Not only is the year 1972 a great deal of fun to look back on culturally, Stephen Vittoria’s documentary, One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern, shows how politically relevant it is too.

This was the year that McGovern, an idealistic candidate whose bid for the White House was always seen as a long shot, took on then-prez Richard Nixon. Though the imperial presidency had engendered a great deal of bad press, sadly, the Republican political machine managed to generate enough fear about a Democrat president during war time that McGovern’s candidacy came and went. This film is fascinating in that it evokes the post-multiple-assassination hangover America was in and just what this did to cynicism among the general population. Vittoria includes interviews with a who’s who of the American left of the time, including Gore Vidal, Gloria Steinem, Gary Hart and Warren Beatty. Particularly depressing—especially in the midst of Dubya’s disastrous second term—are the speculations about what America could have been had the honest and hardworking McGovern become president. —Matthew Hays