Historian Breaks Down U.S. Presidents in Hollywood Movies | Deep Dives

[@HistoryHit]

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! 👇

[@lemon_j22]

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.

[@joannabaity8520]

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!

[@rubo111]

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.

[@m7ray]

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

[@Renaissance_Kamikaze]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6TEi4lsedZme5ofeature=shared

[@XZoomie]

Gary Senise's portrayal of Truman in the movie "Truman" all through his political career is wonderfully nuanced.

[@solomonyanez5302]

What about the one where he was a captain in WW1 who memorized the blind chart to enter the army.

[@jbess6505]

Great movie!

[@charlesflohr1815]

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.

[@DocZFlux]

Tommy Lee Jones was also fantastic as Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln

[@paulrailton2221]

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.

[@guitarmatricide4834]

Oh I agree. Sadly he gets overlooked because of Daniel Day-Lewis’s incredible performance, but his performance is fantastic as well.

[@AlexUSAF]

Yes he was, he nailed that historical figure down brilliantly. Lincoln in history, & in the movie handled him very well, I do not know if I would have done the same because even the Northern Radical Republicans back then were crazy, they wanted revenge over slavery & instant civil rights granted when at that time the nation needed to be brought back together, it needed to heal & rebuild, slavery just needed to end & other ugly racial, class, & ethnic issues of civil rights had to take time.

[@slazeblaze319]

I think he looks way more like Andrew Johnson though

[@brinydemon0321]

​@@slazeblaze319nah, the guy they got to play Andrew Johnson is literally a clone of him

[@kylek29]

Wait, so you're telling me Abraham Lincoln was not a vampire hunter? This news upsets me and my day is ruined.

[@throwawayburnerusername]

dude, you been living under a rock?! that was not news, it was already 5 hours old.

[@halostingray87]

And your nights have suddenly become more dangerous...

[@rogerstlaurent8704]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣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 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@karlkarlos3545]

What a funny comment this was.... 12 years ago.

[@TheHistoricalDocumentary]

you don't differentiate between Hollywood and real life ah, ha ha

[@PalmelaHanderson]

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.

[@wcatholic1]

" We stood eyeball to eyeball and they blinked first!"

[@TheOldDragoon]

The other one that pops to mind is Russian as well. LtCol Stanislav Petrov.

[@MrJamyang24]

Qqqqqqqqqqq❤q❤❤❤qqqqqqqqqq❤​@@wcatholic1

[@heatherevert274]

@@TheOldDragoon I celebrate Stanislav Petrov day every year.

[@shisuiuchiha4948]

Lmao stop the glazing

[@celly589]

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!”

[@karntom101]

Oh neat! What it called?

[@tlmiller301]

@HistoryHit is one of my favorite YT channels. Love their breakdowns of historical movies

[@JossCarlisle]

15:52 Not exactly. The Democratic Party forced Roosevelt to choose a new VP because they were very aware he was in poor health and didn't want Henry Wallace (who was considerably more left wing than FDR) to become president. Because of this, FDR let Wallace pick any cabinet position he wanted, other than state, after the election.

[@arachniweasel]

"but for unborn millions to come" was so powerful. i'm one of those millions.

[@cathyf.2672]

♥

[@kevin1355]

You've given me a massive backlog of movies to watch. Thank you.

[@HistoryHit]

Haha, you're welcome!

[@benwolk6494]

Honestly Lincoln and 13 Days and Oppenheimer are the only worthwhile movies on this list.

[@livethefuture2492]

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!

[@marquisdelafayette1929]

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.?

[@stephaniecowans3646]

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.

[@wcatholic1]

I was 2 months old.

[@savage751]

That's crazy....my mom would tell me stories of how they would have "drills" during school where the bomb raid siren would go off and they would have to hide under their desk....she told me even though she was young she knew that wouldn't do shit lol

[@craigrussell3062]

39:55 Nixon was not impeached in the House of Representatives. They had begun an impeachment inquiry, but Nixon resigned before the articles of impeachment could be voted on.

[@FancyMcDancy]

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.

[@Tman001100]

It was a pretty good portrayal...albeit overly dramatized as hollywood predictably does too often.

