Hey y'all, hope you enjoyed this episode of Deep Dives! Let us know which film you think contains the most accurate depiction of a U.S. President in history in the comments below! 👇
Howdy History Hit. I liked Bryan Cranston's portrayal of Johnson. I think he really got across the sense of frustration and how what we think it must be like versus the reality of situations. It just felt the most human to me, whereas some of the other's seem overly-dramatic (as if every scene in their life was this epic moment or something) or kinda cardboard cut-out representations to appease what the audience thinks they already know. You could really feel how wily he was as a politician with years of experience. Maybe it was easier to do with Johnson because of like what you mentioned, he wasn't really a movie star glitzy or the people's choice President, and so most people don't have so many preconceptions and are more open to actually just experiencing the reality of what it was like (or close to, it is a film after all) by watching that film. I'd say the Harry Truman portrayal comes second, for similar reasons, but it wasn't really about him so much. Anyway thanks.
The Cuban Missile Crisis did It for me because I remember it so well! We were all hiding under our desks at school! (Safety Drills) As if THAT would save us! I also remember the Assination of JFK vividly! I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when it happened! Everything changed after that!
Your channel propagates so many falsehoods that now I automatically question anyone's credentials who appears in your thumbnails. You have gone the Horrible Histories route into irrelevance.
I will be waiting for the reaction of the greatest expert in the world on ancient Egypt, Canaan, Ancient Greece, Rome, medieval Europe, Vikings, ancient China, medieval Japan, the Soviet Union and soon on presidents of the United States - Metatron HAHAHAHA
Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln may be my favorite portrayal of any historical figure of all time. The gravitas that he carries on to the screen is incredible.
The Cuban Missile crisis is fascinating. The world was really on the brink of apocalypse and very few people know how close it really came. I actually have Vasili Arkhipov's name tattooed on myself. Not many people can claim to have single handedly saved all of humanity.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, I was a small child (5 yrs old?) and I remember at a site near where I lived, the silos were open and ICBM'S aimed. In my youth, it was like Disneyland. I did not know at the time, that my mother was trying not to panic because she was alone with 3 young children and my father was away on business so she didn't know if we were all going to die. I also remember when the missiles were lowered back into the silos and being disappointed at not seeing them anymore. Thank the gods this did get resolved.
I would love to see a full deep dive on Lincoln! Such an amazing portrayal by Daniel day Lewis. One of my favourite historical portrayals ever put on screen!
I was so excited when I heard Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio bought the rights to Ron Chernow’s biography of Grant and wanted to turn it into a movie. They ended up doing the bio miniseries for the History Channel with re-enactments instead. I absolutely love it but am still holding our hope for a real movie/series.?
The craziest story about Vasili Arkhipov is that he was also the 1st officer on the infamous K-19 widow maker that had a nuclear engine failure a few years earlier. Man is an unheralded hero.
@@Twiggys145to be fair, when Martin Sheen was born, Wales hadn’t had the referendum and devolution of powers and still counted as being a principality belonging to England. It was only 1997 when the change to that finally came in. That’s why, even back to the Act of Union in 1536, the United Kingdom was the merging of Scotland and England with Wales simply being a part of England. Later in time Ireland was drawn into it which is why the Union Flag became the cross of St. George, the diagonal cross of St. Andrew, and the diagonal cross of St. Patrick. I personally think that post-1997 the flag should include a dragon too, but my opinion doesn’t count for anything really. As for Michael Sheen himself, I think he’s amazing, especially in Good Omens he was perfect for the role of Aziraphale alongside David Tenant’s Crowley. They work so well together.
Lyndon Johnson came to Congress as a Represenitive from Texas in the 1930s during the Roosevelt administration. Roosevelt was the role model LBJ tried to emulate and he wanted to succeed at those things FDR could not do.
If you read Doris Kearn Goodwin’s a Team Of Rivals upon which the movie is based, she details the genius of Lincoln and how he knew when the time would be right to move ahead with the abolition of slavery as he needed Congress to pass the amendment. He knew if tried too early and failed, he may never succeed nor be re-elected.
@@karlkarlos3545 Yeah, I knew that, but to be honest when i saw him I'd forgotten. Regardless of the "how", it's brilliantly done and convincing. The Bush too looks very well done
Very picky of me but it irks me that when Lincoln is in a camp you'd expect every pair of eyes to be on Lincoln, but the extras have clearly been told NOT to look at Lincoln. No-one makes the merest glance!
I think we in America need these reminders and deep dives into the leaders of our country and the values that they place on our nation! Thank you for this overview. Hope there may be more!
I wish you didn’t have to limit this to Hollywood movies. The History Channel’s “Grant” was an unbelievably impressive portrayal of Ulysses S. Grant but it’s a 3 episode series. So good.
