Lyndon Baines Johnson has the chronological misfortune of appearing exactly in-between President John F. Kennedy and President Richard Nixon, two of the most unforgettable men in United States history. If history tends to gloss over President LBJ, that is exactly why. And yet, boasting the Civil Rights Act and the disastrous Vietnam escalation, the LBJ presidency is arguably more important than the ones that sandwiched it. So, naturally, these guys spent 80% of the LBJ biography talking about the Kennedys.
Rob Reiner believes LBJ (Woody Harrelson) was both shrewd and calculating. I find that unlikely of the man who took Vietnam to such lengths … also, I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a hand in the Kennedy assassination, no matter what Oliver Stone says. But Reiner thinks the man was as much of a chess player as any in Washington, and perhaps he has a point. We get a good look at Lyndon’s M.O. in closed room lunches with unbelievably racist Senator Richard Russell (Richard Jenkins). Placed on a thankless civil rights committee by his boss, LBJ –from all accounts a bigot from the time he was born until the moment he pushed for the Civil Rights Act- finesses the political process to get a major Boeing plant in Russell’s home state in exchange for a concession on the hiring of minorities. The move is a stand-out political winner despite his role as VP.
This all begs the question: was the Civil Rights Act 100% politics and 0% the right thing to do? At times, this is a film so cynical it makes you want to wash your hands of the entire political process. And yet, watching Trump blindly blowtorch anything with Obama’s name on it (without any consideration as to whether such is a good idea), I wonder if American politics today couldn’t stand to learn a lesson from the past. We didn’t used to vote exclusively along party lines, and if there is no genuine consensus understanding of morality, isn’t there at least a genuine consensus understanding of political expedience?
This film represents Woody Harrelson’s fifth major role to appear in theaters in 2017. As I’ve said before, I think Woody had one of the greatest years in cinematic history; his role as the Texan president thrust into the spotlight in the wake of assassination neither adds nor detracts from my assessment. I didn’t see him quite become LBJ, but the ways in which he and my image of the actual man differed have as much to do with perception as fact. For instance, Woody never offered the “N” word once in the film. I believe the real LBJ said the “N” word every.single.day. I have no proof of this fact, so I could be very wrong. I believe the writer of this film deliberately shied away from said word and other derogatory terms so as to paint LBJ as an eventual champion of civil rights; the one just doesn’t go with the other. So … is that Woody’s fault? Probably not, but I can’t exactly give him credit, either, dig?
The makeup artists did not have their best day with this film. To transform Woody into LBJ, the crew added some jowls and age lines; the effect created seemed less like our 36th president and more like a random thug from Sin City. Whatever was done to Woody
, however, paled in alarm to the travesty settled upon Jennifer Jason Leigh. In her case, the “professionals” seemed to recognize that Claudia Alta Johnson was nicknamed “Lady Bird” and, hence, gave her a beak. There’s no other way to put it. Say, Lyndon, feeling henpecked by the missus? Well, it’s no wonder.
LBJ wanted us to believe the man was not just a coattail president, that even without having risen to the highest office by popular command, Lyndon Baines Johnson was worthy of the respect we might give to any of the non-Trump presidents in modern history. Yes, perhaps Lyndon was a secondary president with a primary impact, however, in demonstrating the legacy of LBJ, the film’s biggest moments were taken from better movies about other presidents, namely JFK and Lincoln. If you want us to believe Lyndon is an underrated force of political genius, you might wish to start by showing us something truly original and striking about the man.
“Who was LBJ?” might one inquire
A blip while history paused to perspire?
Not sure of his goal
But as per Billy Joel
He probably didn’t light any fire
Rated R, 98 Minutes
Director: Rob Reiner
Writer: Joey Hartstone
Genre: The Kennedy shadow
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The descendants of LBJ
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The descendants of RFK
