This television does a great job of trying to bring to life the struggle of a leader who got destroyed by a Vietnam War in History books. LBJ did so much, but the question of why he did what he did is what this history tries to show. While it does accurately address the events and a talented actor does bring life to him, it kind of misses script wise LBJ's real motivations to an considerable extent.
This starts with stark scenes of the immediate thrust into the Presidency after JFK's murder. While the scenes are stark here, the script shows an almost emotionless LBJ after an incident which touched the emotion of every American. His assumption of office is presented as sudden but the real LBJ would not be as wooden as this one.
From here, it does get better to an extent. It goes over all the major battles on race discrimination, and tries to present LBJ's encounters with MLK (Dr. King) and FBI head J.Edgar Hoover. It does show how cagey he could be maneuvering people to get what he wants. In his human side, it does a great job presenting how he feels he will die young because of others in his family.
Because this is a TV production, it mentions the great society programs but does not really go into the battles LBJ had getting them passed. The focus here is race and voting rights. By presenting a shallow picture of MLK here, it really makes it look too much like Johnson alone got this done.
This is presented deliberately into making the history say that because of this LBJ battle that the Democrats lost the South in the 1968 election because of Republicans, which is not really the true history. George Wallace really had more to do with the Humphrey loss in 1968 than Nixon.
Still, the LBJ Legend, and the 1968 spin which has been used make it look like Democrats are something they are not is still being sold as fact where the Democrats stand today, despite the fact that current leaders of that party had racists as mentors, is an interesting theory still being advanced in Education.
Between the lines stands LBJ, he is an important bridge in the history of equal rights, and the development of the most comprehensive programs addressing poverty and health care in the United States. Those accomplishments stand high above the presentation of them in this film. Medicare and Medicade funded what is now the most advanced health care system in the world. The equal rights is a landmark the rest of the world still trails behind the US. The trouble is current leaders are trying to destroy this legacy, and they should be ashamed of that.
This starts with stark scenes of the immediate thrust into the Presidency after JFK's murder. While the scenes are stark here, the script shows an almost emotionless LBJ after an incident which touched the emotion of every American. His assumption of office is presented as sudden but the real LBJ would not be as wooden as this one.
From here, it does get better to an extent. It goes over all the major battles on race discrimination, and tries to present LBJ's encounters with MLK (Dr. King) and FBI head J.Edgar Hoover. It does show how cagey he could be maneuvering people to get what he wants. In his human side, it does a great job presenting how he feels he will die young because of others in his family.
Because this is a TV production, it mentions the great society programs but does not really go into the battles LBJ had getting them passed. The focus here is race and voting rights. By presenting a shallow picture of MLK here, it really makes it look too much like Johnson alone got this done.
This is presented deliberately into making the history say that because of this LBJ battle that the Democrats lost the South in the 1968 election because of Republicans, which is not really the true history. George Wallace really had more to do with the Humphrey loss in 1968 than Nixon.
Still, the LBJ Legend, and the 1968 spin which has been used make it look like Democrats are something they are not is still being sold as fact where the Democrats stand today, despite the fact that current leaders of that party had racists as mentors, is an interesting theory still being advanced in Education.
Between the lines stands LBJ, he is an important bridge in the history of equal rights, and the development of the most comprehensive programs addressing poverty and health care in the United States. Those accomplishments stand high above the presentation of them in this film. Medicare and Medicade funded what is now the most advanced health care system in the world. The equal rights is a landmark the rest of the world still trails behind the US. The trouble is current leaders are trying to destroy this legacy, and they should be ashamed of that.