The metaphors in Vice were so heavy handed, they may as well have printed "Get it? He's FISHING?; GET IT, HE HAS NO HEART?" Good performances, but the direction of the movie is so heavy-handed.
Well hi - de - hi! I'm not really much of a film watcher mostly when it comes to important historical events, but I did enjoy this. Nice one Dan and team! 🌟👍
This reminds us of the importance of character when choosing a President. This goes for all government offices, but especially for the Presidency, because its power is a single person. In the US Constitution, Congress is the first branch of three co-equal branches. The Executive branch is second. The idea is to spread power out, to avoid the hazards that come when power is concentrated.
Let's not forget that Truman was a very successful and respected Captain in WW1 - the guy knew how to get things done militarily, not just from an ivory tower. Also, I always felt bad for Colin Powell - he was a real General that cared deeply about his troops from Vietnam all the way through to the Gulf War. Being in W's cabinet ruined his reputation and it didn't need to happen
The fact of the matter, his WWI experience was what convinced him to drop the bomb. Front line trench warfare was not good. Most Americans felt that lives were wasted.
The film Vice shows Secretary of State Powell as being a man who shouldered the blame and sold out his stellar reputation on behalf of the Bush administration. This is apparently when he sold the case for the Iraq War to the UN and the American people. He's also shown to be morally bothered by this. As much as one may feel bad for the man, I'm not sure why he'd go along with such a lie. His reputation is one thing, and I'm sure it was very dear to him. But his participation in the lie got a lot of people killed, including US servicemen as well as a lot of Iraqi civilians. That last part seems glossed over.
The fact that the VICE director thinks that W was stupid like a fish is exactly what W wanted everyone to think. There’s a reason he asked the VP to step in the role. Probably shouldn’t forget that there was more than one reason to ask someone to be VP. The “dumb Texan” is a great disguise.
Lincoln is one of my favourite movies of the 2010s. Its just so excellent, the scipt, the music, the acting, just superb. 😊 You also learn a lot too watching it.
The real Frost/Nixon interview was much less dramatic. Not quite the “gotcha” like in the movie. Nixon was a very intelligent man as well as a good President and a very popular one before Watergate (which would be NOTHING if it happened in today’s political landscape). He was also responsible for passing major civil rights legislation- since you mentioned it about Johnson.
I find it strange and a little disappointing that Snow makes no mention of how well Day-Lewis depicted Lincoln's walk, speech, voice and mannerisms. I understand from other reviews of the film that he came uncannily close.
He stayed in character ALL day even when he wasn’t shooting a scene. Before he arrived to begin filming we had to remove all the Lincoln portraits hanging in our offices. DDL didn’t want to see them because he WAS Lincoln. Rewarding experience. He also did Lincoln’s signature perfectly on every document he signed on camera. He insisted on doing Lincoln’s unexpectedly high pitched voice that he knew from his research. Yes, he’s very ‘method’. 😀
I would love to see Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of A Team of Rivals, give her breakdown of the film Lincoln, the film is a masterpiece without a poor performance in it
Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln is easily my favorite theatrical depiction of a president ever. He totally nailed it. I have to give an honorable mention to Rufus Jones in the Theodore Roosevelt TV miniseries though. The portrayal wasn't 100% perfect, but he absolutely was Roosevelt in the moment.
By far the best scene in Lincoln is when he argues both legal sides of the emancipation proclamation. Hell, the whole movie was great. Didn't feel like a movie, felt like you were there.
This guy completely misses the Truman discussion. The soviets got the bomb because American scientists gave it to them... And Oppenheimer had such an ego that he thought HE was responsible for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki... Truman put him in his place and said that he was the one who was responsible... And demonstrated his courage in the last line of the scene.
"Courage" may be describing it subjectively. If Truman was afraid of any blowback to begin with, then maybe. But most of modern history does not look back at the bomb bein dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a triumph as it implied that the world and universe revolved around the U.S. and American lives only as if no other lives on Earth matter...which is NOT the case.
After the Kennedy docuseries my outlook on Johnson changed. Jackie said she entered AF1, still bloody, and there was LBJ laying on the bed. Hands beneath his head, cowboy boots on, etc
There was a documentary a few years back where McNamara says he spoke to Castro in 1992 where Castro said there were 172 nuclear warheads, including 90 tactical warheads already in Cuba on October 27th.
I like Frank Langella as an actor, but in Frost/Nixon, it often feels like he's giving a theatrical performance, on film. It doesn't work for me, because it's such an exaggeration. A performance for the people in the balcony, except there's a camera just a few feet away from him. And because the actual interview is so iconic, the overly broad performance choices are even more apparent, and the whole thing feels artificial. It's nearly a caricature of Nixon.
