LBJ starts on November 22, 1963 then parallels the story of what happened on that day with the titular character’s dynamic days as the Majority Leader leading up to that fateful day as it details how he was sapped of most of his momentum and influence to take a back seat to the Kennedys as Vice President. When the stories merge, it becomes a tale of his resurrection as a great man of action and what direction the Democratic Party and the nation will take: would LBJ progress with Kennedy’s Civil Rights agenda or would he be true to his regressive roots as a racist Southern Democrat?
I actually like LBJ because he did a lot of good while being completely racist and a magnificent bastard who played mind games. When people praise the Kennedys, I remind people that he actually did the work so I came to this film with an open mind. I may not want to have lunch with the guy, but I can appreciate him more than the people who praise slaveholders without criticism as if daily choosing to own people, terrorize them, keep them from loved ones and rape and beat them for life for their comfort does not make them the equals of Ariel Castro and Phillip Garrido just because they were better writers, famous and well read. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a room alone with pedophile, sociopathic “great” men like Thomas Jefferson. I look young for my age. Give me LBJ every day.
LBJ was filmed before the 2016 Presidential race, but its themes augurs the widespread sensibility of “don’t be mean to someone just because they are actively hurting you because you’ll hurt his feelings.” The titular character just wants to be loved, y’all. It is just adorably quirky that he leaves the door open when he uses the bathroom and curses people out. The movie is funny, but that humor excuses a lot of workplace verbal abuse. When people talk about compromise between Nazis and everyone else, they must be imagining this movie where dragging your feet on civil rights is an acceptable power play until you can betray your racist friends and are completely in control. LBJ was just playing the long game, y’all. He sees black people as family who should be able to drive his dog home with no harassment because racism is about inconveniencing him, not about hurting actual people. Side eye.
Black people who do not admire Diamond and Silk, Omarosa, Stacey Dash, Katrina Pierson or Ben Carson should probably not watch LBJ. It is not for us. I get that this is a movie about LBJ, but the fact that its central issue is the black question (yes, I am intentionally trying to make a verbal allusion to the Nazis’ Jewish question) of the appropriate status and treatment of black people in American society as discussed solely by white men will leave you fuming. The Kennedys are depicted as the unquestionable good guys as opposed to the problematic white moderate that disappointed Martin Luther King Jr. and felt the ire of Lorraine Hansberry’s trenchant remarks. LBJ acts as the interpreter between the old guard, the Civil War Democrats and the future of the Democratic Party.
I’m not criticizing LBJ the film for depicting this aspect of the titular character’s life, but to make it emblematic of his presidency and his character feels more like a wishful extrapolation of what the filmmakers expect can happen with the racist, white people in their lives whom they want to keep as friends and family with the hopes of changing their heart. The film correctly discerns that the problem of racism stems from a reluctance to administer equality in the guise of reasonable delay, but the film implies that once LBJ reveals his true self, everyone will just get with the program. What is left unspoken in the film is that this is the exact moment that led to the flight of Southern Democrats to the Republican party, which transformed it from the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower to Presidon’t, a party of reprobates who believe that “after a century of persecution, a century of being treated as inferior,” they can finally ascend once more to playing the victim while actually being the perpetrator. They hate minorities because they believe that they are the true and only minority.
Also I understand that LBJ has to be the hero of his story, but it takes some amazing acrobatic dexterity to cast RFK as the villain! The Kennedys may not be the Great White Hope, but if you’re not Vietnamese, they are far from the worst in most contexts. RFK is depicted as arrogant, mean and the real power hungry. His grief is cast as understandable, but irrational selfishness whereas LBJ is a sober statesman concerned about the continuity of government in the face of turmoil. There is an emphasis that serving your country is more important regardless of who occupies the Oval Office, which we now know is definitely not true unless you’re playing the long game like Mark Felt, and historical hindsight will vindicate you.
Timing is everything, and it is just bad luck that LBJ was released around the same time as Darkest Hour, which leads to an unavoidable great value versus name brand meme when it comes to the discrepancy in quality of makeup for the respective lead actors. Whereas Gary Oldman became Winston Churchill, it feels like Woody Harrelson should share the marquee with his prosthetics, which is dreadful and overpowering. Jennifer Jason Leigh is flawless, but they gave her a nose worthy of Cyrano de Bergerac. Now I have to watch All the Way, which was released prior to LBJ and is generally considered by critics to be superior to the latter film.
If LBJ was released earlier than Presidon’t’s administration, I probably would have enjoyed it more because it is a funny and pleasing profile of a POTUS like a television movie or a comedy sketch. My mom, who is less analytical than I, immediately complained like a longtime Batman fan, “So we’re going to have to see the President get shot.” Note to all future filmmakers: please stop recreating moments of national trauma to elevate your work. The film should be able to stand on its own merits without borrowing gravitas.