WEBVTT
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Now let's understand something about presidents,
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first and foremost.
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They're all sociopaths.
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I mean, think about the ego
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that's required to be president of the United States.
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When we meet somebody with that kind of ego at a party,
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you usually find yourself moving across the room.
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Hi, I'm Jeffrey Engel,
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director of the Center for Presidential History
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at Southern Methodist University.
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Today, we're gonna be reviewing scenes
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that feature U.S. presidents in films and TV.
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[dramatic music]
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This is "Frost/Nixon" directed by Ron Howard.
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In this scene, which is the real climax of the movie,
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Richard Nixon admits to something dramatic
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about the Watergate break-in.
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You're quoting me out of context, out of order.
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And I might add, I have participated in all these interviews
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without a single note in front of me.
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Okay, first off, this is a great impersonation of Nixon.
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He's got the mannerisms, he's got the voice.
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He's got the head movements, except he's nice.
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Richard Nixon wasn't nice.
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This man is polite and gentle.
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Richard Nixon had a burning fury of anger
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in everything he did.
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If he thought a reporter was taking him down the wrong road,
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even if he was on film, even if he was on camera,
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he would have shut him down a lot harder than that.
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I have never heard or seen such outrageous,
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vicious, distorted reporting in 27 years of public life.
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The movie centers around the aftermath
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of the Watergate break-in.
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In 1972 operatives working for Richard Nixon
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broke into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters
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basically looking for dirt on Nixon's potential opponents
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in the upcoming presidential campaign.
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It seemed like every day,
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a new piece of information would trickle out
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bringing the scandal closer and closer to Nixon.
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Nixon has to resign.
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The first and only president in American history
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to resign the office.
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Do you seriously expect us to believe
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that you had no knowledge of that?
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None, I believed the money was for humanitarian purposes
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to help disadvantaged people with their defense.
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Richard Nixon did really sit for interviews with Frost
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a few years after leaving the White House in disgrace.
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However, it wasn't antagonistic.
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It was a business operation and partnership between the two.
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Nixon was paid $800,000, which is about the equivalent
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of about $10 million in today's dollars.
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And more importantly,
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he was set to get 20% of the profit of any recording sales
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that they did for the interview going forward.
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And Nixon's own people were encouraging Nixon to say more.
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The humanitarian purposes for disadvantaged people
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with their defense he's talking about
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the guys that broke into the Watergate for him.
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And the truth is one of the things
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that busted the case wide open
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was that one of them admitted in open court
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that he was being pressured and bribed not to talk.
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So in a sense, the defense
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is not for the lawyers necessarily.
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The defense that Nixon's paying for is for his own skin.
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Maybe I should have done that.
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Maybe I should have just called the Feds into my office,
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and said, hey, there's the two men.
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Haul them down to the dock, fingerprint them,
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and then throw them in the can.
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What we have to understand is that Nixon is in exile.
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He's living in California.
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He's moved back home in disgrace.
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He thought if he told his side of the story,
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if people could hear him say it in a controlled environment,
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that would reboost his reputation and you know what?
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It worked.
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Are you really saying that in certain situations,
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the president can decide
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whether it's in the best interest of the nation,
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and then do something illegal?
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I'm saying that when the president does it,
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that means it's not illegal.
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So that's supposed to be the climax of the movie,
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the moment when Richard Nixon admits guilt for Watergate.
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The truth is he didn't.
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Oh, he admitted guilt.
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He admitted that he felt guilty feelings
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for how bad Watergate was for the American people.
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If mistakes were made, he was sorry.
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He said out loud,
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perhaps I gave the sword to people who used it wrongly,
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but I did not wield the sword myself.
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The kind of apologies you make
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when you don't actually want to admit guilt.
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The more fascinating point that the movie
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is trying to make here, though,
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is Nixon's sense of power of executive authority.
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He believed, and frankly, many people believe this today
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that the Constitution doesn't really bind the president
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as much as one might necessarily think,
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that, basically, if the president can do anything
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he or she wants that's not written down in the Constitution.
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More importantly, if nobody's gonna stop them,
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then they can really do a lot.
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And that's a central theme of presidents throughout history,
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but certainly in Nixon,
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and frankly, certainly in more modern days.
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The connections between Richard Nixon and Donald Trump
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are personal, are astounding.
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The truth of the matter is that
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what Nixon cared about most was Nixon.
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And what Donald Trump cares about most is Donald Trump.
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And I assure you, Richard Nixon felt bad about Watergate,
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but he felt bad about the fact that he was caught.
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There's no sense I think for Donald Trump
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that he's ever going to admit that he made a mistake.
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Mistakes happen to him.
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Problems happen to him, just like Nixon.
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I'm saying that when the president does it,
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that means it's not illegal.
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The key line of the movie when Nixon says,
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if a president does it, it's not illegal
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is something he said, it just wasn't about Watergate.
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He was talking about foreign policy.
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Now keep in mind, Richard Nixon is the guy
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who bombed Cambodia without telling Congress,
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without telling the American people.
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Expanding a war that was already unpopular
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because he thought he had the authority to do it.
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So if the president says as commander-in-chief
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let's bomb someplace whose gonna say no?
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So that he actually said the line he thought that sentiment
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just not about Watergate.
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This is "Lincoln" directed by Steven Spielberg.
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In this scene, Lincoln is discussing the politics
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of the 13th Amendment that would ban slavery.
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You lied to me.