Hal Holbrook who is playing Francis Preston Blair in Lincoln also played Lincoln in the mini-series North and South (book 1 and 2) as well as in a 1974 - 76 mini-series called Sandburg's Lincoln.
Daniel Day-Lewis version Lincoln more realistic than Dennis Weaver version of him. Some of us were children during the Cuban missile crisis, and the thought of being draft into Vietnam war when we turn 18 was also on our minds.
tbf "the other guy" at Gettysburg was supposed to give a long speech and Lincoln was supposed to add a few remarks. So it's a bit unfair, how bad a press he gets nowadays. It's not like he hijacked the stage and just went for it unwanted. also the cabinet scenes with Lincoln are a very neat way to explain things to the viewer, without making it too on the nose.
That scene in the lift where Johnson gets very close to the Senator he's trying to persuade to not be present for the vote on the Civil Rights Act is very accurate on the type of tactics LBJ would use to get his way. He was a tall man, very assertive and brash, and he was essentially a bully. He did use intimidation to get his way. I'm not a fan of his foreign policy, but he got things done domestically regarding the Civil Rights Act and the Civil Rights Movement.
Richard Nixon has such a distinctive look and persona that it'd be next to impossible to get someone to play him. The guy they chose... looks absolutely nothing like him. I didn't even recognise it as Nixon until it was said that he was Nixon
Thanks Dan. I've visited the Truman Presidential Library on a couple of occasions and it's amazing some of the documents they have on display that influenced the world history that my Grandparents lived through and told me about.
there is a uncomfortbale truth in Truman's argument. A ground invasion of Japan would not just have cost many US lifes but also many japanese ones. You're talking a second d-day plus all the rest here. I wonder if they had any idea of the extended results of the bomb and if they had done it anyway.
I believe certainly yes, but they would have put on a bigger show of feeling bad about it. American lives > Foreign lives. To be clear, this is my take on American history. Not my opinion.
Thank you, Dan Snow for this very detailed review! I saw your sit-down with Dan Jones lol…Two Dans! I saw the last movie called “The Vice”! It was a pretty nice and entertaining production! Anyway, keep up the good work! Lots of love to America from across the world! Cheers!
I remember an episode of Joe Rogan where he and whoever his guest was were talking about how boring “Lincoln” was and I was flabbergasted. I think it’s one of the best biopics I’ve ever seen. Then again, if I recall correctly, the guest said he found it boring first and then Joe agreed with him as he tends to do sometimes.
Why does nobody talk about a huge Nixon, 1995, where Sir Anthony Hopkins made a tremendous delivery of tormented soul, as well as his portrayal of John Quincy Adams in Amistad? Then, there was a smashing great Tom Berrebger as Teddy Roosevelt in Rough Riders. Why not talk about THEM?
Bruce Greenwood did great playing as JFK. Another actor who portrayed Kennedy would be Greg Kinnear. However if I had to be honest, i think the person who portrayed JFK the best would be Daniel Hugh Kelly in Jackie, Ethel, and Joan: the women of Camelot. Also, in the same movie, Jill Hennessy was in my opinion the best actress to ever portray Jackie Kennedy. Not only did she look like her, she sounded exactly like her. She literally embodied the essence of Jackie as a person. Even her spitfire attitude. A rather interesting, if not very well known, mini series, perhaps the best at portraying the Kennedy family story. A must watch, indeed.
You do not understand Lincoln. Not truly. He was the humblest of men. BTW, in 1809, most people were born in log cabins. Think about it. We don’t have many structures that the UK does. Made of stone. He was born in Kentucky, lived in Indiana, moved west to Illinois then onto the WH. He was a truly humble man. He was melancholy. He was remarkable.
What the Oppenheimer clip is glossing over here is that he was a Soviet sympathizer, wanted the program shut down so nuclear weapons wouldn’t be used against the Soviet’s, advocated that instead we should share the bomb with them voluntarily, and almost certainly was directly involved in leaking plans for the bomb to the Soviet’s. He was so upset at Japan being bombed in no small part becuase of his anti fascism and really intended for Germany to be the target.
Dan Hedaya as Richard Nixon in Dick is the best by far (He was actually pretty good)..On a serious note, even though it wasn't movie, I thought Gary Sinise as Truman in the series on HBO was excellent.
There are a lot of contenders for greatest speech in the history of the English language. To say there is a consensus on Gettysburg being the greatest is perhaps overstating it a little.
38:43 "no-one else shares that view" that Nixon was acting within his powers as president even if it meant breaking the law. The Supreme Court of the United States has not only shared that view but also extended that to say exactly how far a President can go - and it's all the way apparently. Shame Dan didn't refer to this as it seems to vindicate Nixon's argument.
