Lbj

Wow, I'm glad I didn't read all the reviews before watching this film: The level of vitriol contained in most of them is astounding. Personally, I thought this movie was well made and well acted and illustrated an important time in our history. I didn't know much about LBJ before watching this film, but I absolutely got the sense that he came around to supporting the civil rights bill more because he wanted to be liked and to be on the right side of history than that he was a true believer. Somehow many reviewers missed that nuance, and refuse to give credit for whatever positive changes he lead. Also, the make-up in LBJ is WAY, WAY better than the make-up in Chaplin - which I just watched and in which the makeup was absolutely cringe worthy, (and yet NONE of the reviewers mentioned it)! The make-up in LBJ is completely natural by comparison, so I have no complaint there. The only thing that was visually disturbing to me was how different the actors they chose to play JFK, RFK, and Jackie looked from the real people, but it didn't stop my enjoyment of the movie. The only thing I wish the filmmakers had done differently, is that I wish they'd gone on to show or explain in the epilogue how, with all the changes LBJ pushed through, that most of the racists in the Democratic party became fed up and left the Democratic party, switching over to the Republican Party (and later forming the tea party).

In LBJ Woody Harrelson had the difficult task of making LBJ a likeable character. He succeeds in a brilliant tour de force performance brilliantly directed by Rob Reiner. LBJ was the man who kept the flame of Camelot alive. His championing of JFK's Civil Rights bill I believe prevented the Democratic Party from splitting into two parts (as it did once before, prior to the Civil War). The film, which smoothly integrates real history into its dramatization, argues that he was a transactional arm twister who became something more: a visionary. Even if that vision was from others (primarily his predecessor). History has judged him in a more sympathetic fashion than did the press and the voters at the time. The GOP hated him, even if the Civil Rights Bill received more GOP votes than Democrat votes. I lived through this time. I shook both Kennedy brothers hands. Never cared for LBJ. This film tried to alter that. It succeeded. I now view him as less Brutus and more Mark Anthony. Ceaser's faults have never been minimized more efficiently, and his feats have never received better framing and lighting. Kudos to Mr. Harrelson and Mr. Reiner and the rest in this superb character study. Five stars.

I had always thought of L.B.J. as a racist and a segregationist ~ however, he was not. Not only does this film show the human side of Lyndon Johnson, it totally dismisses his posture as a 'southern bigot'. I fist found out that L.B.J. was a civil rights advocate when I wrote a political science paper on the 'Freedom Riders' who went to Mississippi to sign up black voters in 1964. Three civil rights workers , James Cheney a black man from meridan, mississippi, and 2 while men Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner both from New York City,were killed by the Ku Klux Klan. No one in Mississippi -including the Governor, would investigate these murders. It took Lyndon Johnson, then President, to call Herbert Hoover, head of the F.B.I. and get the National Guard down there plus a team of F.B.I. men to find the KKK killers...and they did. L.B.J. was put in a horrible position of following one of the most popular Presidents we had had, was disliked by almost everyone who followed Kennedy, and yet asked many of them to stay on with him. L.B.J. was a beautifully done film, and Woody Harrelson was magnificent portraying L.B.J. and, I don't know why he didn't get an Academy Award for it.

With some actors you forget who they are and begin to believe they are the character they are playing... such as Gary Oldman in The Darkest Hour. On the other hand I never forgot it was Woody Harrelson merely playing LBJ. So for that I take off one star. As with any historical movie (including the aforementioned) you never really know what parts are fact and what parts are fiction. But these movies make history entertaining rather than sitting down with a dry textbook. So I enjoy this type of film. I lived through that era so it's interesting to see behind the scenes. Somebody else mentioned this would make a great mini-series and I agree...I would even enjoy it with Woody Harrelson taking the title role again.

Having lived through the time of the assassination and LBJ becoming President, I felt this movie captured that time very well. I thought Woody Harrelson, although not as tall as LBJ, gave a spot on performance and Jennifer Jason Leigh was frankly just like Lady Bird as I recall her. LBJ was crude. rude and brash and he considered himself someone who got things done even in his early career and this movie shows all of that to be true. He got legislation passed that JFK couldn't, he knew how to apply pressure and really didn't care at the moment he was doing it if he hurt anyone's feelings as he wanted to get his way. That was how he was. This movie portrayed that and my only issue was that this should have been longer. His accomplishments domestically were great. His downfall was his ego and his not wanting to be the first President to lose a war and that was Viet Nam. His nemesis. The movie doesn't touch that at all. You can only pack so much in with 90 minutes. The rivalry with RFK was epic and was shown as such. LBJ was the usurper yet he made it his mission to get the bills stuck in Congress passed without looking for praise for himself but in JFK's memory. A complicated man who did some truly great things that last until today. IMO this should have been a mini series so we could see the total legacy of LBJ as all of it was not so nice. All in all I liked this movie.