[@karenteneyck9835]

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’. 😀

[@StandingTallChannel]

I love the scene where Lincoln is talking to soldiers. The US President used to be approachable, but now we view them as super-celebrities, out of reach and out of touch with the common man, which is antithetical to the founding idea of a President. Americans initially rejected the idea of royalty, but now we've made our politicians into monarchs.

[@joelg83]

Plus the four successful assassinations and three or four near misses.

[@bushit123456]

Also he wasn't a millionaire.

[@cl5470]

It's probably due in large part to how that ended for Lincoln.

[@franciscodanconia4324]

Lincoln was “approachable” in Fords Theatre. Which is why Presidents are not “approachable” anymore.

[@livethefuture2492]

It was a different time back then...smaller country, smaller world...

[@the_littyest_fam8175]

"When the president does it that means it's not illegal." It's actually insane that, since the supreme court ruling, this is just true now.

[@franz-dominikimhof4940]

Yep. It's the law of the Land. Who would have thought that Trickie Dick was right all along.

[@ericolson3851]

@@franz-dominikimhof4940just because it’s law doesn’t mean it’s right.

[@franz-dominikimhof4940]

@@ericolson3851 That is true about almost anything legal in the US justice system.

[@jamiekay133]

@@ericolson3851 you lot will do anything to make Trump look a saint won’t you? 🤡🤡

[@franciscodanconia4324]

It’s always been true, it just finally had to be codified with a SC ruling. Obama approved the extrajudicial murder of an American citizen that also killed his American citizen 14 year old son with a drone strike. Anyone else that’s murder. Biden could easily be held civilly liable for wrongful death for Lakin Reilly, Jocelyn Nungaray, and many others because he refused to follow immigration law and keep asylum seekers detained until their case is decided. Heck somebody could take a shot at negligent homicide if they really wanted to. There are elements of the constitutional power of the President that would get us normals arrested.

[@dwightlee4315]

You missed one of my favorite examples of a president in movies... The Wind and the Lion, Teddy Roosevelt

[@aaronshell6887]

C😮

[@johnnyoutlaw6534]

This historian is such a stud. Love a man who is a history buff.

[@hammerman199374]

I would love to get your take on "The Wind and the Lion" (1975), particularly Brian Keith's portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt. I've always liked the film, and am amazed at how Sean Connery somehow manages to pull off playing a Berber Chieftain. Jerry Goldsmith's score is incredible as well.

[@kingtutt3371]

"If the President does it, It's not illegal. No one else shares that view." he said. They used to not. Now they do.

[@George-ni5ic]

Codified by a really poorly written ruling by a really weak and compromised court.

[@andan04]

Seriously. Now the United States Supreme Court shares that view!

[@BG-wp3do]

What Nixon was actually saying was quite banal. He was saying that in the interests of national security the President can authorise actions that - absent that authorisation - would otherwise be illegal if the decision is taken in the interests of the safety of the country. He was specifically referring to the crime of burglary - an ordinary robbery is illegal but the President could authorise an intelligence officer to steal something from somebody deemed to be a threat to the United States and that person could act on those orders without fear of prosecution. "When the President does it - that means it is not illegal"

[@cathyf.2672]

After Hunter is pardoned: If the President, "or his son" does it, it's not illegal.

[@andan04]

@@cathyf.2672 If the power to pardon were abolished, that wouldn't be possible. I'd support that. Would you?

[@andrewwestman2407]

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.

[@dionysusNME]

I was going to say, that History Channel Grant Bio series was shockingly well acted by the lead

[@TheJuris1973]

Jared Harris from Chernobyl and The Crown. Incredible actor

[@andrewwestman2407]

@@TheJuris1973 he nailed that role

[@andrewjohnson8508]

@@TheJuris1973 Jared Harris played Grant in the movie "Lincoln", not in the Grant series.

[@TheJuris1973]

@@andrewjohnson8508 thanks you're right

[@sevun1]

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!

[@SPQRTempus]

David Frost in Frost/Nixon was played by English actor Michael Sheen, not American actor Martin Sheen.

[@JenniferBECKETT-py8vl]

And he is brilliant!

