The Lady Bird Diaries
                
Director: Dawn Porter
Year: 2023
Rating: 7.0
I tried watching this a few weeks ago and could not get very far. Nothing to do with the film, but because it begins on November 22, 1963 and after all these years footage of that day still kicks me in the stomach. I was ten at the time and had a large poster of Elect Kennedy above my bed. My parents made me a liberal right from the beginning and that has never changed. But this film is about Lady Bird Johnson, the wife to LBJ, the 36th President of the United States. She was a witness and to a lesser extent a participant to some of the most tumultuous years in our history. And she kept an audio diary of her thoughts and observations of those years till LBJ left the Presidency in 1969. It is rather remarkable really - nothing in here of a scandalous or shocking revelation - but just how she reacts to events, how burdened by the job LBJ was and how much she loved him through it all.




His Presidency had some astonishing achievements - the Civil Rights Bill, the Voting Rights Bill, the creation of Medicare, the Great Society and over 300 bills protecting our environment. And then there was Vietnam. A horrendous war that perhaps we entered with good intentions, but it was soon apparent that it was a terrible mistake and LBJ felt he could not leave and retain our honor and word and so kept putting more men in to disastrous effect. The protest movement began, Martin Luther King was assassinated leading to the burning of the cities across America. LBJ had bouts of depression, times when he wished he was not President, not up to the job, times when he seriously considered not running in 1964 and had decided not to run in 1968 long before his announcement. Then RFK is assassinated.




And she is always there to comfort her husband, to give advice, to take care of her two daughters. There was 123-hours of tapes. Who knows what was edited out that reflected poorly on her or her husband - but what we get is a portrait of a very intelligent woman, of a caring one, of one who believed in justice, was protective of her husband - and one who is very eloquent. Her voice is quiet, even, a slight Texas accent but so well spoken. In her public life as the First Lady, I don't think much was known about her - just the woman by his side and who presided over polite events - but this makes you realize how much depth there was to her. LBJ was only to live for four more years after leaving office - one of the last casualties of Vietnam perhaps - but she went on to live till 2007. Those were tough years for America and we got through them. It gives me hope that we will make it through the next four years.