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Mr. Lincoln, you evaded my requests for a denial,
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that there is a Confederate peace offer because,
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because there is one.
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No one is surprised when a politician lies,
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certainly not their own staff.
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They see it up close every day.
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Lincoln was a master politician.
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I mean, we think of him as the most ethical and moral,
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and God-fearing president we had, and he was that,
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but also knew how to do some dirty politicking
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when he needed to.
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One thing that shocked people was the notion that,
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oh, my goodness, politicians were being bought and sold,
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left, right, and center.
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You know what?
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Politicians were bought and sold, left, right, and center.
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It still happens today just a little quieter.
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Hell, you can have that for nothing.
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What we need money for is bribes to speed things up.
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A lot of the people who voted for the 13th Amendment
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found themselves with really nice jobs,
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say running a postal commission,
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or running a port after they left office.
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President Lincoln knew how to dole out the goods.
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I can't listen to this anymore.
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I can't accomplish a goddamn thing of any human meaning,
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or worth until we cure ourselves of slavery,
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and end this pestilential war.
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I've seen Richard Nixon, I've seen Ronald Reagan.
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I don't know what Lincoln actually looked like moving,
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and I don't know his voice,
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but they tell us all the people who meet him
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in their diaries and letters
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that he had a real high-pitched kind of screamy voice.
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He was not a baritone.
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And Daniel Day-Lewis really embodies Lincoln
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in every way possible.
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So here we are in the spring of 1865, and the nation
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has lost an ungodly number of casualties, 800,000.
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In fact, historians keep revising the number of casualties,
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and deaths in the Civil War Up.
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So the American people are tired.
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They're frustrated that the war continues.
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I know I need this.
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This amendment is that cure.
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Lincoln wants the war to end as quickly as possible,
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but not so quickly
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that he can't get everything he wants done politically.
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He wants to get the 13th Amendment passed.
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The 13th Amendment that would ban slavery forever
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in the United States.
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Lincoln was frankly never one to think
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that blacks and whites were equal.
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In fact, he had the idea, perhaps that blacks
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could be transported back to Africa after the war
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'cause the two races could never possibly live together
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in the same country, they were just too unequal.
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What he objected to because blacks were human that anyone,
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any human should be put into slavery.
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And he worried in some ways
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that if someone could be put into slavery,
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then anyone could be put into slavery.
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And the way to keep everyone out of slavery
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was to abolish it forever.
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We're stepped out upon the world's stage now.
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Now with a fate of human dignity in our hands.
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What's also fascinating about this scene
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is that it shows Lincoln yelling, it shows Lincoln angry.
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Now Lincoln was an emotional guy.
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In fact, we now know that Lincoln
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suffered from what we would term depression.
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There were periods early in his life where his friends
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basically went on suicide watch,
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and he's dealing with the pressures,
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unlike any other human has ever dealt with perhaps
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of how to hold the country together
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at a moment when it wants to rip itself apart,
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not just for political, but for moral reasons.
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So in point of fact, without my permission,
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you ain't enlisting in nothing, nowhere.
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Lincoln did a remarkable job of keeping calm, of cajoling,
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of making people feel that he wanted them on their side,
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and that he wanted everyone
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to be pulling in the same direction.
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Abolishing slavery by constitutional provision
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settles the fate for all coming time.
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We have to remember presidents they're not kings.
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They're not tyrants, at least not yet.
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Every president has restraints upon them.
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And yet they all have more power than anyone else.
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Sometimes it's a congressman from Mukwonago, Iowa,
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who is able to clog things up.
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You got to work with people in the American government
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to get things done.
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You got to work with Congress in particular.
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Slavery troubled me as long as I can remember.
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In a way it never troubled my father,
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though he hated it in his own fashion.
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And Lincoln who had been in Congress
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knew that he could threaten,
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but he couldn't actually force people
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to vote the way he wanted.
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This is "Pearl Harbor" directed by Michael Bay.
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In this scene, set in December of 1941,
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President Franklin Roosevelt meets with his cabinet
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to discuss retaliation against the Japanese
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for their attack against Pearl Harbor.
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There's nothing basically right about the history
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in this movie.
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Is it true men are still trapped alive inside the Arizona?
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We're doing everything we can to get to them,
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but they're 40 feet below water.
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We'd have to get them within a few hundred miles of Japan,
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and therefore risk our carriers.
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And if we lose our carriers,
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we'll have no shield against invasion.
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The Japanese were not going to invade the West Coast.
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Nobody in their right mind thought the Japanese
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were going to invade the West Coast.
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Everyone feared the Japanese,
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but the United States military didn't worry about invasion.
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The Japanese didn't have enough ships for that.
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So here we have a scene
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where the president of the United States
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is being told things that he already knows.
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What he wants were solutions.
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He's a submariner, he came up with this idea, sir.
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I like sub commanders.
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They don't have time for bullshit.
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Roosevelt used to be referred to as the juggler, why?
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Because he didn't mind if his right hand and left hand
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didn't know what was going on.
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He would very famously tell people
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to do contradictory things
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if he didn't know what was gonna work
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because he wanted to find out which one worked fastest.
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Do away with the one that's no good.
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Keep going with the one that works.
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Pearl Harbor, of course, is December of '41.
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Franklin Roosevelt had just won another
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big electoral victory in November of 1940,
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becoming the only president in American history
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to ever serve more than two terms.
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He was basically hoping to retire
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at the end of his second term.