[@viperzvapourz4738]

*Welsh actor Michael Sheen

[@Twiggys145]

He’s Welsh. English is not synonymous with British

[@thegreyarea-WPP]

@@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.

[@alexfarkas3881]

​@@thegreyarea-WPP I absolutely agree with you on the flag issue from a perspective of fairness, but also because it would make it a hilariously busy flag. 😀 Alternatively, I think they should add the dragon because dragons are cool as hell.

[@Boots1164]

I can never get enough of the True North speech in Lincoln, it's so good.

[@tinamagnuson9656]

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.

[@peterfraser9070]

CA Tripp's The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln is also quite interesting.

[@uToobeD]

The Bush and Cheney actors look spot on, wow

[@karlkarlos3545]

It's tons of makeup. Cheney is played by Christian Bale after all.

[@uToobeD]

@@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

[@bradenr867]

@@karlkarlos3545well he put on 100lbs to look like him. It’s not just make up, bale goes to every extreme.

[@karlkarlos3545]

@@bradenr867 Yeah, he wanted that Oscar so badly. Lol.

[@franciscodanconia4324]

They might have looked spot on but nothing in that hack job “comedy” by Adam McKay was in any way shape or form true or historical. It’s disappointing they would even use that film. He might as well be reviewing President Camacho in Idiocracy.

[@TheJuris1973]

They should have used the portrayal of Harry Truman by Gary Sinise in 'Truman'. The Gary Oldman version is basically a cameo

[@josephpetrino1741]

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.

[@AdNLB]

Without a doubt. As a non-American, there is something about your relatively short history that stuns you into attention. I think it’s because the consequences of those events seem to have so directly shaped the world we live in.

[@williamrobinson7435]

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! 🌟👍

[@Alexbacica]

Another proof, if was still needed, that Sam Rockwell is one of the best and most underrated actors of his generation.

[@helenwood1]

Kudos-this is well-researched. I learned a lot! With Hollywood movies, you never know what to believe and what not to.

[@georgewilliam11]

Should do the John Adams mini series. There's three presidents in that

[@AlexSCSI5]

This video should have a lot more views. Brilliant.

[@GylesJohnson]

Well done HH. A very enjoyable hour. 👍

[@HistoryHit]

Thanks Gyles 👍

[@jilips]

Fantastic video! Lincoln will forever be my favorite person in history

[@jamesdoyle5405]

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.

[@davidloftus3771]

Very entertaining and informative.

[@HistoryHit]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bobbydylanio]

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!

[@kevinpace6121]

Don’t sleep on David Costabile as James Ashley in Lincoln. Fantastic performance as a counter to Lincoln.

[@jillfromatlanta427]

He is equally excellent in many roles, including as a baddie in Damages.

[@lw3646]

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.

[@terryjohnson5579]

Jesus until you showed that picture i didnt realize how well cast Tommy Lee Jones was as Thaddeus Stevens.

[@janerkenbrack3373]

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.

[@NickBallenger-i7i]

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.

[@nimrodsson4029]

George Bush actually wasn’t fit for the job at all, but they created a Dynasty of War and personal gain. He wasn’t ignorant, but he’s not the smartest man in the room, by any means.

[@jacobwatson1818]

Well, he listened to lies and knowingly started a war based on a lie. If you can that smart, you would be in a bubble.

[@NickBallenger-i7i]

@ he didn’t start a war based on lies…he started a war because of the opportunity to start one that made him and others money…if it needed to seem like a lie then all the better

[@jacobwatson1818]

​@@NickBallenger-i7iTo clarify, did he tell the public the war was to make money? I remember some WMDs talk. Was the WMD narrative a lie?

[@davidhurray]

Love this video!

[@shaggycan]

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.

[@5Andysalive]

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.

[@kush6846]

Johnson is the most fascinating president to me, that Cranston movie is so underrated. A guy from the Jim Crow era south ushering in the most progressive legislation ever with the civil right act, it’s amazing.

[@defaultusername123]

yep truly a fascinating guy. everything he did in his presidency was so antithetical to his upbringing, yet I think seeing true poverty in Texas back then , growing up in it with his father, living in Texas before electricity...he knew things had to change.

