[rating=3.00]
Depending on who you ask, President Lyndon Baines Johnson either represented the best of American intentions or the worst of American impulses. A Texas Democrat (those used to exist and, believe it or not, still do), he’s lauded for pushing through the monumental Civil Rights Act and for helping to usher in the “Great Society,” which expanded Medicare, Medicaid, and civil rights. On the other hand, no single man is as responsible for escalating the Vietnam War than Johnson.
Feelings regarding President Johnson are, no doubt, complicated. His place in history is assured, for better and for worse, though, on balance, how he’s remembered today depends largely upon perspective. Given his unique historical position, Johnson’s life is seemingly tailor made for a biopic. A great one, perhaps. Unfortunately, LBJ is far from that.
This, despite an outstanding performance by Woody Harrelson as the former president, who was thrust into the position following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. If ever you had reason to doubt Harrelson’s chops as an actor, his portrayal of Johnson here should be all the proof you need. He fills the screen with an abrasive presence, cursing at anyone and everyone and exuding that Texan swagger. In a better movie, it might’ve been magical.
Lacking any other compelling elements, the performance is merely an island of greatness in a sea of mediocrity. Of course, director Rob Reiner hasn’t exactly been accused of creating greatness too often in the last 25 years. Not new greatness, anyway. It’s been that long since Reiner helmed his last truly fantastic film, A Few Good Men, and his time since has been spent in a slow decline. Even his better films from his latter career, Ghosts of Mississippi, say, or The American President, are stylistically lacking enough to prevent them from being anything but decent at best works.
And so it is with LBJ, a film that feels dated even before its release. That’s kind of the refrain for any new Reiner film. As a director, he was great for his era, but somewhere along the way he forgot to evolve. All of his movies since 1994’s North have felt at least ten or fifteen years behind the times, and become exercises in rote familiarity.
Reiner isn’t the sole holder of blame for this mess of a biopic, however. Indeed, screenwriter Joey Hartstone, whose biggest claim to fame (if you can call it that) is as an associate producer for Project Runway seasons four and five, deserves at least as much credit for this slow moving disaster as Reiner. Hartstone’s script is a compositional mess that never quite seems to know what it is or how it wants to tell the story.
Told, essentially, in two parts, the story first follows LBJ’s rise to the vice-presidency after losing the primary battle against JFK (Jeffrey Donovan). This is set against the backdrop of that fateful trip to Dallas (because we so needed to see that again on film) the story jumps back and forth between scenes of Johnson berating other congressmen and aides and scenes from the assassination from LBJ’s perspective. Following the assassination, the film moves in a straight line, focusing on Johnson’s efforts to get the Civil Rights Act passed through congress.
A noble focus, to be sure, but little agency is given to the need for passing the bill in the first place. Instead, much of the film zeroes in on the backroom wheeling and dealing that was needed to allow the bill to pass in the first place, which essentially amounts to scene after scene of old white men sitting around and debating the merits of the legislation. We hear a lot of about fire hoses and protests, but they’re mentioned in passing and without the weight of context.
Vietnam, too, is given precious little air time in LBJ, relegated to a flippant one-off remark that, while pregnant with implication, gives no insight into the devastating quagmire Johnson caused by his escalation.
As brilliant as Harrelson’s performance might be, it’s never enough to elevate the any of the rest of film’s moving parts. His 10-star portrayal does little to hide the fact that this feels like a toothless, late-90s made for TV movie as opposed to an actual major motion picture. The only thing major about LBJ is the disappointment you’ll feel watching it.
LBJ is now playing in theaters everywhere.