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He was an old man, he was a tired man, he was a sick man.
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Obviously, he was still living with
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the ravages of his polio,
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but Roosevelt had a sense that the world was going to war.
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And more importantly, he had a sense
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that he was needed to lead the country and the world.
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So Roosevelt was a man who sought that third term,
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and the American people gave him a third term.
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He was wildly popular and also wildly hated.
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Do not tell me it can't be done.
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Roosevelt was paralyzed, but in a way
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he had taught himself to walk,
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or at least to give the appearance of it.
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He had those big steel braces that you saw,
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and he built up his upper body.
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He was incredibly strong up top,
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and actually could sort of give the appearance of walking
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by throwing his hips and his shoulders back and forth
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while holding onto somebody.
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Everybody knew he'd been paralyzed.
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That's what polio does to people.
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What he had to prove
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was that he had the physical capacities to do the job.
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So the idea that Roosevelt could impress people
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by pulling himself up onto a table
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they would not be impressed
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'cause they would have seen him do that every day.
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This is "Vice" directed by Adam McKay.
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In this scene, Dick Cheney meets with George W. Bush
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to discuss becoming Bush's running mate.
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Distance myself from my years at Yale and Harvard.
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Make me more of a man of the people for the election.
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Smart.
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00:12:54.040 --> 00:12:55.895
Right away in this movie they get to one of the central
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questions of George W. Bush's life,
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and political life in particular.
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Where is he from?
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His whole family is from Connecticut.
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His father had been president.
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He went to Yale.
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This is a blue blood of American blue bloods,
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00:13:06.560 --> 00:13:09.030
yet W. actually grew up in West Texas.
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W. decides to buy a ranch, actually, outside of Waco,
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and clear brush as his favorite hobby
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when he is running for president,
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and then when he is president.
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As near as I can tell,
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he doesn't get back to the ranch much,
335
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now that he doesn't have to worry about voters.
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So, we gonna do this thing, or what?
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I mean, is this happening?
338
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Yeah, I have found some very interesting candidates.
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00:13:33.060 --> 00:13:36.940
If we could schedule a three hour window to.
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00:13:36.940 --> 00:13:40.030
No, I meant you, I want you to be my VP.
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I love the way this movie portrays ideas
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without actually saying them.
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Look at the contrast between these two.
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Dick Cheney is restrained.
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A man who knows what he wants to say
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00:13:50.710 --> 00:13:55.120
before the words have even formed in his mouth, not so W.
347
00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:57.470
W. is exuberant, look how he's eating those chicken wings.
348
00:13:57.470 --> 00:14:00.620
He loves life, he grabs everything and rushes right into it.
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00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:02.710
In a sense, this gives us a good sense
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00:14:02.710 --> 00:14:06.830
of their personalities that W. was the outgoing man.
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00:14:06.830 --> 00:14:09.650
Dick Cheney, the inner looking man.
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00:14:09.650 --> 00:14:12.593
I have been secretary of defense.
353
00:14:13.760 --> 00:14:16.240
I have been the chief of staff.
354
00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:20.550
The vice presidency is mostly a symbolic job.
355
00:14:20.550 --> 00:14:22.410
Vice presidents, historically,
356
00:14:22.410 --> 00:14:24.950
have not been particularly important.
357
00:14:24.950 --> 00:14:27.760
In fact, I would argue Walter Mondale is really the first
358
00:14:27.760 --> 00:14:30.810
to have a policy influence on the administration.
359
00:14:30.810 --> 00:14:33.671
And that Dick Cheney essentially took the vice presidency
360
00:14:33.671 --> 00:14:36.100
in ways no one had ever done before.
361
00:14:36.100 --> 00:14:38.240
Washington was filled with rumors that, in fact,
362
00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:40.380
Bush was just a puppet, if you will.
363
00:14:40.380 --> 00:14:41.320
Now, I don't think that's true.
364
00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:43.350
In fact, I think by the end of the administration,
365
00:14:43.350 --> 00:14:44.183
by the second term,
366
00:14:44.183 --> 00:14:46.190
especially after much of Cheney's advice
367
00:14:46.190 --> 00:14:48.220
had completely gone awry from the first term,
368
00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:52.390
W. had no longer much interest in what Cheney had to say,
369
00:14:52.390 --> 00:14:55.190
but the central tension of their relationship existed
370
00:14:55.190 --> 00:14:56.854
throughout the eight years of his presidency,
371
00:14:56.854 --> 00:14:58.886
which is, was the president in charge,
372
00:14:58.886 --> 00:15:02.500
or was the vice president pulling the strings?
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00:15:02.500 --> 00:15:03.333
However,
374
00:15:06.260 --> 00:15:10.840
the vice presidency is also defined by the president
375
00:15:12.726 --> 00:15:17.060
if we were to come to a different understanding.
376
00:15:18.710 --> 00:15:19.543
Uh-huh.
377
00:15:19.543 --> 00:15:20.940
This is great, but not subtle.
378
00:15:20.940 --> 00:15:22.270
Cheney is a fly fisherman.
379
00:15:22.270 --> 00:15:24.990
Cheney spends a lot of time laying out some line,
380
00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:26.320
and reeling things in,
381
00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:27.930
and that's what he's doing with the president here.