[@franciscodanconia4324]

He did it for purely political power reasons. Johnson was a huge old school southern racist. “These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again.” Source: Doris Kearns Goodwin He also was said to have called the 1957 civil rights bill the “N--er Bill” to another Senator. And was well known to liberally use the n word when directly talking to blacks. And he only got it passed because the vast majority of Republicans voted for it (80%-20% as opposed to the Dem vote of 61-39%). Nothing amazing about it.

[@franciscodanconia4324]

@@defaultusername123He was a massive racist that only did it for political reasons. There was no principle involved.

[@qjones6109]

This is such good work my man

[@StewartLawson]

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]

the supreme court recently?

[@StewartLawson]

@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.

[@brandon-butler]

@@TheEneccaIndeed! As of October 2023 the Supreme Court said the President cannot be convicted for “official acts”.

[@vadergaming1014]

@@TheEneccaSort of, it’s been an evolving legal precedent since Jefferson was president. There’s this precedent in presidential immunity that any official act done by the president is not something he can be criminally or civilly charged for, and the only way to prove that it was not an official act (courts assume any presidential action is official) is by getting access to documents protected by Executive Privilege, which the court has also strengthened in recent years. One of my law school courses was on this exact topic so it’s very interesting seeing how it’s played out especially post Trump v. US

[@vadergaming1014]

@@TheEneccaalso, as part of his executive privilege the Court has indulged in the Theory of the Unitary Executive which basically cedes ALL executive branch authority directly and solely to the President, unless he defers it to someone else (think Border/Economy Tsar’s or Cabinet secretaries). Additionally, by having control of all executive power the President is then allowed deference in all Court proceedings should he invoke a claim of official action or executive privilege. It’s all a very convoluted and very interesting legal feedback loop. Too bad the movie Vice absolutely butchered the Unitary Executive Theory.

[@bartooh1993]

Awesome breakdown! But it feels like something’s missing... Key & Peele’s Obama sketches would’ve been a perfect addition to this topic!

[@nathanielpemberton9303]

MISTAKE/CORRECTION at 27:03: 60 votes are needed in the senate to overcome the filibuster and pass standard legislation, not 67.

[@MeltedCheesefondueGruyere]

It was changed from 67 (two thirds) to 60 (three fifths), in 1970, I believe.

[@franciscodanconia4324]

@@MeltedCheesefondueGruyerethe cloture threshold was changed in 1975

[@carlosrodolfofloresdelgado]

I love how the contextualization of the scenes makes you realize how complex decisions presidents make. It's crazy!

[@mirandadunham7579]

Did I already know all of this? Yes. Did I still watch the video? Again, yes.

[@samvidas9599]

11:34 that compass analogy was powerful!

[@lw3646]

Truman is in the top 10 list of presidents.

[@madelinemae883]

I worked at the Truman library for a summer and he is my favorite president! What I think is super notable about Truman is his sense of responsibility and the way that the loss of life also weighed greatly on him. He kept a Purple Heart from a fallen soldier in Korea in his desk until his death.

[@victoriafrost5461]

You should look into the television series Turn: Washington's Spies. Check out how Ian Khan played General Washington.

[@therealmckoy365]

I really like how the actor in the John Adam’s series portrayed Washington, too.

[@Rob_Enhoud]

Should have used the accurate depiction of Lincoln in Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

[@HistorysRaven]

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.

[@robertmosley3127]

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.

[@MotorPotor56]

"pettifogging Tammany Hall hucksters" is the best line

[@robertn2]

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.

[@peterfraser9070]

Dennis Weaver also played Samuel Mudd, the doctor who wittingly or unwittingly helped Booth after he shot Lincoln.

[@katherinecollins4685]

Brilliant video

[@lw3646]

Peter Jennings actually did an excellent report on Truman and the dropping of the bombs.

[@lissadawes4243]

3:26 in the Prime Minister video he said Churchill’s speech to parliament was. The “we’ll never surrender” one.

[@barppoots4378]

Lincoln needs a deep dive!

[@davidsullivan7743]

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

[@karenteneyck9835]

Her book was the source material for the movie.

[@TheFuri0uswc]

I love just how much Truman hated oppenhimmer.

[@anthonyhastings5961]

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.

[@TheAmazingSpiderman87]

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.