@TheEnecca Trump v. United States (07/01/2024) "[Supreme Court] Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it plainly: “Under [the Supreme Court's] rule, any use of official power for any purpose, even the most corrupt purpose indicated by objective evidence of the most corrupt motives and intent, remains official and immune. Under the majority’s test, if it can be called a test, the category of Presidential action that can be deemed ‘unofficial’ is destined to be vanishingly small" It is now the law that Nixon was right.
"none lethal depth charge" very silly thing to say, they weight between 40-200kg and are designed to sink ships like submarines and nothing else, i don't think it would be impossible to use such a thing and claim it is non-lethal
Censoring a certain word (but not even the particular word that should be censored) is pretty weak by History Hit, IMO. It's part of the film, and more importantly it's part of history.
I hate to nit-pick but something you said regarding Truman was inaccurate . Roosevelt wasn't "looking for a new vice president " The party bigwigs forced him -at the convention - to replace the popular (and progressive) VP Wallace on the ticket with the conservative Truman .
I love All The Way using the Johnson lean, I think is what it’s called, where Johnson who was like 6’2”, 6’3” would just get into people’s personal space to browbeat them to agree with him
Hey y'all, hope you enjoyed this episode of Deep Dives! Let us know which film you think contains the most accurate depiction of a U.S. President in history in the comments below! 👇
Howdy History Hit. I liked Bryan Cranston's portrayal of Johnson. I think he really got across the sense of frustration and how what we think it must be like versus the reality of situations. It just felt the most human to me, whereas some of the other's seem overly-dramatic (as if every scene in their life was this epic moment or something) or kinda cardboard cut-out representations to appease what the audience thinks they already know. You could really feel how wily he was as a politician with years of experience. Maybe it was easier to do with Johnson because of like what you mentioned, he wasn't really a movie star glitzy or the people's choice President, and so most people don't have so many preconceptions and are more open to actually just experiencing the reality of what it was like (or close to, it is a film after all) by watching that film.
I'd say the Harry Truman portrayal comes second, for similar reasons, but it wasn't really about him so much. Anyway thanks.
The Cuban Missile Crisis did It for me because I remember it so well! We were all hiding under our desks at school! (Safety Drills) As if THAT would save us! I also remember the Assination of JFK vividly! I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when it happened! Everything changed after that!
Your channel propagates so many falsehoods that now I automatically question anyone's credentials who appears in your thumbnails. You have gone the Horrible Histories route into irrelevance.
I will be waiting for the reaction of the greatest expert in the world on ancient Egypt, Canaan, Ancient Greece, Rome, medieval Europe, Vikings, ancient China, medieval Japan, the Soviet Union and soon on presidents of the United States - Metatron HAHAHAHA
th-cam.com/video/EsaZV6Dq3E8/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln may be my favorite portrayal of any historical figure of all time. The gravitas that he carries on to the screen is incredible.
The G.O.A.T?
His soft spoken voice is close to the description of Lincoln’s voice.
@@HistoryHit Don’t know whether you mean Daniel Day-Lewis or Abraham Lincoln, but the answer is “yes” regardless.
DDL is to Lincoln as Jeremy Brett is to Sherlock Holmes.
... Benjamin Walker had a more accurate portrayal.
The Cuban Missile crisis is fascinating. The world was really on the brink of apocalypse and very few people know how close it really came. I actually have Vasili Arkhipov's name tattooed on myself. Not many people can claim to have single handedly saved all of humanity.
" We stood eyeball to eyeball and they blinked first!"
The other one that pops to mind is Russian as well. LtCol Stanislav Petrov.
Qqqqqqqqqqq❤q❤❤❤qqqqqqqqqq❤@@wcatholic1
@@TheOldDragoon I celebrate Stanislav Petrov day every year.
Lmao stop the glazing
Tommy Lee Jones was also fantastic as Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln
Dan Shaw was on breakfast TV saying Putin wants to overthrow Europe. I will never trust a word that comes out of his mouth again.
Oh I agree. Sadly he gets overlooked because of Daniel Day-Lewis’s incredible performance, but his performance is fantastic as well.
Wait, so you're telling me Abraham Lincoln was not a vampire hunter? This news upsets me and my day is ruined.
dude, you been living under a rock?!
that was not news, it was already 5
hours old.
And your nights have suddenly become more dangerous...
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣Good one .. Wish History Hit talk about Slick Willie Clinton The cigar a 22 yro intern and a Crooked PP and the Stained Blue Dress 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
What a funny comment this was.... 12 years ago.
you don't differentiate between Hollywood and real life ah, ha ha
Gary Senise's portrayal of Truman in the movie "Truman" all through his political career is wonderfully nuanced.
