LBJ (2017)

Nice effects though.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The investigation of a crime always begets the question "who benefits?" The murder of JFK is no exception.While this could be an interesting fictional story of a new president after the assasination of his former boss, it is meant to portray LBJ and it does so in a very positive light.Nothing is said about his real personality and professional life. The movie is simply a fairy tale about a man who was the chief beneficiary of a heinous crime.Read Roger Stone's "The Man who Killed Kennedy" for a highly documented true story of LBJ.As a fictional movie it is entertaining, perhaps even gripping but the utter lack of historical facts about LBJs life puts this movie in the category of propoganda.I'll give it three stars for being entertaining.

This superficial film portrait of Lyndon Baines Johnson oozes sentimentality, as opposed to seeking to present historical truth. The film completely misses the truth that LBJ was a political opportunist, who was skillful at promoting himself at the expense of human values or the will of the American people.The film conveniently bypasses the unsavory story of LBJ's rise to power, including:(1) the way that he forced himself on the Democratic ticket through virtual blackmail, in order to become JFK's running mate in 1960;(2) the way that he changed course in his personal beliefs to support the civil rights platform in order to enhance his prestige as the architect of The Great Society. Political expediency was all that matters to LBJ. He was not an agent of social change or a humanitarian, as depicted in the film;(3) the way that he steered America into the disastrous Vietnam War. No mention is made of the disgraceful Gulf of Tonkin pretext for the war or LBJ's desperate attempt to win the war primarily out of trying to avoid being the first American president lose a war, as we learned from the Pentagon Papers.The crooked past of LBJ was completely ignored in the film, as well as the deep loathing that he felt for the Kennedy brothers. Sorensen's State of the Union speech written for LBJ identified the death of John F. Kennedy as "the foulest deed of our time." But this Hollywoodized treatment of the JFK assassination and the "accidental" presidency of Lyndon Johnson fails to present the tectonic shift of history of our nation that occurred on November22, 1963. A large portion of the shift is due to the disgraceful conduct of Lyndon Baines Johnson, one of the most despicable figures in American history.

I remember Lyndon B. Johnson quite well from the 60s, the man who made possible a social revolution that the Alt right is doing its best to demolish, but who also enlarged the war in Vietnam and left us with a quagmire that haunts us to this day. Although there's a good film out there with Randy Quaid as LBJ Woody Harrelson will be as definitive a Johnson as Raymond Massey was a Lincoln. Harrelson really does come across like LBJ, both the public image and from some of the saltier memoirs of the times. He had both a temper and a command of the fouler parts of the English language. Harrelson is also well matched with Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lady Bird Johnson.A whole life story might one day be filmed either for the big or small screen. The various portions of Johnson's life might make a great miniseries. What we are concerned here with is the years 1960 to 1964 when he is chosen by John F. Kennedy as his Vice Presidential running mate. It was a demotion according to Johnson and two history. No one as majority leader ever had a better grasp of the Senate than Johnson, he was the second most powerful man in government after President Eisenhower. These also were the years that the Civil Rights Revolution kicked into high gear. The white south and those who represented it, all Democrats then, a carryover from the Civil War. were determined to preserve their 'way of life'. The south had a lot of hopes and dreams invested in a southern president, but the country was ready for something wholly different. As Senate Majority Leader Johnson saw the passage of two Civil Rights laws, watered down though in 1957 and 1960.John and Robert Kennedy are played by Jeffrey Donovan and Michael Stahl-David. The contrast in the character of the two brothers is shown here. JFK the more coolly detached and Bobby the more passionate. It made it possible for Jack Kennedy to work with Lyndon. It also made it possible for Bobby to have an unrelenting hatred for LBJ. Their personal feud shaped a lot of the history of the latter part of the last century.When Johnson was in the House Of Representatives his mentor was Sam Rayburn fellow Texan and Speaker of the House. In the Senate it was Richard B. Russell of Georgia, courtly southerner of the upper class plantation south and chair of the Armed Services Committee. Played here by Richard Jenkins, Russell show Johnson all the levers of power and when to use them. Also where all the bodies are buried in Washington, DC. It was with Russell's support with the southern bloc that Johnson became the Senate Majority Whip in third year in the Senate, minority leader in his fifth year and Majority Leader in the seventh year. There relationship has induced much speculation to this day.LBJ is a slice of 60s history and love him for his social revolutionary war on poverty and hate him for the sinking quagmire of Vietnam, LBJ left his mark on the country. And Woody Harrelson has left his mark on LBJ.

This film tells the story of a long serving politician who is made the vice president. He becomes the president due to unfortunate circumstances.I think Woody Harrelson is great in this film as LBJ. The story is adequately engaging, and the ending speech is very captivating.