All The Way–A Review

By Brennan Nick

All The Way, written by Robert Schenkkan, is the historical drama of Lyndon Baines Johnson’s turbulent and fierce first year in office as President of the United States. It was first written as a stage play; then it was performed on Broadway in 2014 and finally was adapted to the screen as an HBO television drama film in 2016. In all adaptations, the story begins after John F. Kennedy’s assassination at the beginning of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency. Faced with rhetoric of being an “accidental president,” he has to prove his legitimacy as a president in his own right, and he sees his way of doing so through passing the first major civil rights bill–something he’s wanted for years when working in the Senate.

After landing in DC, he was sworn in and made his very first speech about this goal. As expected he immediately encounters resistance from Democrats and Republicans alike. His main opponents are the Southern Democrats who are staunch segregationists and would do anything to maintain their Southern way of life–this was a time when Conservative Democrats had a lock on The South which lasted from the Civil War until only 40 years ago. What LBJ had to do first was gain the trust and support of the Northern Democrats for his Civil Rights Bill, and after that he had to convince and coerce Republicans into supporting him by telling them “You can vote with the segregationists and the country goes up in flames.”

Surprise, surprise, the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 gets passed, and after this it goes into Johnson’s presidential campaign against fellow Democrats in the primaries and against Barry Goldwater in the election of 1964. It is here that Schenkkan goes deep into analyzing LBJ’s personality, inner conflict, and even his paranoia that no one around him really supports him and as soon as he loses power no one would be there for him. This escalates to a moment where he’s lying in his bed considering dropping out of the election from the pressure.

Once again, surprise, surprise, Johnson wins the election of 1964 in a landslide, but he loses the South to Goldwater. The play and movie end on an ominous note at Johnson’s election celebration party where Johnson has an internal monologue where he explains how he dragged this election “kicking and screaming into the light” and claims to know that although these people are all laughing and smiling now, afterwards the knives will come out and he will have to defend his place on top.

Although I couldn’t watch the play on broadway myself, I have read the play and watched the movie on HBO. The acting, especially on behalf of Bryan Cranston, LBJ, was outstanding and made Cranston very different from his character on Breaking Bad (Walter White) or his previous goofy dad role in Malcolm in the Middle (Hal). LBG was a great change in character from what Cranston usually plays and really displays his versatility.

Editor: Peter Kadel