Saw you in Netflix’s trailer for their Churchill docuseries coming out later this year and I was like “hey that’s Dan from history hit!”
Oh neat! What it called?
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, I was a small child (5 yrs old?) and I remember at a site near where I lived, the silos were open and ICBM'S aimed. In my youth, it was like Disneyland. I did not know at the time, that my mother was trying not to panic because she was alone with 3 young children and my father was away on business so she didn't know if we were all going to die. I also remember when the missiles were lowered back into the silos and being disappointed at not seeing them anymore. Thank the gods this did get resolved.
I was 2 months old.
I would love to see a full deep dive on Lincoln! Such an amazing portrayal by Daniel day Lewis.
One of my favourite historical portrayals ever put on screen!
I was so excited when I heard Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio bought the rights to Ron Chernow’s biography of Grant and wanted to turn it into a movie. They ended up doing the bio miniseries for the History Channel with re-enactments instead.
I absolutely love it but am still holding our hope for a real movie/series.?
"If the President does it, It's not illegal. No one else shares that view." he said. They used to not. Now they do.
Codified by a really poorly written ruling by a really weak and compromised court.
You've given me a massive backlog of movies to watch. Thank you.
Haha, you're welcome!
The craziest story about Vasili Arkhipov is that he was also the 1st officer on the infamous K-19 widow maker that had a nuclear engine failure a few years earlier. Man is an unheralded hero.
You missed one of my favorite examples of a president in movies... The Wind and the Lion, Teddy Roosevelt
David Frost in Frost/Nixon was played by English actor Michael Sheen, not American actor Martin Sheen.
And he is brilliant!
*Welsh actor Michael Sheen
He’s Welsh. English is not synonymous with British
@@Twiggys145to be fair, when Martin Sheen was born, Wales hadn’t had the referendum and devolution of powers and still counted as being a principality belonging to England. It was only 1997 when the change to that finally came in. That’s why, even back to the Act of Union in 1536, the United Kingdom was the merging of Scotland and England with Wales simply being a part of England. Later in time Ireland was drawn into it which is why the Union Flag became the cross of St. George, the diagonal cross of St. Andrew, and the diagonal cross of St. Patrick. I personally think that post-1997 the flag should include a dragon too, but my opinion doesn’t count for anything really.
As for Michael Sheen himself, I think he’s amazing, especially in Good Omens he was perfect for the role of Aziraphale alongside David Tenant’s Crowley. They work so well together.
@HistoryHit is one of my favorite YT channels. Love their breakdowns of historical movies
Lyndon Johnson came to Congress as a Represenitive from Texas in the 1930s during the Roosevelt administration. Roosevelt was the role model LBJ tried to emulate and he wanted to succeed at those things FDR could not do.
If you read Doris Kearn Goodwin’s a Team
Of Rivals upon which the movie is based, she details the genius of Lincoln and how he knew when the time would be right to move ahead with the abolition of slavery as he needed Congress to pass the amendment. He knew if tried too early and failed, he may never succeed nor be re-elected.
CA Tripp's The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln is also quite interesting.
The Bush and Cheney actors look spot on, wow
It's tons of makeup. Cheney is played by Christian Bale after all.
@@karlkarlos3545 Yeah, I knew that, but to be honest when i saw him I'd forgotten.
Regardless of the "how", it's brilliantly done and convincing.
The Bush too looks very well done
Very picky of me but it irks me that when Lincoln is in a camp you'd expect every pair of eyes to be on Lincoln, but the extras have clearly been told NOT to look at Lincoln. No-one makes the merest glance!
I think we in America need these reminders and deep dives into the leaders of our country and the values that they place on our nation! Thank you for this overview. Hope there may be more!
This historian is such a stud. Love a man who is a history buff.
Another proof, if was still needed, that Sam Rockwell is one of the best and most underrated actors of his generation.
I wish you didn’t have to limit this to Hollywood movies. The History Channel’s “Grant” was an unbelievably impressive portrayal of Ulysses S. Grant but it’s a 3 episode series. So good.
I was going to say, that History Channel Grant Bio series was shockingly well acted by the lead
Don’t sleep on David Costabile as James Ashley in Lincoln. Fantastic performance as a counter to Lincoln.
He is equally excellent in many roles, including as a baddie in Damages.
Should have used the accurate depiction of Lincoln in Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.
The metaphors in Vice were so heavy handed, they may as well have printed "Get it? He's FISHING?; GET IT, HE HAS NO HEART?"
Good performances, but the direction of the movie is so heavy-handed.
Well hi - de - hi!
