Path to War
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Movie Reviews of Path to War
Movie Review: Brought me to tears
Summary: 5 Stars
When LBJ ran for president, I was 12 and had little real conception of politics. By the time he made his "will not run" speech, I hated him with all the fury of an adolescent of the late '60s. Today, I think he could have been in a handful of this country's greatest presidents but for his tragic flaw.
This film re-rang all those changes for me. Michael Gambon is truly superb--people complain that his accent isn't right, but they miss that his passion is exactly on. You believe with him that there are wrongs in the world that must be righted, you see his vision, and you suffer his agonies about trying to squeeze between the pre-digested mythology of JFK and his fear that he will be remembered as the forgotted president who came between the Kennedys.
The powerful debate between Clark Clifford (Donald Sutherland) and Robert McNamara (Alex Balwin) over whether Johnson should withdraw from Vietnam or commit more troops may never have happened the way it's portrayed in the film, but I've never seen a better depiction of the moral issues of the time. And with Johnson's decision to stay in Vietnam, you can't help but wonder, what would the world have been like had he gone with what Clifford called his natural inclinations.
From that moment, LBJ and the country are committed. At one point, Johnson says, let's just get out of here, and Clifford tells him that it's too late. And it was too late for all of us.
Another reviewer said this film was like a Greek tragedy, and it is, but it is really an American tragedy. One set of options for the United States was forever eliminated by the decision to stay in Vietnam--we can't know whether that course would have been better for the country, but it surely could not have been worse. This is the true Camelot that was lost, and its loss brought me to tears.
This film is powerful and mostly highly recommended. The acting is superb, the scipt is riveting, the emotions are powerfully wrought, and the cinematography immediate and riveting. A political thriller made even more powerful by the knowledge that, at least in general impulse, it is absolutely true.
Movie Review: EERIE SIMILARITIES
Summary: 5 Stars
PATH TO WAR is an HBO film, almost a docudrama, about the war in Vietnam-not the one fought on the battlefield but the one being fought in the White House. Donald Sutherland (Clark Clifford) and Alec Baldwin (Robert McNamara) are outstanding and Michael Gambon (Lyndon Johnson) also turns in a terrific performance of a President fighting the battles of ego and conscience. LBJ was a very complex personality and much of that persona comes through in the film. The eerie part is the comparison between then and now-a President from Texas, with two daughters, a divided country, fighting a war that doesn't seem winnable, against an enemy that is hard to quantify. In fact, it seems like many times during the movie you could just substitute Iraq for Vietnam and it would fit perfectly. Combines actual newsreel footage in the film making it feel even more real. Obviously, a very traumatic period in American history, this is a fascinating look behind the scenes at how we got into Vietnam and, finally, the decision LBJ made to start the peace process and not run for re-election so he could concentrate on ending the war. Sadly, he never lived to see the official end to the war. Watching this and THE FOG OF WAR, the Academy Award winning documentary about Robert McNamara, gives a great inside look at people behind the decisions that affect millions of people, here and abroad. You see the human frailties as well as strengths. At one point, LBJ was complaining to
Clark Clifford about the advice he had been given, and Clifford looked him in the eye, and told him that no matter what the decisions had been there were his and he alone had to take responsibility. A very powerful film worth watching. While younger children probably won't be interested anyway, there is some language (LBJ was no saint) and a little bit of violence during the anti-war rallies. WWW.LUSREVIEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM
Movie Review: Vietnam War - The Inner Machinations
Summary: 5 Stars
I hadn't seen this film before the DVD arrived in my letterbox - the name of the Director John Frankenheimer was what originally caught my attention plus it was about Vietnam and the war of my generation.
When the war broke out I remember my father saying it was "an unwinnable war" and of course I had no idea what he meant - he who had served in the AIF in New Guinea in WW11. And so it became obvious watching this brilliant HBO film that with the best will in the world President Johnson and his cohorts had no comprehension of what they were getting into either. It was only later when the reports came back describing how villagers cycled down to a stricken train to help unload it (the lines had been destroyed by US bombing) and painstakingly moved the items on board the train to handlebars of bicycles to be ferried to another train further down the line. How they built devices across rivers to replace blown up bridges, and how they determinedly went on with their lives as best they could that the White House staff realised with growing alarm that they could be in this war forever.
Johnson himself comes across as a man under enormous pressure, much of it caused by his insecurity and self doubts. The rest of course was brought upon him by the Vietnam war,which wrecked his health and eventually him destroyed him.
This is an excellent, accurate portrayal of the machinations of Vietnam as I remember it, and it paints a picture of men trying to grapple with a war they don't understand, fearful of defeat (unthinkable) the escalating cost and Johnson's programmes to help the poor and Civil Rights in danger of being lost as the national budget is blown to smithereens.
Micahel Gambon was magnificent as LBJ, as was Donald Sutherland.
The film is engrossing from beginning to end, in fact the whole DVD package is a must have in my opinion.
Movie Review: great movie, just very long
Summary: 5 Stars
i saw Path to War on HBO once, and wow, it's awesome, but it is also a very long movie, about 3 hours.
Path to war covers LBJ's time from the start of his presidency to the decisions and influences made surrounding the events that lead to the Vietnam War.
the story covers Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defense), George Ball (Undersecretary of State), and Clark Clifford, who is good friends with LBJ and works for him.
all three men give their side on the situation in Vietnam and from there, LBJ makes his decisions.
it's really an awesome movie cause you really see two very different points of views, how one side saw Communism as a real threat and Vietnam as the battleground for it and how the other saw that fighting in Vietnam would never end and there would be no loser or winner.
Johnson goes from a loved and admired president after the fall of President Kennedy to a hated and despised man by millions of people. his Great Society is gone in exchange for the war, and all the politics and stress surrounding the times eventualy lead to him announcing that he would not run again in 68.
the movie, much like Thirteen Days (Cuban Missile Crisis) explores more the human thinking, moral side of leaders running the country and how and why they make the decisions they make.
great movie that i highly recommend, especially for History Class concerning the Vietnam War.
Movie Review: Excellent view of how politics caused a war
Summary: 5 Stars
The Path To War is a riveting political drama which clearly demonstrates how The United States managed to blunder into Vietnam out of fear and with the assurances that everything was going to be all right. It shows clearly how LBJ was so afraid of appearing weak to any number of groups that he acted aggressively. It also shows that he was the type of person who couldn't stand to lose and had a tremendous personal grudge in winning the war. The portrayals of Robert McNamara are uncannily accurate and Alec Baldwin does a tremendous job of showing him as someone who believed that anything could be predicted, measured and accounted for.
What makes this movie so believable is the fine acting throughout. Alec Baldwin is amazing, as Bob McNamara and Michael Gambon is great as LBJ. Donald Sutherland is fantastic as Clark Clifford. In fact there is hardly a weak link in this entire program. This is a great version of how the Vietnam war came to be and is both highly interesting and very entertaining.