382
00:15:27.930 --> 00:15:29.990
The movie is suggesting that Cheney
383
00:15:29.990 --> 00:15:32.930
who had been head of Bush's committee
384
00:15:32.930 --> 00:15:34.270
to find a vice president
385
00:15:34.270 --> 00:15:36.720
actually wanted the job himself the entire time.
386
00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:37.820
I think that's probably right.
387
00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:41.650
One of the things we see in "Vice" is George W. Bush
388
00:15:41.650 --> 00:15:44.500
before he's in office, and before he has the full weight,
389
00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:46.610
and responsibility of being president.
390
00:15:46.610 --> 00:15:48.780
Bush, of course, is born into a political family.
391
00:15:48.780 --> 00:15:50.110
His father had been president,
392
00:15:50.110 --> 00:15:52.950
and in some ways he's been trying to emulate his father
393
00:15:52.950 --> 00:15:55.103
his entire life, but in a different way.
394
00:15:55.103 --> 00:15:59.250
Whereas, George H.W. Bush was genteel and reserved,
395
00:15:59.250 --> 00:16:01.580
George W. Bush was kind of a wild man.
396
00:16:01.580 --> 00:16:04.303
He has had many admitted troubles with alcohol
397
00:16:04.303 --> 00:16:05.730
in his early years.
398
00:16:05.730 --> 00:16:07.420
He finally found faith,
399
00:16:07.420 --> 00:16:09.423
found the strength to give up alcohol,
400
00:16:09.423 --> 00:16:11.440
and became a business person,
401
00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:13.400
actually owner of the Texas Rangers.
402
00:16:13.400 --> 00:16:15.520
And he liked to be a very public owner of the Rangers.
403
00:16:15.520 --> 00:16:18.090
He liked the backslap and he liked the shaking hands.
404
00:16:18.090 --> 00:16:19.800
Leave the details to the other guys.
405
00:16:19.800 --> 00:16:23.320
George W. Bush made decisions as he says with his gut.
406
00:16:23.320 --> 00:16:25.640
This is, actually, I think one of the most accurate.
407
00:16:25.640 --> 00:16:28.410
It's made in 2018 talking about the early 2000s,
408
00:16:28.410 --> 00:16:30.960
so it's not hard for them to get the clothes right,
409
00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:32.660
or the talk right, or the haircuts right.
410
00:16:32.660 --> 00:16:34.860
And I think they actually nailed Dick Cheney as well.
411
00:16:34.860 --> 00:16:39.570
He's a man who is sincere, he's reserved, he's in control,
412
00:16:39.570 --> 00:16:40.403
but you know what else he is?
413
00:16:40.403 --> 00:16:43.710
He's sure, Dick Cheney is certain about the things
414
00:16:43.710 --> 00:16:45.853
that he's certain about and he's willing to do anything,
415
00:16:45.853 --> 00:16:48.380
anything to get them.
416
00:16:48.380 --> 00:16:50.350
This is a skit from "Saturday Night Live."
417
00:16:50.350 --> 00:16:53.000
In this scene, we see two different Ronald Reagan's.
418
00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:55.583
One who's clueless in public, but behind closed doors,
419
00:16:55.583 --> 00:16:57.570
the one who's really in charge.
420
00:16:57.570 --> 00:16:59.310
Well, I hope I've answered your questions
421
00:16:59.310 --> 00:17:02.721
as best I could given the very little that I know.
422
00:17:02.721 --> 00:17:04.360
[laughter]
423
00:17:04.360 --> 00:17:06.340
Good-bye, and God bless you.
424
00:17:06.340 --> 00:17:07.173
Thank you Mr. President.
425
00:17:07.173 --> 00:17:08.110
Thank you very much.
426
00:17:12.290 --> 00:17:14.320
Okay, get back in here.
427
00:17:14.320 --> 00:17:16.570
All right, let's get down to business.
428
00:17:16.570 --> 00:17:18.012
I'm only gonna go through this once,
429
00:17:18.012 --> 00:17:19.880
so it's essential that you pay attention.
430
00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:21.300
This is Ronald Reagan's second term.
431
00:17:21.300 --> 00:17:22.370
Ronald Reagan who had been
432
00:17:22.370 --> 00:17:24.810
one of the oldest men ever elected presidents,
433
00:17:24.810 --> 00:17:26.120
and Ronald Reagan, who frankly,
434
00:17:26.120 --> 00:17:28.150
was never much on top of the details.
435
00:17:28.150 --> 00:17:31.380
He was a real delegator, a big picture guy, if you will.
436
00:17:31.380 --> 00:17:32.660
So this skit is one joke.
437
00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:35.900
The idea that this man who's barely awake sometimes,
438
00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:37.460
and who can't keep track of details
439
00:17:37.460 --> 00:17:40.220
is actually masterminding global conspiracies.
440
00:17:40.220 --> 00:17:42.230
The truth is Reagan was not masterminding
441
00:17:42.230 --> 00:17:43.180
global conspiracies.
442
00:17:43.180 --> 00:17:46.800
Reagan was that kindly, nice, quiet man,
443
00:17:46.800 --> 00:17:48.970
with a big idea and big optimism
444
00:17:48.970 --> 00:17:50.950
who did like to meet with Girl Scouts,
445
00:17:50.950 --> 00:17:52.820
and did like to talk to reporters,
446
00:17:52.820 --> 00:17:54.410
but didn't like to tell them too much.
447
00:17:54.410 --> 00:17:57.180
The Reagan who is pictured here behind the scenes
448
00:17:57.180 --> 00:17:58.750
is never a Reagan that existed,
449
00:17:58.750 --> 00:18:00.510
and certainly not by the second term.