I'm not really much of a film watcher mostly when it comes to important historical events, but I did enjoy this.
Nice one Dan and team! 🌟👍
It's nice to see other countries get interested in American history. We squeezed some compelling moments into our short history.
Now is no exception.
This reminds us of the importance of character when choosing a President. This goes for all government offices, but especially for the Presidency, because its power is a single person.
In the US Constitution, Congress is the first branch of three co-equal branches. The Executive branch is second.
The idea is to spread power out, to avoid the hazards that come when power is concentrated.
Let's not forget that Truman was a very successful and respected Captain in WW1 - the guy knew how to get things done militarily, not just from an ivory tower. Also, I always felt bad for Colin Powell - he was a real General that cared deeply about his troops from Vietnam all the way through to the Gulf War. Being in W's cabinet ruined his reputation and it didn't need to happen
The fact of the matter, his WWI experience was what convinced him to drop the bomb.
Front line trench warfare was not good. Most Americans felt that lives were wasted.
The film Vice shows Secretary of State Powell as being a man who shouldered the blame and sold out his stellar reputation on behalf of the Bush administration.
This is apparently when he sold the case for the Iraq War to the UN and the American people.
He's also shown to be morally bothered by this.
As much as one may feel bad for the man, I'm not sure why he'd go along with such a lie. His reputation is one thing, and I'm sure it was very dear to him. But his participation in the lie got a lot of people killed, including US servicemen as well as a lot of Iraqi civilians. That last part seems glossed over.
Jesus until you showed that picture i didnt realize how well cast Tommy Lee Jones was as Thaddeus Stevens.
The fact that the VICE director thinks that W was stupid like a fish is exactly what W wanted everyone to think. There’s a reason he asked the VP to step in the role. Probably shouldn’t forget that there was more than one reason to ask someone to be VP. The “dumb Texan” is a great disguise.
Lincoln is one of my favourite movies of the 2010s. Its just so excellent, the scipt, the music, the acting, just superb. 😊
You also learn a lot too watching it.
I can never get enough of the True North speech in Lincoln, it's so good.
My favorite portrayal of JFK: Bill Burr. That being said I love Thirteen Days. Maybe the first film I ever saw fellow Canadian Bruce Greenwood in.
Very entertaining and informative.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Should have watched the Gary Sinise film Truman for a better representation of him. Oppenheimer is cartoonish in it’s portrayal
Fantastic video! Lincoln will forever be my favorite person in history
Truman is in the top 10 list of presidents.
The real Frost/Nixon interview was much less dramatic. Not quite the “gotcha” like in the movie. Nixon was a very intelligent man as well as a good President and a very popular one before Watergate (which would be NOTHING if it happened in today’s political landscape). He was also responsible for passing major civil rights legislation- since you mentioned it about Johnson.
I find it strange and a little disappointing that Snow makes no mention of how well Day-Lewis depicted Lincoln's walk, speech, voice and mannerisms. I understand from other reviews of the film that he came uncannily close.
It was a pretty good portrayal...albeit overly dramatized as hollywood predictably does too often.
He stayed in character ALL day even when he wasn’t shooting a scene. Before he arrived to begin filming we had to remove all the Lincoln portraits hanging in our offices. DDL didn’t want to see them because he WAS Lincoln. Rewarding experience. He also did Lincoln’s signature perfectly on every document he signed on camera. He insisted on doing Lincoln’s unexpectedly high pitched voice that he knew from his research. Yes, he’s very ‘method’. 😀
I would love to see Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of A Team of Rivals, give her breakdown of the film Lincoln, the film is a masterpiece without a poor performance in it
Her book was the source material for the movie.
Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln is easily my favorite theatrical depiction of a president ever. He totally nailed it.
I have to give an honorable mention to Rufus Jones in the Theodore Roosevelt TV miniseries though. The portrayal wasn't 100% perfect, but he absolutely was Roosevelt in the moment.
By far the best scene in Lincoln is when he argues both legal sides of the emancipation proclamation. Hell, the whole movie was great. Didn't feel like a movie, felt like you were there.
Peter Jennings actually did an excellent report on Truman and the dropping of the bombs.
When the President does it, it's not illegal. So says the Supreme Court of the US. Heaven help us!
😭
The president can order people to kill other people. You and I can't do that, it's illegal. We already knew that position has unique powers.
Then maybe Congress should change the law, since that is their job and not the Supreme Court’s
You should look into the television series Turn: Washington's Spies. Check out how Ian Khan played General Washington.
I really like how the actor in the John Adam’s series portrayed Washington, too.
Awesome breakdown! But it feels like something’s missing... Key & Peele’s Obama sketches would’ve been a perfect addition to this topic!