It's weird how people are calling this revisionist leftist propaganda. There's no real revisionism here (the only real sense of revisionism being in the form of how LBJ expresses his racial philosophy[he was a noisy bigot IRL, but the movie paints a portrait of LBJ being 'woke'), just purposeful omission of peripheral facts to abide it's 90 minute run time--typical of Rob Reiner who lacks the directorial stamina to create a 3 hour mockumentary political biography like Oliver Stone. But when it comes to facts and events, nothing is changed. THAT'S true Revisionism, not cleaning up a guys language. But hey, people who dislike the left often pick nits and use the smallest thing to disparage and insult the left whenever they can. It's a rather entertaining film and it captures the dynamic between the Kennedy's and the Johnson's and all of their orbiting support staff pretty well. But it's not without it's flaws, mainly the horrible makeup and costuming that makes Harrelson look like Mickey Rourke from Sin City(not to mention, he doesn't sound like Johnson at all imo) and the sanitized dialogue in the script hat Rob Reiner is guilty of utilizing in his politically-oriented movies. Reiner never bothers with exploring the nuances of the inherent duality of good and evil when portraying characters, he just emphasizes one direction of their moral compass and keeps them headed on that path throughout the entirety of the film. A great example is with the civil Rights act and the clash it sets up between LBJ and his southern supporters: LBJ comes off as a liberal social progressive as if he was always that way while he tries to make other Southerners see the light, while in reality LBJ was a bigot who threw the N bomb around like a Californian throws around the word 'hella.' There's no depiction of his evolving progressivism and how it was inched along by his affiliation and work with Kennedy, and that is a travesty because it would have been magnificent character study that would have made the film much more interesting. On a side note, Jeffrey Donovan absolutely kills it as JFK. He gives one of the best Kennedy performances I've ever seen; his mannerisms, his look, and his speech/accent are all doppleganger-good. If I were to make a Kennedy movie, he'd be my first choice for the lead. 3/5, good to see once but not good enough to watch again. Lots of potential, but not well executed.

I've never been a fan of LBJ, (or Woody Harrelson) but this movie casts Johnson in a seriously positive light while turning Bobby Kennedy into a villain of sorts. The story is well known, but what is striking are the performances of Harrelson and Leigh. They transported us back to the 60's and to the events that changed a nation. The movie's pop-all-over-the-place timeline was confusing, and the fact that whomever portrayed Bobby Kennedy couldn't hold an accent, nor could the actor playing JFK keep it real. Harrelson and Leigh both held their accents strong and their characters true. Leigh was especially impressive.

The movie shed some interesting insight into that time in history. it is making me now look into LBj and who he is as a person. I am buying a biography later today to verify some of the concepts put forth in the movie. I am fully aware that it is a movie and not a factual documentary and as a movie i thought it delivered on all fronts, entertaining, provocative, got me more interested in a topic i was unfamiliar and funny at times.

J'avoue je viens de regarder ce film que j'ai trouvé agréable et même émouvant à la fin mais l'Histoire a mal à ses chapitres ! Le portrait de Johnson est quand même édulcoré au possible et ses véritables agissements sont occultés (alors qu'ils n'ont pas vraiment servis l'Amérique). On aurait pu penser qu'un film intitulé "LBJ" présenterait toutes les facettes d'un personnage, il n'en est rien, rien que le panégyrique d'un texan devenu Président. Sans doute faudra-t-il de la lecture plus sérieuse pour rattraper un peu ces élans cinématographiques...

Great movie

This film attempts to cover the early days of LBJ from his deal with the Kennedy's to become Vice-President, and then to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, onward through the beginning of his presidency and his struggle to pass Civil Rights legislation. His less-than-friendly relationship with Robert Kennedy is interesting to watch. The focus in the film is on Johnson himself, as a man, and on his relationship with Lady Bird and others close to him. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a gracious, very believable First Lady. Doug McKeon stands out as Hubert Humphrey, showing the man's true skills and compassion. The film is a careful look at an important period of history.

Loved this movie, great insight after the events of kennedy's assassination.

Well acted and enjoy able movie