450
00:18:00.510 --> 00:18:03.020
So we're supposed to laugh if we're Americans in the 1980s
451
00:18:03.020 --> 00:18:03.990
at the very notion
452
00:18:03.990 --> 00:18:05.750
that our president was actually in charge.
453
00:18:05.750 --> 00:18:09.080
Ronald Reagan let other people bring decisions to him,
454
00:18:09.080 --> 00:18:10.960
which he approved.
455
00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:12.590
Hello, Jimmy.
456
00:18:12.590 --> 00:18:14.090
Well, hi, Dutch, how are you?
457
00:18:14.090 --> 00:18:17.260
Yeah, yeah, oh, I'm sorry, Mr. President.
458
00:18:17.260 --> 00:18:19.119
You know, I have the hardest time getting used to that.
459
00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:22.450
Well, we sure had great times back in Hollywood.
460
00:18:22.450 --> 00:18:24.120
You can say that again, Dutch.
461
00:18:24.120 --> 00:18:25.480
So Jimmy Stewart shows up.
462
00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:26.500
Well, that's not a surprise.
463
00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:28.670
Ronald Reagan had been a Hollywood guy.
464
00:18:28.670 --> 00:18:29.630
In fact, Ronald Reagan,
465
00:18:29.630 --> 00:18:31.680
back in the days when he was a Democrat
466
00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:34.830
had been actually the head of the actors union.
467
00:18:34.830 --> 00:18:36.505
And he liked bringing his Hollywood friends
468
00:18:36.505 --> 00:18:37.950
to the White House
469
00:18:37.950 --> 00:18:39.477
because those were the closest things he had to friends.
470
00:18:39.477 --> 00:18:41.190
He had a lot of acquaintances.
471
00:18:41.190 --> 00:18:42.400
He had a lot of people that liked to be with him,
472
00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:44.568
and that he liked in some sense,
473
00:18:44.568 --> 00:18:47.297
but what he really liked was being alone,
474
00:18:47.297 --> 00:18:49.240
or at least with Nancy.
475
00:18:49.240 --> 00:18:51.670
The average evening for the two of them in the White House
476
00:18:51.670 --> 00:18:53.750
was to retire at the end of the day,
477
00:18:53.750 --> 00:18:56.000
usually about five o'clock watching old movies.
478
00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:57.630
That was when Reagan was happiest.
479
00:18:57.630 --> 00:18:58.869
Mr. President, you're going so fast.
480
00:18:58.869 --> 00:19:01.860
There's still a lot about the Iran-Nicaragua operation
481
00:19:01.860 --> 00:19:02.820
I just don't understand.
482
00:19:02.820 --> 00:19:05.190
And you don't need to understand.
483
00:19:05.190 --> 00:19:08.070
I'm the president, only I need to understand.
484
00:19:08.070 --> 00:19:10.980
The Iran-Contra controversy
485
00:19:10.980 --> 00:19:13.320
that's at the heart of this skit was a big deal.
486
00:19:13.320 --> 00:19:16.190
Ronald Reagan, frankly, should have been impeached.
487
00:19:16.190 --> 00:19:17.318
He did more than most of the presidents
488
00:19:17.318 --> 00:19:19.680
who have been impeached to be impeached.
489
00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.700
The American public wasn't really interested in that
490
00:19:21.700 --> 00:19:23.398
just a few years after Watergate,
491
00:19:23.398 --> 00:19:26.320
and frankly in the middle of a president's second term,
492
00:19:26.320 --> 00:19:28.116
a president who the American people liked,
493
00:19:28.116 --> 00:19:29.620
he was very popular.
494
00:19:29.620 --> 00:19:31.430
So there's a real sense in which Ronald Reagan
495
00:19:31.430 --> 00:19:35.860
was able to have subordinates manipulate
496
00:19:35.860 --> 00:19:38.840
the international system with actually no consequences.
497
00:19:38.840 --> 00:19:41.595
He's one of the first presidents that we refer to as Teflon,
498
00:19:41.595 --> 00:19:43.470
nothing sticks to this guy.
499
00:19:43.470 --> 00:19:46.070
This is "The Comey Rule" directed by Billy Ray.
500
00:19:46.070 --> 00:19:48.610
In this scene, newly elected President Donald Trump
501
00:19:48.610 --> 00:19:52.250
demands loyalty from FBI director, James Comey.
502
00:19:52.250 --> 00:19:54.488
Press has been very unfair to you.
503
00:19:54.488 --> 00:19:56.223
I know about that.
504
00:19:57.860 --> 00:20:02.860
Nobody gets treated as unfairly as I do, it's disgraceful.
505
00:20:03.730 --> 00:20:05.590
The scene and the context matters here.
506
00:20:05.590 --> 00:20:07.840
President Trump is meeting one-on-one
507
00:20:07.840 --> 00:20:10.070
with FBI director, James Comey.
508
00:20:10.070 --> 00:20:11.560
President Trump is a business guy.
509
00:20:11.560 --> 00:20:12.790
He's never been in government before.
510
00:20:12.790 --> 00:20:14.230
He thinks that's the way things operate.
511
00:20:14.230 --> 00:20:17.249
He thinks he can talk to anyone without any consequences.
512
00:20:17.249 --> 00:20:20.830
The truth is there used to be rules in Washington,
513
00:20:20.830 --> 00:20:21.910
or at least understandings.
