All the Way (2016) Reviews

• What's valuable about this

  ekeby2016-05-21

  ...is that it shines a light on LBJ's very significant accomplishments (civil rights, voting rights, Medicare, Medicaid) which were largely wiped from my generation's collective consciousness. This film ends with Johnson's sweeping election victory in 1964, but by 1968 he became one of the most despised presidents in history for his escalation of the war in Vietnam. For those of us who lived through this era, this sort of biopic is a hard sell. We remember all too vividly the reality of Johnson, Humphrey, King, and all the rest. It's petty to remark that Dr. King didn't have the movie star looks of Anthony Mackie. Or that Hubert Humphrey was a lot plumper than Bradley Whitford, and his high pitched staccato speaking voice beyond Whitford's reach. Other characters are done either spot on or way off. I suppose no one could capture the essence of Sen. Dirksen without coming dangerously close to Foghorn Leghorn. But Bob McNamara looks right, and the always reliable Stephen Root brings the right manic intensity to his J. Edgar Hoover. Ultimately it's Bryan Cranston who makes the sell. He's utterly convincing. We feel we're seeing LBJ on screen. Only occasionally does the facade crack to show the actor underneath. But for the most part it's uncanny--if not a little eerie--how accurately he portrays Johnson. The script is about what you expect for a biopic. The kind of exposition necessary to explain who is who and what is what. It's tiresome for those of us who lived through it, but a necessary evil I suppose for anyone under age fifty. And for those under thirty who seem to have got a college degree without knowing much about anything, this will be a useful primer on the early 60s.

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• Engaging and compelling historical political drama

  grantss2016-05-30

  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.

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• Tour De Force for Bryan Cranston

  bobzmcishl2016-05-24

  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.

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• Cranston is great, and the events are even greater....

  secondtake2016-05-27

  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.

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• Brilliant

  natalierosen2016-05-23

  This portrayal of the 1963/1964 Johnson presidency is not only excellent but BRILLIANT. The acting was flawless about an era I knew well. The acting was so good I forgot about who was portraying whom. Bryan Cranston cannot be lauded enough. Our nation is on the precipice of returning to those noxious racist-filled days as we are poised to elect a wingnut demagogue to office supported by many racist whites even of the KKK and white nationalist supremacist variety. Have we learned NOTHING from our tragic racist past? Is Vietnam but a memory and the race relations of Jim Crow tucked away neatly in the crevices of our national mind? I surely hope not but suspect they are. Each and every American would do well to see this film and relive the 1964 shame-filled era of our nation and the legacy of its Civil War. Ultimately the war, though Union won, is still being fought and not only in the battlefield of the south but in the fields of the entire nation.

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