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.