514
00:20:21.910 --> 00:20:24.890
One of them was that an FBI director in order to make sure
515
00:20:24.890 --> 00:20:27.190
that he was not politically influenced by the president,
516
00:20:27.190 --> 00:20:28.730
in order to make sure that he was independent
517
00:20:28.730 --> 00:20:32.250
to do his job as confirmed by Congress would never meet
518
00:20:32.250 --> 00:20:35.150
with the president of the United States one-on-one.
519
00:20:35.150 --> 00:20:36.375
If there's no one else in the room,
520
00:20:36.375 --> 00:20:38.830
there's no one else to attest to what you said.
521
00:20:38.830 --> 00:20:40.068
That's why Comey took notes
522
00:20:40.068 --> 00:20:42.390
because he knew every time he met with the president,
523
00:20:42.390 --> 00:20:43.810
it was something he shouldn't be doing.
524
00:20:43.810 --> 00:20:46.736
I don't think it would be good for you personally.
525
00:20:46.736 --> 00:20:49.940
It would make you look like you've done something wrong.
526
00:20:49.940 --> 00:20:50.773
Who needs that?
527
00:20:51.638 --> 00:20:53.685
I mean, it doesn't matter to me that I could make a change.
528
00:20:53.685 --> 00:20:56.630
I get along with everybody.
529
00:20:56.630 --> 00:21:00.490
This is a good impersonation and a bad impersonation.
530
00:21:00.490 --> 00:21:01.810
I love the breathing.
531
00:21:01.810 --> 00:21:04.810
The fact that Donald Trump inhales dramatically
532
00:21:04.810 --> 00:21:06.610
through his nose before he says something.
533
00:21:06.610 --> 00:21:08.240
Why is it a bad impersonation?
534
00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:10.640
Do you notice this actor is using complete sentences?
535
00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:12.305
Donald Trump has never finished a sentence
536
00:21:12.305 --> 00:21:13.670
as near as I can tell,
537
00:21:13.670 --> 00:21:16.040
and his supporters love that about him.
538
00:21:16.040 --> 00:21:18.185
He moves from idea to idea to idea they say.
539
00:21:18.185 --> 00:21:21.600
Just try one time to write out a transcript
540
00:21:21.600 --> 00:21:22.705
of a Donald Trump speech,
541
00:21:22.705 --> 00:21:24.590
or a Donald Trump press conference,
542
00:21:24.590 --> 00:21:26.830
or a Donald Trump anything, it will hurt your hand.
543
00:21:26.830 --> 00:21:30.140
There are some consistent traits among presidents.
544
00:21:30.140 --> 00:21:33.090
One of them, frankly, is typically hard work.
545
00:21:33.090 --> 00:21:34.980
Donald Trump is different,
546
00:21:34.980 --> 00:21:36.380
which is why his supporters love him.
547
00:21:36.380 --> 00:21:38.830
He speaks brashly.
548
00:21:38.830 --> 00:21:41.850
He doesn't necessarily care about the impact of his words.
549
00:21:41.850 --> 00:21:44.457
He's a bull in a China shop and that's the way he likes it.
550
00:21:44.457 --> 00:21:46.100
And I have to rely on people.
551
00:21:46.100 --> 00:21:48.900
I have all these idiot advisors around
552
00:21:48.900 --> 00:21:50.545
who think they got me elected.
553
00:21:50.545 --> 00:21:54.630
You know who I actually listen to, TV people.
554
00:21:54.630 --> 00:21:56.010
One thing we know about Donald Trump
555
00:21:56.010 --> 00:21:57.880
is that he watches a lot of television.
556
00:21:57.880 --> 00:21:58.713
How do we know this?
557
00:21:58.713 --> 00:22:01.920
Because he tells us, he tweets about shows all the time.
558
00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:04.500
That's what he thinks is important about his presidency,
559
00:22:04.500 --> 00:22:07.220
how it's perceived, not the policies.
560
00:22:07.220 --> 00:22:09.940
It's how it looks on TV that matters to him.
561
00:22:09.940 --> 00:22:12.020
Not surprising as a former TV star.
562
00:22:12.020 --> 00:22:15.470
No other president in American history has come into office
563
00:22:15.470 --> 00:22:17.550
without having either been a general,
564
00:22:17.550 --> 00:22:19.500
or having held elected office before.
565
00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:20.910
Donald Trump has done neither.
566
00:22:20.910 --> 00:22:23.610
Donald Trump is unusual in every way
567
00:22:23.610 --> 00:22:24.540
that he approaches things,
568
00:22:24.540 --> 00:22:25.940
which is frankly why most of the people
569
00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:28.086
who wind up working for him who have government experience,
570
00:22:28.086 --> 00:22:29.740
wind up resigning.
571
00:22:29.740 --> 00:22:32.370
They don't understand what it's like to work for a man
572
00:22:32.370 --> 00:22:36.610
who doesn't understand the basic ways that government works.
573
00:22:36.610 --> 00:22:39.350
Well, you can rely on me, sir, to tell you.
574
00:22:39.350 --> 00:22:40.433
I need loyalty.
575
00:22:43.065 --> 00:22:46.650
I expect loyalty.
