Movie Review: LBJ

LBJ ***/*****

Directed by: Rob Reiner.

Written by: Joey Hartstone.

Starring: Woody Harrelson (Lyndon B. Johnson), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Lady Bird Johnson), Jeffrey Donovan (John F. Kennedy), Richard Jenkins (Senator Russell), Michael Stahl-David (Robert F. Kennedy), Bill Pullman (Ralph Yarborough), C. Thomas Howell (Walter Jenkins).

 

It would be easy to dismiss Rob Reiner’s LBJ as a square, old fashioned biopic – because admittedly, that is pretty much what it is. Watching the film, it felt like some forgotten, prestige film from the 1980s or 1990s – the kind where a famous actor puts on a lot of makeup and plays a very important figure from the past that mainly aims to make that person look good – that ignores everything bad that person did. It’s also odd that this is a movie that talks a lot about Civil Rights, and yet there isn’t a major African American character in the film – although Reiner, I think, does a decent job of showing how politicians in the 1960s treated the few African Americans they did encounter – cooks, waiters, etc. – like they’re not even there. Still, coming directly on the heels on HBO’s All the Way – also about Lyndon Johnson, where the second leading character was Martin Luther King – and for that matter Ava DuVernay’s Selma, which focused on King, and had LBJ as supporting character, this omission certainly seems to be a glaring one. So, yes, I am aware of the problems with Reiner’s LBJ – but I will also say that for the most part, he has crafted an enjoyable throwback – with a great lead performance by Woody Harrelson. Yes, it may be overly square, and stuck in a previous era of prestige films – but that was the era after all where Reiner made his best films (his run from This is Spinal Tap in 1984 to The American President in 1995 which include The Princess Bridge, Stand By Me, Misery, When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men is one hell of run of high quality, if middlebrow, entertainment). LBJ may not be a great movie – but its Reiner’s best in quite some time, and an entertaining movie in its own right.

 

The film stars Harrelson as LBJ, and the film basically follows Johnson from his time as Majority Leader in the Senate, prepping for a Presidential run in 1960, to his speech in front of both Houses of Congress in the wake of JFK’s assassination, where he pledges to push ahead with Kennedy’s agenda, in particular the Civil Rights Bill (in some ways then, it can be seen as a prequel to All the Way, which pretty much begins with Kennedy’s assassination, and ends a year later with Johnson’s re-election). It doesn’t take long for Harrelson to establish Johnson the way the movie will see him – as a tireless worker, a brilliant politician, and more than a little bit of a bully. The film opens with him trying to work out backroom deals to pass a farm bill – and in a matter of minutes, we see him try to woo fellow Senators on the phone, bite the head of an underling for giving him a count of “about 46” – which he says isn’t a number, and humiliate another Senator (Bill Pullman), by calling him in to listen to talk about his giant dick to his tailor, right before he mocks the Senator and his “principles”. This Johnson, then, is a man who can get things done – and if he has to be profane and aggressive to do it, he will.

 

The aspect of this LBJ that makes him different from other Johnson’s I have seen on screen though is his insecurity – which is almost Nixon-ian at times. Johnson really wants to be President – thinks he as earned it with his hard work, and then watches in disbelief as Kennedy wins the nomination out from under him. When Kennedy asks Johnson to be his running mate, Johnson hesitates, in part because he doesn’t really get along with Bobby Kennedy. In this movie’s version anyway, that disagreement is a source of insecurity for Johnson – it calls to mind the worry he has had his whole life. He doesn’t worry about his work ethic or the ability to get things done – he does worry about how people perceive him. He has others respect – but he wants their love.

 

It is a joy to watch Harrelson here as Johnson – in particular his scenes with Richard Jenkins’ Senator Dick Russell, a Southerner from Georgia, who thinks he knows LBJ, as they are both Southern Democrats, and doesn’t believe Johnson will really push hard for something the South doesn’t want. It’s great to see Harrelson’s Johnson lay it on thick with Russell - wooing him when needed, before he eventually has to lay down the law with him. “Dick you’re a good man – and a racist” he tells him when Russell threatens him. Jenkins is equally good – capturing the spirit of the Southern gentleman, who really did see him as non-racist, even if he casually says “nigger” in almost every conversation – although in hushed tones when the wait staff is around.

 

There is no doubt that the film pulls some punches. It doesn’t mention, for example, like All the Way does that Johnson stripped the Voting Rights Act out of the Civil Rights Act (they would pass it the next year), acting as is Johnson got the whole thing passed in one go (actually, it acts like they were always two different things). The film’s strategy to deal with the war in Vietnam – a much thornier issue than Civil Rights – is simply to not mention it at all, except in title cards. The film in some ways strikes me as a response to the butt hurt that certain Johnson supporters felt over DuVernay’s Selma, which (I felt) ultimately painted Johnson in a good light, even if it made clear that he had to be dragged to do some of the stuff he does. This is a film that ignores King altogether (they mention him in passing), and paints Johnson as a man who did everything because of principle.

 

Ultimately, however, I think that the differences between the Johnson’s seen in Selma, All the Way and LBJ, only serve to make all three films more interesting (the best Johnson film remains John Frankenheimer’s HBO film Path to War, about the Vietnam war, with Michael Gambon as Johnson). The three films taken together show how history is re-written, and re-interrupted depending on who is doing the telling. Put all three together, and you have a more complex view of Johnson than any single film could possibly have. In total, LBJ is more flawed and problematic than the other two films – and yet I’m glad it exists, continuing the conversation about this complex President and person.


Note: I saw this film at TIFF 2016 - I assume it's the same version being released in America tomorrow.