上世紀60年代的喧囂和混亂和現在的時代比起來很像,因為都相合於「危機四伏」四個字,美國是越戰正酣,中國是文革未了,出生於六十年代被封鎖的中國人人相當於當下陷於圍牆和欲網的「10后」也要等若干年後才知道當年的歷史全景和內幕嗎?
在美國沒人不知道LBJ 是林登 約翰遜總統的別號,他教師出身,在德州政壇躥起,魅力總統肯尼迪遇刺身亡后LBJ接任並連任美國總統,任內為社會正義和國家建設做了很多開創性的大事,但人們記得LBJ最多的是關於越南戰爭,在某種意義上成為一個李爾王式的悲劇英雄。美國為何捲入並升級越戰? LBJ的個性和他的施政風格究竟如何?LBJ如何在白宮內跟幕僚們大講特好玩兒的黃段子?LBJ如何在越戰關鍵時刻解決國內政治問題?
看了這部大片,是否同意LBJ的風格有些像赫魯曉夫,精明粗俗但心地敏感善良? 這些歷史的風雲人物都出身卑微,卑微和偉大是如何相遇結合發力的呢?
他的助手幕僚有幾位是民主黨青年才俊,比如上個月才去世的 Richard N Goodwin (他擔任肯尼迪和約翰遜內閣高級顧問和總統撰稿人併發明了「偉大社會」(the Great Society)這個名詞,比如還健在的著名新聞記者和評論員Bill Moyers(他擔任約翰遜內閣的新聞秘書),還有各界的等等人物,LBJ跟他們個性互動和歷史進程和敘事情節十分自然的呈現,毫無造作,讓觀眾對人物對歷史對美國政治的運作得到灌頂醍醐的認識。
觀眾評語:
----精彩! Great
----太精彩了! Brilliant
----John Frankenheimer was a brilliant director.
----Brit Michael Gambon (Sleepy Hollow) (The Good Shepherd) does a great job putting on an American southern/Texas accent and playing LBJ.
-----Great movie. They showed LBJ & Lady Byrd in bed together but as I recall, protocol had the first lady sleep in a separate bedroom. When Betty Ford was informed of this after Nixon resigned, she said, "The Hell with that!"
-----Very good movie that demonstrates that the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions. Our post WW II foreign policy history has, in many ways, been a road to hell paved with good intentions. The one weakness of this film is a possible failure to capture McNamara's original 1963 stand on Viet Nam. At the beginning, he shared JFK's misgivings. He did not want to go further than "military advisers" and helping from a distance by using "push buttons." Johnson pushed for a tougher standing, believing of course that this would be a short war. LBJ also wanted to make sure all of the surviving former Presidents were behind him. He wanted to be the Great Society President. The whole Johnson administration became caught in an uncontrollable whirlwind of escalation where the only way to "win" this war was to basically kill everybody (remember Kurtz? "The horror! The horror!"). The greatest irony in all this was that, back in 1945, Ho Chi Minh turned NOT to the Soviets, but to the United States for recognition of independence and help. He used a Vietnamese translation of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence to signify the free existence of Viet Nam. Johnson passed in a sad state of deep depression. McNamara, for his part, was not "sorry" but "appalled," openly assessing and admitting his failures.