576
00:22:46.650 --> 00:22:50.620
James Comey was the same FBI director for Obama,
577
00:22:50.620 --> 00:22:52.040
as he was for Donald Trump,
578
00:22:52.040 --> 00:22:55.010
a person who thought his loyalty was to the department,
579
00:22:55.010 --> 00:22:56.900
and to the law and to the American people,
580
00:22:56.900 --> 00:22:58.030
not to the president.
581
00:22:58.030 --> 00:23:00.126
This is why Donald Trump broke the law
582
00:23:00.126 --> 00:23:04.060
in trying to influence the FBI director.
583
00:23:04.060 --> 00:23:06.960
If you are under investigation by the FBI,
584
00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:10.000
which Trump was for his dealings with Russia,
585
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:11.160
and the Trump campaign was,
586
00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:14.126
and you try to influence or intimidate,
587
00:23:14.126 --> 00:23:18.440
or purchase the loyalty of your prosecutor
588
00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:20.590
that's jail time in a normal circumstance.
589
00:23:20.590 --> 00:23:23.147
One of the first things Donald Trump did in office
590
00:23:23.147 --> 00:23:27.107
was frankly try to buy the influence and the judgment
591
00:23:27.107 --> 00:23:30.540
of a person who has loyalties not to the White House,
592
00:23:30.540 --> 00:23:31.850
but to the Constitution.
593
00:23:31.850 --> 00:23:34.867
The show tells us that Trump tries to run the government
594
00:23:34.867 --> 00:23:38.640
like his own personal business, which it just isn't.
595
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:40.770
This is "W." directed by Oliver Stone.
596
00:23:40.770 --> 00:23:42.357
In this scene, President George W. Bush
597
00:23:42.357 --> 00:23:44.460
meets with his advisors to discuss
598
00:23:44.460 --> 00:23:47.460
potentially invading Iraq or Iran.
599
00:23:47.460 --> 00:23:50.020
And if so how to market it to the American people.
600
00:23:50.020 --> 00:23:51.080
Weapons of destruction
601
00:23:51.080 --> 00:23:52.473
make these countries more dangerous.
602
00:23:52.473 --> 00:23:54.780
We've got to begin educating the public about
603
00:23:54.780 --> 00:23:56.910
the size of this war and its implications.
604
00:23:56.910 --> 00:23:57.920
You have an approval rating
605
00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:01.550
of more than 80% right now, sir, it's just astounding.
606
00:24:01.550 --> 00:24:04.220
This is after 9/11 and more importantly,
607
00:24:04.220 --> 00:24:07.347
after American forces appear to have
608
00:24:07.347 --> 00:24:10.010
stabilized things in Afghanistan,
609
00:24:10.010 --> 00:24:12.890
and the Bush administration begins looking for,
610
00:24:12.890 --> 00:24:13.910
well, the next target.
611
00:24:13.910 --> 00:24:15.570
This is one of the open questions
612
00:24:15.570 --> 00:24:17.870
that historians are going to be asking for generations.
613
00:24:17.870 --> 00:24:22.870
When exactly did George W. Bush decide to invade Iraq?
614
00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:25.410
Now, the invasion happens in March 2003,
615
00:24:25.410 --> 00:24:28.460
September 11th is obviously September of 2001.
616
00:24:28.460 --> 00:24:31.640
Some point in there, we know that Bush made up his mind.
617
00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:34.270
What's critical is that this question of
618
00:24:34.270 --> 00:24:37.010
what to do with Iraq actually comes up we know
619
00:24:37.010 --> 00:24:40.830
from firsthand accounts on the evening of September 11th,
620
00:24:40.830 --> 00:24:42.930
the critical moment of Bush's decision
621
00:24:42.930 --> 00:24:46.198
whether to invade Iraq or not was at least on the table
622
00:24:46.198 --> 00:24:48.620
during the worst moment of his presidency.
623
00:24:48.620 --> 00:24:50.507
Given your strong commitment to democracy,
624
00:24:50.507 --> 00:24:52.180
do you think that Iran
625
00:24:52.180 --> 00:24:55.070
should be lumped together with Iraq and North Korea?
626
00:24:55.070 --> 00:24:58.140
After all Iran has a democratically-elected president.
627
00:24:58.140 --> 00:25:00.950
That's Condoleezza Rice, unbelievably fascinating woman.
628
00:25:00.950 --> 00:25:03.170
I mean, just imagine what it was like for her entire career
629
00:25:03.170 --> 00:25:05.507
to be not only often the only woman in the room,
630
00:25:05.507 --> 00:25:08.270
but oftentimes the only black person in the room.
631
00:25:08.270 --> 00:25:10.750
And certainly, therefore, the only black woman in the room.
632
00:25:10.750 --> 00:25:14.230
And yet also to know that she was the one who was bringing
633
00:25:14.230 --> 00:25:15.720
the most information to the table.
634
00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:17.410
We're gonna get hit again, we all know that,
635
00:25:17.410 --> 00:25:19.227
unless we go out there and we hit them hard,
636
00:25:19.227 --> 00:25:20.460
and we hit them first.
637
00:25:20.460 --> 00:25:22.490
Well, containment won us the Cold War, sir.
638
00:25:22.490 --> 00:25:23.520
Well, some people might just say
639
00:25:23.520 --> 00:25:25.570
that Reagan won the Cold War, general.
640
00:25:25.570 --> 00:25:28.390
It is considered dogma within Republican circles
641
00:25:28.390 --> 00:25:30.400
that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War
642
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:33.200
because he outspent the Soviets, but more importantly
643
00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:36.330
because he called out their moral failings.
