All The Way

I've put off watching this movie for a long time. If you're a fan of my blog, you'll realize that I do this a lot, I put off watching movies that I'm really excited for. I don't really know why, I tell myself that I need to be in the mood for them, but I don't think that's totally true. I think it's probably more the idea that I want to give my full attention to these movies that obviously had someone giving me their full attention when they made a film, or at least that's what I've heard and how it looks. Regardless, this is a film that I've wanted to watch for a while, and now, I have watched it.

Not is this movie starring on of my favorite actors in Bryan Cranston, not only is it based off of a play which is always fun to see how that transfers over to the big screen, not only does it also star an actor that I've been paying attention to a lot lately in Anthony Mackie, not only is it about an incredible historical political battle which I love those, it's having these talented actors, and many more, playing very famous historical figure, most namely Lyndon B Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. I would watch an entire movie with these two just sitting in a room, in fact there's a scene in this movie where they're just talking and it's fascinating. And with the talent behind these performances, it is not surprising that I was so pumped for this movie.

All the Way Centers on the first "term" of Lyndon B Johnson (played by Bryan Cranston) directly after the assassination of John F Kennedy. Right off the bat, Johnson is concerned of the public perception of him that he will be known as an "accidental President". But at the same time, Johnson has big plans to move forward on the Civil Rights Bill outlawing discrimination against blacks in the United States.

But in order to do that, Johnson has to wheel and deal his way through members of Congress not willing to allow the country to move forward in what was considered an overly progressive piece of legislation. On the other side of things, you have liberal democrats and the black coalition, led by Martin Luther King Jr (played by Anthony Mackie) pressuring Johnson to push even more and pass the legislation with no changes, arguing more of the moral argument.

Johnson finds himself somewhere in the middle where he wants to see change in the country but at the same time he doesn't want to lose Southern Democrats who are not as progressive and willing to go along with Civil Rights legislation.

Now there is a lot going on in this film and some of the film is focused on other aspects of Johnson's time when he first came into office like his War on Poverty and the War in Vietnam. However, the main stream of this movie focuses on the Civil Rights act and Johnson's maneuvering with political capital and the uneasy relationship between him and Martin Luther King Jr, and in essence black people who are uneasy in trusting this President in getting them equal rights.

Throughout the film you see the turmoil within Johnson as he really just wants to do the right thing, but the way he's doing it is both seen as not enough by progressives, and insulting the status quo to Republicans and Southern democrats.

This movie really made me love the era that it's set in because everyone during the 60's was suspicious of other people and Johnson was no exception according to this film. But at the same time, the movie also portrays the ways that Johnson was able to sit down with people and have civil conversations and try to work out deals. But again, it goes back to the polarization of the two sides and how that doesn't always work, leaving Johnson looking like a far weather friend the entire time.

The other fun part about this film is that it made me realize that I didn't know shit about the measures by which the Civil Rights Act was enacted.

In our history classes, we always learned that JFK talked about the Civil Rights Act and probably would have enacted it had he lived but Johnson took up the torch and made it a reality. This movie delves into the nitty gritty and shows the audience exactly what went down and why it was such a political game. It's so full of intrigue and political warfare that it really is an entertaining film, especially if you're interested in history in that way.

Now the movie is based off of a play with the same title. I assume that all the moments in the movie where Johnson is having a monologue in his head and they have some close up shots of him just kind of looking around while this voice over happens, in the play this would have been more personal and probably would have had more power. Without seeing the play myself I can't say I know how well it transfers over mediums but I will say there are some parts that weren't necessarily lost in translation but weren't transferred correctly.

The big performance to talk about is of course Bryan Cranston as LBJ. It is obvious that Cranston went through an incredible transformation to actually become Lyndon B Johnson and it pays off. He looks pretty damn accurate. But the really fun part is when you research some of the mannerisms and conversations that Johnson had and Cranston really has it spot on.

