LBJ: The American Experience
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Product details
Actor: David McCullough (II)Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Black & White, Box set, Color, NTSC
Release Date: 1997-09-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Pbs Home Video
Studio: Pbs Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of LBJ: The American Experience
Movie Review: Excellent, fair, balanced assessment of one of the most controversial politicians in American history
Summary: 5 Stars
To understand this documentary of Lyndon Johnson, it's necessary to know that in 1982 and 1990, Robert Caro published the first two of his four-part study of LBJ. These books were lauded as both great reading and great history. They pained LBJ as a power-hungry, ruthless, unprincipled man and politician. Caro's view is still a popular one -- in the Democratic conventions this year, Barack Obama cited Clinton, Kennedy and Roosevelt as inspirational Democratic presidents. He was noticeably silent about Johnson, a snub that even seemed to anger Caro himself, who wrote an op-ed in the New York Times pointing out that without LBJ's landmark voting rights act, Obama would never have been able to vote, much less become the nominee for president.
But in 1991, Caro's two highly unflattering volumes about Johnson were flying off the shelves, and, probably as a subtle rebuke to Caro, this PBS documentary was made. Two other Johnson biographers Ronnie Dugger and Robert Dallek are interviewed, but Caro is absent. And while the documentary is by no means a hagiography of Johnson, its tone is generally respectful and sympathetic. At the end of the four hours, I felt sadness most of all that this once incredible giant of a man was reduced to a bitter recluse at the end of his life.
It's a good thing this documentary was made, because since 1991, the vast majority of the people interviewed in the film have passed on. Lady Bird Johnson, John Connally, Dean Rusk, Clark Clifford, George Ball, J.J. Pickle, George Reedy, Jack Valenti are now no longer with us. Noticeably absent, as I said, are Robert Caro, Robert McNamara, and Bill Moyers, as well as any member of the Kennedy clan. The interviews are really priceless. There's John Connally flatly claiming that he told Johnson to "bomb Hanoi off the map" with nukes, Ronnie Dugger recalling a conversation he had with Johnson in which Johnson tacitly admitted to stealing the 1948 Senatorial election, and Dean Rusk summing up Vietnam by saying, "I underestimated the will of the Vietnamese people." Or Daniel Ellsberg recalling being the first to get direct cables from the Gulf of Tonkin at the Pentagon. Or J.J. Pickle's continued unrestrained admiration for his old boss: " It just broke me in two, because I knew what it meant to him to say it and I couldn't stand it. And three men and I were in a car, and we all began to just openly cry, because it was tearing our heart apart and, of course, we knew what it meant to him."
In addition to the interviews, vintage footage and photographs are used to wonderful effect. They capture the bluster and charisma of Johnson, as well as his legendary political persuasion skills. For instance, when Kennedy was killed, Johnson made an address to the nation in which he seemed appropriately haunted. "I would give everything I have to not be standing here today." But the footage also humanizes Johnson. For instance, it's hard not to cringe when we see footage of John F. Kennedy announcing LBJ as his running mate, and Johnson's slumped and grimaced response. LBJ's final public appearance, shortly before his death, is also chilling. He's frail, stooped, looks much older than his 64 years, and popping nitroglycerin pills.
"LBJ" should be required viewing for anyone interested in American history. His administration's disastrous Vietnam policies have eerie parallels to today's Iraq war. At the same time, the documentary points out that many facets of American government that we take for granted (civil rights, voting rights, Medicare, Medicaid, public television (!!!), student loans, Headstart, endowments for the arts, environmental protection laws, including the clean air and clean water laws) wouldn't have been possible without the iron will of Johnson. He didn't ever seem to take "no" for an answer, and the documentary is at pains to emphasize how his career led to both great good and evil.
