All the Way

Bryan Cranston brings Lyndon Johnson to life in this absorbing real life drama focusing on 1964 when LBJ not only got a major civil rights bill passed, but set the stage for the 1965 voting rights act and the war on poverty. Cranston's portrayal is uncanny, and turns this made for HBO movie into a quasi-documentary. Cranston carries this movie and makes it one of the best television events of the year. The rest of the cast is excellent too but in some cases, the actors don't look enough like the characters they are playing: Hubert Humphery and Martin Luther King Jr., come to mind. The storyline is fairly well known to anyone who follows politics and U.S. history, but the behind the scene's maneuvering to get a very major bill passed makes for great story telling and LBJ was one of the great story tellers. The stories told by LBJ are the glue that holds this movie together. His poor upbringing gave him the resolve to do something about helping the poor once he got into office. And of course he saw first hand in his home state of Texas, the massive racism that prevented blacks from taking their rightful place in American society. No doubt LBJ could have been a candidate for Mt. Rushmore were it not for Vietnam which is explored in the movie but not in-depth. That should be a sequel. Melissa Leo is wonderful as Lady Bird Johnson, and Frank Langella is excellent as Senator Richard Russell. This is a must see movie. Cranston will be picking up more awards.

"HBO" still sets the standard for making original movies as their films of real life drama and political pictures are still simply the best! "All the Way" adapted from a play tells the years of the 1960's and the years of the Lyndon Jonhson presidency starting with the "JFK" killing to when Johnson becomes president it's a crazy and troubled time in the country. As the Vietnam war is still raging and the Democrats in the south still are still not liking black folks. Well a lot is about to change president Johnson is about to passing the civil rights act of 1964 that would give blacks rights and equality to vote and have the same freedom that the whites have. Still it's a struggle to get passed thru the congress and senate as the republicans and southern democrats fight it.

Yet thru backroom political under the table deals and promises and with the help of Dr. Martin Luther King and the coalition of blacks especially those in the south it is passed and this helps spur Johnson the southern draw twang talking Texan to stay into the white house in the 1964 presidential election as he wins big with the southern and black vote over republican nominee Barry Goldwater. This film was showcased as a political and social cultural triumph and Bryan Cranston hams it up as president Johnson give him a golden globe or acting award. Overall "All the Way" is one well done original film that shows cultural and social political significance that would become important for race, democracy, and freedom of justice and peace of mind for many.

November, 1963. President John F Kennedy has just been assassinated and Vice President Lyndon Johnson (played by Bryan Cranston) is now President. One of his first acts as President is to reaffirm the US government's intention to pass the Civil Rights Act. This Act was drafted while JFK was in office and gives people of all races the same rights, including voting rights, access to education and access to public facilities. However, he faces strong opposition to the bill, especially from within his own party. He will have to use all his political will and cunning to get it through.

Incredibly engaging drama, showing the passage of a major and historic piece of legislation in US history. Quite an eye-opener: hard to believe that in 1963/4 there was such a huge North-South divide and that racism was so rampant. Also amazing to see that some of the strongest opposition to integration was from Democrats - the left-wing/right-wing lines were clearly quite blurred in those days.

Fascinating insight into the personality of LBJ. On the surface he seems like a man wanting to what is right for his fellow man. However, his motives are not always that altruistic, and his actions are often more driven by personal power than good intentions (which would be common to almost all politicians, I guess, so not such a huge surprise). Highly complex, we see what drives him, especially how his childhood experiences shape his motivations and thinking.

Quite balanced too. We see LBJ, warts and all: his temper, his treatment of staff and wife, his colourful language, what he'll do to win. He's hardly a saint.

Superb performance by Bryan Cranston in the lead role. He inhabits the character of LBJ.

A story that needed to be told.

All the Way

An impressive cast, centered around the LBJ actor Bryan Cranston, keeps the historical facts alive and relevant.

We often forget Johnson the president between Kennedy and Nixon. He was the most responsible for Vietnam, but also for a huge range of social programs that really make him the ultimate big government guy since Roosevelt. But important programs like Medicare and social legislation like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act. Seeing him struggle to make it happen is a kind of poker game, and he does it with famously Johnson candor and humor.

There's no getting around the fact that these are facts. There are no dramatic surprises here (so it's like seeing a movie the second time). But it's a good movie—one that you can see a second time and get a lot from it. There are weak points (some miscast figures like, unfortunately, Martin Luther King Jr. who is played by Anthony Mackie), but overall the drama of the events is kept intense and pertinent.

And Cranston is sublime. If you know him from "Breaking Bad" you will surprised by his depth here. See him, at least. And Johnson, too.

While Lyndon Johnson's presidency was marred by his disastrous Vietnam policy, he was one of our most significant and important presidents in terms of social justice, passing laws that fought racism and pushed against poverty.

In All the Way's eagerness to show the good of Johnson, it sometimes pushes a little too far. Johnson is portrayed here as a sort of crude angel. Sure, he holds meetings from the toilet, but he single-handedly pushes through a civil rights bill!

I don't know much about the history of the civil rights bill, but I do know that politics is a vast, messy business that involves a lot of people and that even the noblest of politicians are still consumed with deal making and positioning and power. For me, this makes the LBJ portrayed in the movie a too simplistic. I am more interested with flawed humans whose angels sometimes beat down their demons to earthly saints.

In spite of my objections, though, this is a very entertaining, involving movie. Its main selling point is Bryan Cranston's amazing portrayal of LBJ. Cranston's LBJ is shrewd, calculating, noble, and briefly angsty. Cranston creates as much complexity as is possible within a role written with a lack of nuance.

The other performances are also quite solid, particularly Melissa Leo as the sweet but steel-spined Ladybird and Frank Langella as LBJ's mentor and occasional foe. Anthony Mackie plays a thoughtful MLK, but there is a slightness, both physical and oratorical, that is disappointing.

While I would have liked more complexity, this is a very entertaining movie that is well worth watching.