When you think of Democrats today, LBJ would not be one of those Democrats, he said a lot of things that by today's standards would not be politically correct. Now a lot of it is probably subject to the times but it's still fascinating watching this in 2016 when you see a President, fighting for the rights of African Americans, and yet not exactly treating them or saying things about them that are totally respectful. Furthermore, if you look into the things that Johnson would do to people, he would make them feel uncomfortable or assert dominance over them in certain ways. There's a part where Johnson is trying to get enough votes to pass the Civil Right act and he's talking to a Senator to get him to flip and he gets really up close and personal not giving him any personal space. This is exactly the kinds of stuff Johnson would do. Cranston does a great job in his portrayal of Johnson and I have to give the writers a hand in their portrayal because of what I know of Johnson, this is spot on.

But of course the other performance I was really looking forward to looking into is Anthony Mackie as Martin Luther King Jr.

Anthony Mackie is really climbing the ranks of my favorite actors because he's just fun to watch and he takes on a lot of interesting roles. The jury is still out on whether or not he's just a good actor or if he's a great one, but I love his willingness to do pretty much whatever.

I'm not going to say his performance as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is bad, because it's not. King is a really interesting character in this film and like the rest of the movie, it really does give me some insight into what actually went into the Civil Rights act. And I'll tell you, Martin Luther King doesn't end up looking great in this film. He kind of falls into the same boat as Johnson where he wants a goal badly, but he's willing to make compromises where others are not. There's a great scene in the film where someone looks at him and says, Solomon couldn't cut that baby in half better. That's a really interesting line, especially in the climate we live in now, and especially the way we see Martin Luther King Jr in American history. The movie really does make you consider the steps of the Act and if things could have been done differently, and even if they couldn't, was it okay to forsake morals for a compromise?

The only thing I'll say about Mackie as King is that I think I expected more. That's not really Mackie's fault, the movie is more focused on LBJ and so the ball is going to be in Cranston's court more. But what I did see of Mackie as King, I wasn't overly impressed. I liked it, I thought it was a good choice for the film, I just don't think that it blew me away at all. I actually haven't seen a lot of actors portray Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in many films and I want to change that and compare the performance. I know Selma is on Hulu still and I've been meaning to check that film out for a while.

There are a lot of good performances in this film. Melissa Leo plays Lady Bird Johnson, Stephen Root plays J Edgar Hoover, Bradley Whitford plays Hubert Humphrey, and these are all pretty good performances. But the real focus is on Cranston as LBJ.

I'm not totally sure why this was just limited to an HBO film, I think this would have been a pretty powerful film to put in theaters. Now I'm not always the best judge as to what constitutes a made for TV film or a theatrical film, especially in the case of this film, but I really enjoyed All the Way.

Now if you're not into politics like I am, you may think that this film is boring or pretty slow. I've never seen Lincoln but I can imagine that that is the closest thing to what this movie is like. There's not a lot of action, there isn't a lot of espionage or intrigue, its just a political conversation about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and if you're not into that, you may not like this film. I personally think that those are the best parts of the film and everything else when they try and tie in something about the Vietnam War or other things, that's when the movie slows down.

The real intrigue of the film comes with Johnson himself and the personal struggle he goes through. Ultimately he wants to do the right thing, but he also knows the game way too well and to a 3rd party viewer, they could see that as selfish or politically thinking.

When you're thinking about the political conversations of the film, the movie is structured in a way that makes you think about how it applies to today, historically, politically, etc. I think the film has a strong message and is definitely worth checking out. It's on HBOGO if you have that, if you don't, find some way to check it out, especially if you're interested in history, politics, or current events.

But what did you think of All the Way? What did you think of Cranston and Mackie's performance? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I could listen to Bryan Cranston all day. The man has had such an incredible line up of work. This might give you some insight into the character of LBJ and what exactly you're getting into if you haven't seen the film. Enjoy!