This guy completely misses the Truman discussion. The soviets got the bomb because American scientists gave it to them... And Oppenheimer had such an ego that he thought HE was responsible for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki... Truman put him in his place and said that he was the one who was responsible... And demonstrated his courage in the last line of the scene.
"Courage" may be describing it subjectively. If Truman was afraid of any blowback to begin with, then maybe. But most of modern history does not look back at the bomb bein dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a triumph as it implied that the world and universe revolved around the U.S. and American lives only as if no other lives on Earth matter...which is NOT the case.
After the Kennedy docuseries my outlook on Johnson changed. Jackie said she entered AF1, still bloody, and there was LBJ laying on the bed. Hands beneath his head, cowboy boots on, etc
I'm no fan of LBJ, but what are you saying?
There was a documentary a few years back where McNamara says he spoke to Castro in 1992 where Castro said there were 172 nuclear warheads, including 90 tactical warheads already in Cuba on October 27th.
Kudos-this is well-researched. I learned a lot! With Hollywood movies, you never know what to believe and what not to.
I like Frank Langella as an actor, but in Frost/Nixon, it often feels like he's giving a theatrical performance, on film. It doesn't work for me, because it's such an exaggeration. A performance for the people in the balcony, except there's a camera just a few feet away from him. And because the actual interview is so iconic, the overly broad performance choices are even more apparent, and the whole thing feels artificial. It's nearly a caricature of Nixon.
Hal Holbrook who is playing Francis Preston Blair in Lincoln also played Lincoln in the mini-series North and South (book 1 and 2) as well as in a 1974 - 76 mini-series called Sandburg's Lincoln.
Hal Holbrook was amazing as Lincoln! His voice was so well suited to Lincoln.
Daniel Day-Lewis version Lincoln more realistic than Dennis Weaver version of him. Some of us were children during the Cuban missile crisis, and the thought of being draft into Vietnam war when we turn 18 was also on our minds.
Dennis Weaver also played Samuel Mudd, the doctor who wittingly or unwittingly helped Booth after he shot Lincoln.
Gary Sinise did a better job as Truman
tbf "the other guy" at Gettysburg was supposed to give a long speech and Lincoln was supposed to add a few remarks.
So it's a bit unfair, how bad a press he gets nowadays. It's not like he hijacked the stage and just went for it unwanted.
also the cabinet scenes with Lincoln are a very neat way to explain things to the viewer, without making it too on the nose.
That scene in the lift where Johnson gets very close to the Senator he's trying to persuade to not be present for the vote on the Civil Rights Act is very accurate on the type of tactics LBJ would use to get his way. He was a tall man, very assertive and brash, and he was essentially a bully. He did use intimidation to get his way. I'm not a fan of his foreign policy, but he got things done domestically regarding the Civil Rights Act and the Civil Rights Movement.
Richard Nixon has such a distinctive look and persona that it'd be next to impossible to get someone to play him. The guy they chose... looks absolutely nothing like him. I didn't even recognise it as Nixon until it was said that he was Nixon
I like the Anthony Hopkins version of Nixon.
I was looking forward to commentary on Lincoln the Vampire Hunter you know.. sadge
Love this video!
One of Spielberg's best movies! Absolutely love it! Thaddeus Stevens....my spirit animal...lol. Tom Lee Jones was so good.
Lincoln needs a deep dive!
Well done HH. A very enjoyable hour. 👍
Thanks Gyles 👍
Thanks Dan. I've visited the Truman Presidential Library on a couple of occasions and it's amazing some of the documents they have on display that influenced the world history that my Grandparents lived through and told me about.
This is such good work my man
I thought Lincoln the Vampire Hunter was pretty hysterically accurate🤔
Thirteen days is a brilliant movie.
there is a uncomfortbale truth in Truman's argument. A ground invasion of Japan would not just have cost many US lifes but also many japanese ones. You're talking a second d-day plus all the rest here.
I wonder if they had any idea of the extended results of the bomb and if they had done it anyway.
I believe certainly yes, but they would have put on a bigger show of feeling bad about it.
American lives > Foreign lives.
To be clear, this is my take on American history.
Not my opinion.
"pettifogging Tammany Hall hucksters" is the best line
Brilliant video
Thank you, Dan Snow for this very detailed review! I saw your sit-down with Dan Jones lol…Two Dans! I saw the last movie called “The Vice”! It was a pretty nice and entertaining production! Anyway, keep up the good work!
Lots of love to America from across the world! Cheers!
Nobody else can ever play Abraham Lincoln ever again.
On the JFK movie and the pilots not reporting damage, one of my favorite scenes is the "bird strike" scene when the pilots return to base.