But "LBJ" is about more than just the man. It's about an era. Sarah Palin got huge cheers in her RNC convention speech with a jab about the "do-nothing Senate." "LBJ" is about a time when, for better of for worse, government did more than it had in perhaps any other time in the 20th century. LBJ's Vietnam war policy was an unmitigated disaster, but this documentary helps explain the times and the political atmosphere that would lead such intelligent men as Kennedy, McNamara, and Johnson to pursue something that today seems so foolish. In the end, Johnson was Vietnam war's most famous casualty.
Movie Review: A Texas Original
Summary: 5 Stars
There have already been a number of excellent reviews on this documentary.
President Johnson will remain a controversial President until after we are in our graves. More than any other twentieth-century President, he represents greatness in sterling qualities and faults combined. LBJ had no interests outside politics. He never read a book for pleasure, had no hobbies--he lived and breathed politics to the exclusion of all else. His personal magnetism has been well-documented, and his bullying just as well-documented. How fortunate he was to have Lady Bird for a wife!
It is pure speculation where the Presidency might have taken LBJ, tied as he is to Vietnam. There is little doubt that his leadership combined with raw political power moved the civil rights movement forward as no one else could have. He truly wanted to end poverty in this country, not simply lending lip service. He matured in the Presidency, striving for accomplishments as no President since. Nevertheless, Vietnam proved the millstone that proved his failure.
I will always find it poignant watching that last public appearance he had, where he was giving a speech while quietly popping nitroglycerin tablets for his angina. With today's medical resources he wouldn't have died so young, or so painfully.
The New Deal Texas liberalism that President Johnson represented has been lost in 'compassionate conservatism' in our state, but Mr. Johnson's documentary can take us back to a time when Texas was not only big, but also had big ambitions.
Movie Review: Required Viewing For Everyone On The Left
Summary: 5 Stars
This is beyond the best presidential documentary ever - it's probably the best documentary I've ever seen. On my list of top ten films of all time. I was born during his administration, but when the film first ran on PBS, I knew almost nothing about him. That's the best way to approach this film, which probably makes it an outstanding teaching tool. David Grubin is a superstar. If you lean to the left in your views at all, this is something you really need to see. It's a heartbreaker. Perhaps the neocons should have watched this before deciding to invade Iraq? Maybe we all could learn from this. My only complaint is that Michael Bacon's outstanding soundtrack has never been released on CD, or even made available for download. Movie Review: Greatest Documentary Ever
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my all time favorite documentary. Whatever your personal opinion of LBJ is, one thing is undeniable, and that is that he is one of the most interesting figures in American history. Johnson was a complex man, and this film shows all of the different facets of his life. To watch a person grow from their own racist roots, to become one of the most powerful champions of the civil rights movement and then to lose it all by the Vietnam war is extremly compeling. You will find yourself riveted and saddened by the tragic story that this film ultimately presents.Movie Review: Outstanding!
Summary: 4 Stars
This presents a very comprehensive view of Johnson's life and political career. If I find fault, it is the way Johnson's management of the Vietnama War is handled. We are shown how Johnson supposedly backed himself into a corner with the war, but little context is provided. It's seems clear to me the producers were liberal. They make it seem that all Johnson had to do to end the war was recall our military. Simple enough military tactic - not so simple a stategic tactic in the context of the Cold War. In contrast, the producers give considerable context to Johnson's management of civil rights issuses, of course favoring minorities.
Summary of LBJ: The American Experience
He was one of America's most controversial presidents, a larger-than-life figure who rose from obscurity to the pinnacle of power, only to relinquish his career in disillusionment and defeat. Witness the events and strategies that brought Lyndon Baines Johnson to Washington and then the presidency. Follow LBJ's triumphs as he passes a tidal wave of social legislation and scores a landslide victory in the 1964 election. Then, as war and civil turmoil threaten to tear the country apart, trace his downward trajectory that ended with his ultimate withdrawal from politics. Includes: "Beautiful Texas," "My Fellow Americans," "We Shall Overcome," and "The Last Believer."American Experience Video
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