, and television actor.-Biography:He was born Joseph Cotter Smith in Washington, D.C., the son of Madeline and John Lewis Smith, Jr., who was a federal judge...

 as Kennedy with Danny Aiello
Danny Aiello
Daniel Louis "Danny" Aiello, Jr. is an American actor who has appeared in numerous motion pictures, including Once Upon a Time in America, Ruby, The Godfather: Part II, Hudson Hawk, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Moonstruck, Léon, Two Days in the Valley, and Dinner Rush...

 and Brian Dennehy
Brian Dennehy
Brian Mannion Dennehy is an American actor of film, stage and screen.-Early years:Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah and Edward Dennehy, who was a wire service editor for the Associated Press; he has two brothers, Michael and Edward. Dennehy is of Irish ancestry and was...

 in supporting roles as union associates of Hoffa's.

The television film was distributed by Operation Prime Time, a syndicated block of television programming offered to mostly American independent stations.

Blake was nominated for an Emmy
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 and Golden Globe
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 for Best Actor for his performance as Hoffa.

Plot

It is the mid-1950s. Wealthy young Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

 is beginning to make a name for himself in Washington, D.C., as is older brother John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

, a United States senator from Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

.

Also on the rise is James R. Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader....

, an intensely dedicated member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....

 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 to organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

.

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 director J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...

 is unwilling to focus on organized crime, or even acknowledge that such a thing exists.

After JFK
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 is elected President of the United States in 1960, he appoints Bobby to be his Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

. Hoffa, already feeling persecuted by the younger Kennedy, begins to feel the pressure even more. Longtime associates such as Edward Grady Partin
Edward Grady Partin
Edward Grady Partin, Sr. , was a business agent of the Teamsters Union in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His testimony in 1964 helped to convict union president James Riddle Hoffa of jury tampering.-Early years:...

 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 attorney Edward Bennett Williams
Edward Bennett Williams
Edward Bennett Williams was a Washington, D.C. trial attorney who founded the law firm of Williams & Connolly and owned several professional sports teams...

 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
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

, 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 representing New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

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 with Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 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.

Cast

  • Robert Blake
    Robert Blake (actor)
    Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...

     as James R. Hoffa
  • Cotter Smith
    Cotter Smith
    Cotter Smith is an American stage, film, and television actor.-Biography:He was born Joseph Cotter Smith in Washington, D.C., the son of Madeline and John Lewis Smith, Jr., who was a federal judge...

     as Robert F. Kennedy
  • Sam Groom
    Sam Groom
    Sam Groom is an actor most noted for his numerous roles on television. He portrayed the title role in the Canadian television series Dr. Simon Locke . Prior to that, he had played Dr. Russ Matthews in the daytime soap Another World...

     as John F. Kennedy
  • Forrest Tucker
    Forrest Tucker
    Forrest Tucker was an American actor in both movies and television from the 1940s to the 1980s. Tucker, who stood 190 cm tall and weighed 93 kg , appeared in nearly 100 action films in the 1940s and 1950s.-Early life:Forrest Meredith Tucker was born in Plainfield, Indiana, a son of...

     as Lyndon Baines Johnson
  • Ernest Borgnine
    Ernest Borgnine
    Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...

     as J. Edgar Hoover
  • Danny Aiello
    Danny Aiello
    Daniel Louis "Danny" Aiello, Jr. is an American actor who has appeared in numerous motion pictures, including Once Upon a Time in America, Ruby, The Godfather: Part II, Hudson Hawk, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Moonstruck, Léon, Two Days in the Valley, and Dinner Rush...

     as Randy Powers
  • Brian Dennehy
    Brian Dennehy
    Brian Mannion Dennehy is an American actor of film, stage and screen.-Early years:Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah and Edward Dennehy, who was a wire service editor for the Associated Press; he has two brothers, Michael and Edward. Dennehy is of Irish ancestry and was...

     as Edward Partin
  • Edward Albert
    Edward Albert
    Edward Albert was an American film and television actor. He was also known as Edward Laurence Albert, Laurence Edward Albert and occasionally Eddie Albert, Jr.-Early life:Albert was born Edward Laurence Heimberger in Los Angeles, California, to actor Eddie...

     as Phil Wharton
  • Jose Ferrer
    José Ferrer
    José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón , best known as José Ferrer, was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director...

     as Edward Bennett Williams

Critical response

When the film was first aired, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

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...When Blood 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."

Awards

Wins
  • Writers Guild of America Award
    Writers Guild of America Award
    The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...

    : WGA Award (TV), Original/Adapted Multi-Part Long Form Series, Robert Boris, For part II; 1984.


Nominations
  • Emmy Award
    Emmy Award
    An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

    : Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special, Robert Blake; 1983.
  • Golden Globe Award
    Golden Globe Award
    The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

    : Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, Robert Blake; 1984.
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