I remember an episode of Joe Rogan where he and whoever his guest was were talking about how boring “Lincoln” was and I was flabbergasted. I think it’s one of the best biopics I’ve ever seen. Then again, if I recall correctly, the guest said he found it boring first and then Joe agreed with him as he tends to do sometimes.
Why does nobody talk about a huge Nixon, 1995, where Sir Anthony Hopkins made a tremendous delivery of tormented soul, as well as his portrayal of John Quincy Adams in Amistad? Then, there was a smashing great Tom Berrebger as Teddy Roosevelt in Rough Riders. Why not talk about THEM?
Bruce Greenwood did great playing as JFK. Another actor who portrayed Kennedy would be Greg Kinnear. However if I had to be honest, i think the person who portrayed JFK the best would be Daniel Hugh Kelly in Jackie, Ethel, and Joan: the women of Camelot. Also, in the same movie, Jill Hennessy was in my opinion the best actress to ever portray Jackie Kennedy. Not only did she look like her, she sounded exactly like her. She literally embodied the essence of Jackie as a person. Even her spitfire attitude. A rather interesting, if not very well known, mini series, perhaps the best at portraying the Kennedy family story. A must watch, indeed.
Lincoln. Gotta love how the mere mention of black people is being censored by TH-cam.
Johnson was a master at strong arming people
You do not understand Lincoln. Not truly. He was the humblest of men. BTW, in 1809, most people were born in log cabins. Think about it. We don’t have many structures that the UK does. Made of stone. He was born in Kentucky, lived in Indiana, moved west to Illinois then onto the WH. He was a truly humble man. He was melancholy. He was remarkable.
really enjoyed this one. i feel like I'm undereducated in how influential each and every President has been
What the Oppenheimer clip is glossing over here is that he was a Soviet sympathizer, wanted the program shut down so nuclear weapons wouldn’t be used against the Soviet’s, advocated that instead we should share the bomb with them voluntarily, and almost certainly was directly involved in leaking plans for the bomb to the Soviet’s.
He was so upset at Japan being bombed in no small part becuase of his anti fascism and really intended for Germany to be the target.
Dan Hedaya as Richard Nixon in Dick is the best by far (He was actually pretty good)..On a serious note, even though it wasn't movie, I thought Gary Sinise as Truman in the series on HBO was excellent.
Id like to see one on just Lincoln...many have played him since BIRTH OF A NATION
There are a lot of contenders for greatest speech in the history of the English language. To say there is a consensus on Gettysburg being the greatest is perhaps overstating it a little.
38:43 "no-one else shares that view" that Nixon was acting within his powers as president even if it meant breaking the law. The Supreme Court of the United States has not only shared that view but also extended that to say exactly how far a President can go - and it's all the way apparently. Shame Dan didn't refer to this as it seems to vindicate Nixon's argument.
the supreme court recently?
@TheEnecca
Trump v. United States (07/01/2024)
"[Supreme Court] Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it plainly: “Under [the Supreme Court's] rule, any use of official power for any purpose, even the most corrupt purpose indicated by objective evidence of the most corrupt motives and intent, remains official and immune. Under the majority’s test, if it can be called a test, the category of Presidential action that can be deemed ‘unofficial’ is destined to be vanishingly small"
It is now the law that Nixon was right.
In the movie, All The Way, Herbert Humprhey was still a US Senator from Minnesota. He didnt become VP until after the election.
This was interesting. Now, I'd like to see an American historian do a segment on British PMs
"none lethal depth charge" very silly thing to say, they weight between 40-200kg and are designed to sink ships like submarines and nothing else, i don't think it would be impossible to use such a thing and claim it is non-lethal
Bill burr as kennedy is by far the best one
He was surprisingly good.
Commenting from the start: YES, I needed this!
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was the best, and most accurate historical movie.
I enjoy this channel, but most incidents assessed exam the events and little examine how accurately the scenes are conveyed.
Censoring a certain word (but not even the particular word that should be censored) is pretty weak by History Hit, IMO. It's part of the film, and more importantly it's part of history.
Excellent!
Hmm... is all of this historically correct? I mean, lines from various movies are used as quotes etc
I'm sure someone has pointed it out by now, but the description has an error - it is Michael Sheen, not Martin Sheen, playing David Frost.
I hate to nit-pick but something you said regarding Truman was inaccurate . Roosevelt wasn't "looking for a new vice president " The party bigwigs forced him -at the convention - to replace the popular (and progressive) VP Wallace on the ticket with the conservative Truman .
Should do the depictions of FDR in the War and Rememberace Series, Adam's, and then also Washington
I love All The Way using the Johnson lean, I think is what it’s called, where Johnson who was like 6’2”, 6’3” would just get into people’s personal space to browbeat them to agree with him