[@hari23]

I'm pretty sure the X-Men stopped the Cuban missile crisis

[@janariley6005]

Johnson was a master at strong arming people

[@smbake]

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.

[@D2RCR]

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.

[@terrioestreich4007]

Excellent!

[@stefanthoen2207]

Dick Cheney's Secret Service name was Angler because of his love for fly fishing. Also the name of the book by Barton Gellman, which is a very good read

[@Pete_Finch]

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

[@Lukecash2]

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.

[@rustomkanishka]

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.

[@brandonparnell6160]

The biggest issue with Truman's supposed WW1 service was his oddly warhawk perspective post war and inherent disregard for his own men's lives during the war. All of this can be gleamed from his letters to home to his girlfriend and later wife. Truman seemed oddly out of touch with what was going on during that period and far more concerned with his own personal desires to uplift himself back home.

[@brandonparnell6160]

​@@Lukecash2True but not in the way you think, Truman during the war was a successful Captain but with the conclusion of the war he didn't want to end the war with the bomb for the sake of people's lives but imo for his own glory. Truman was not an amazing person by any measure his personal letters make that very clear.

[@trapdoorspringfieldmodel1888]

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.

[@conservativepineapples6203]

Hal Holbrook was amazing as Lincoln! His voice was so well suited to Lincoln.

[@JMurphyyy]

good video

[@Sabotage_Labs]

One of Spielberg's best movies! Absolutely love it! Thaddeus Stevens....my spirit animal...lol. Tom Lee Jones was so good.

[@gatb4387]

Commenting from the start: YES, I needed this!

[@furrybear57]

I'm surprised you referenced "Frost/Nixon" for Nixon rather than Oliver Stone's film. I'm disappointed to you left off Brian Keith as Theodore Roosevelt in "The Wind and the Lion". He did an excellent job of portraying him.

[@jgberzerker]

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.

[@crispycookie9739]

This was interesting. Now, I'd like to see an American historian do a segment on British PMs

[@ericfellner2689]

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.

[@franciscodanconia4324]

Because it was a hack job by a far leftist, not a historically accurate movie.

[@kevinprzy4539]

I wish Cassius Marcellus Clay had a cameo in this film, he was extremely important to ending slavery in the US.

[@sellm_bc_arwhite4249]

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.

[@photo_n_art]

George W. wanted the title but not the responsibilities, so he was more than happy to go with Cheney's expended role... 🤷‍♂️

[@biggerdoofus]

While it's good to include the apocalyptic rhetoric when explaining the beliefs of people making decisions during the cold war, I think it'd be good to mention that scientists since then have largely rejected the idea that nuclear war would end human civilization.

[@franciscodanconia4324]

Might not end it completely but not a theory I’d prefer be tested.

[@ysolda9614]

I was looking forward to commentary on Lincoln the Vampire Hunter you know.. sadge

[@uToobeD]

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

[@robertpolityka8464]

I like the Anthony Hopkins version of Nixon.

[@michaelmanning5379]

Gary Sinise did a better job as Truman

[@Paul-ic2ki]

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.

[@Tman001100]

"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.

[@karlkuhn1997]

Oppenheimer correctly saw the problems with nuclear weapons and much of the politicians of the time just ignored it

[@acrustykrab]

really enjoyed this one. i feel like I'm undereducated in how influential each and every President has been

[@TimRHillard]

I thought Lincoln the Vampire Hunter was pretty hysterically accurate🤔

[@DoomWalker42]

Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter! 😂I thought you just said that Sir Winston Churchill's speech was the greatest in the English language?

[@davidfrederick1971]

According to my (late) father (a Vietnam Veteran) during Kennedy's naval blockage of Russian ships, "a warning shot was shot across one of their bows" TRUE OR FALSE?

[@jw870206]

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.

[@robertwilliams9010]

People literally called it "The Johnson Treatment". He'd also go to the bathroom during tense meetings and leave the door open. Literally waved his dong at his adversaries to show them who was in charge.

[@jw870206]

@ So, Johnson swung his johnson? 😂

[@robertwilliams9010]

@jw870206 He apparently referred to it as "Jumbo", but yes, yes he did.

[@NimicNOR]

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.