LBJ and Pro Baseball Go to the Movies

Last weekend we watched a couple of HBO movies on dvd we picked up at our local movie rental place. They were Path to War (starring Michael Gambon, with Donald Sutherland and Alec Baldwin; John Franenheimer, director) and 61* (starring Thomas Jane and Berry Pepper; Billy Crystal, director). I learned a lot from both of these pictures; I love it when that happens!

Path to War is about the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency and the string of decisions made that led up to the Vietnam War. The film is sympathetic to LBJ in that it portrays him as a man who had the potential to be the greatest president of the century but whose presidency was derailed by the war. That was kind of refreshing, as most of the stuff I had heard about LBJ before was so damning. So I watched with a critical eye and an open mind and learned a lot about the way this war developed. Of course, as often happens when I learn something new, it made me want to know more about the whole topic. It hit me while watching that this was the guy that was president when I was born; though it all seems so remote, it happened in my own lifetime!

I've always liked Donald Sutherland, who played the role in this film of Clark Clifford, an advisor to LBJ and later a member of his cabinet. For some reason I thought Sutherland had died in the past year or so, but I could find no mention of that when I Googled his name. Apparently he's still alive to make more movies. I'm glad!

The other movie, 61*, is about Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle's effort in the summer of 1961 to break Babe Ruth's homerun record. Now, I know the basic rules of baseball (hey, I even played kickball in gym class as a kid!), and I knew Babe Ruth was a legend and I'd heard the names Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, but beyond that, I was pretty much in the dark. I've never been much of a sports person, and the little fandom I have participated in was related to soccer, not baseball. Well, this movie was fun, not light and fluffy but definitely summery, and has made me fond of baseful. It was doubly exciting for someone like me who, because of ignorance of the topic, didn't know if the record was going to be broken or not; someone more knowlegeable would probably not have been as on the edge of his seat. This movie made me want to attend a major league baseball game some day -- though I know professional sports have changed drastically since the early 1960's and my ballpark outing might turn out to be disappointing.

Though seemingly about completely different in subject matter, there were a couple of common threads to these two movies. Both are true stories from the 1960's -- albeit one from the early sixties and one from the late. And both show folks doing the best they know how to in their particular circumstances and getting blasted for it by the general public and slandered in the press.

By the way, I haven't come across any online reviews of either of these films. Is that because they were released by HBO? How will we know what to think of them if there are no "official" reviews? (LOL) I liked both pictures. They touched my heart and stimulated my mind. Not too shabby for a couple of movies -- especially in our times.