644
00:25:36.330 --> 00:25:38.550
The Soviet Union fell and communism collapsed,
645
00:25:38.550 --> 00:25:40.230
and democracy seemed to spread everywhere
646
00:25:40.230 --> 00:25:41.338
in the early 1990s.
647
00:25:41.338 --> 00:25:43.970
One of the things that the George Bush administration
648
00:25:43.970 --> 00:25:45.609
never really considered, I would argue,
649
00:25:45.609 --> 00:25:47.987
is what they're gonna do with the democracy
650
00:25:47.987 --> 00:25:49.070
when they get it.
651
00:25:49.070 --> 00:25:51.410
If you give people the right to choose their own leaders,
652
00:25:51.410 --> 00:25:53.060
what happens when those leaders do things
653
00:25:53.060 --> 00:25:53.900
that we don't like?
654
00:25:53.900 --> 00:25:56.570
We are just in the second year of the Bush administration
655
00:25:56.570 --> 00:25:58.774
when as Karl Rove in this film notes,
656
00:25:58.774 --> 00:26:01.860
President Bush's approval rating is sky high,
657
00:26:01.860 --> 00:26:03.190
as powerful perhaps,
658
00:26:03.190 --> 00:26:05.320
as almost any president in the 20th century.
659
00:26:05.320 --> 00:26:08.290
He therefore felt that he had both free reign
660
00:26:08.290 --> 00:26:09.570
to do what he wanted in the world,
661
00:26:09.570 --> 00:26:10.940
but here's the more important part.
662
00:26:10.940 --> 00:26:13.170
I think he and those around him thought
663
00:26:13.170 --> 00:26:16.330
that the world was confirming just how right they were.
664
00:26:16.330 --> 00:26:18.930
They'd never been in charge of something
665
00:26:18.930 --> 00:26:21.460
that had gone wrong, well, yeah, 9/11 was bad,
666
00:26:21.460 --> 00:26:23.460
but that was a surprise they would tell you,
667
00:26:23.460 --> 00:26:26.470
and consequently, when they thought about where to go next,
668
00:26:26.470 --> 00:26:29.020
it never occurred to them that it could go bad.
669
00:26:29.020 --> 00:26:30.740
Afghanistan continues on,
670
00:26:30.740 --> 00:26:33.890
and becomes the longest war in American history.
671
00:26:33.890 --> 00:26:35.310
This period of the movie
672
00:26:35.310 --> 00:26:37.580
is when things seem to be going right.
673
00:26:37.580 --> 00:26:39.390
And when George W. Bush thinks
674
00:26:39.390 --> 00:26:41.430
he's got this presidency thing down.
675
00:26:41.430 --> 00:26:42.820
No, I'm not saying war.
676
00:26:42.820 --> 00:26:44.116
I'm saying lay down the law.
677
00:26:44.116 --> 00:26:45.908
But the speech, as written,
678
00:26:45.908 --> 00:26:48.630
is taking a preempted posture against countries,
679
00:26:48.630 --> 00:26:50.310
none of whom declared war on us.
680
00:26:50.310 --> 00:26:52.327
Here I think we need to be a little bit sympathetic
681
00:26:52.327 --> 00:26:54.220
to the Bush administration.
682
00:26:54.220 --> 00:26:57.110
We had just been through an unprecedented terrorist attack.
683
00:26:57.110 --> 00:26:59.740
We had just suffered through anthrax attacks.
684
00:26:59.740 --> 00:27:02.090
The expectation was not that there was going to be
685
00:27:02.090 --> 00:27:03.740
one additional terrorist attack,
686
00:27:03.740 --> 00:27:05.493
but multiple terrorist attacks.
687
00:27:05.493 --> 00:27:09.010
They could come at any time, anywhere, in any place.
688
00:27:09.010 --> 00:27:10.453
The idea that American policymakers
689
00:27:10.453 --> 00:27:13.184
would look for solutions for security
690
00:27:13.184 --> 00:27:15.110
shouldn't surprise us.
691
00:27:15.110 --> 00:27:18.162
The problem was they wound up looking for solutions
692
00:27:18.162 --> 00:27:21.150
in places where the problem wasn't in the first place.
693
00:27:21.150 --> 00:27:24.590
Iraq was a country that frankly was contained.
694
00:27:24.590 --> 00:27:26.540
Both "Vice" and "W."
695
00:27:26.540 --> 00:27:28.820
of course, have George W. Bush as the central character.
696
00:27:28.820 --> 00:27:31.852
And I think it actually shows a consistent sense of
697
00:27:31.852 --> 00:27:35.020
George W. Bush is he operates on truthiness,
698
00:27:35.020 --> 00:27:36.940
that is to say things that feel right.
699
00:27:36.940 --> 00:27:39.155
If we can get one democracy going in one of these places,
700
00:27:39.155 --> 00:27:41.950
Iran, Iraq, believe me, Reagan was right.
701
00:27:41.950 --> 00:27:43.312
It's gonna spread to all these countries
702
00:27:43.312 --> 00:27:44.750
because people want freedom.
703
00:27:44.750 --> 00:27:47.450
George W. Bush was a man who came to the office
704
00:27:47.450 --> 00:27:50.200
with relatively limited government experience,
705
00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:51.310
extremely young,
706
00:27:51.310 --> 00:27:55.380
not much experience in business and found early success.
707
00:27:55.380 --> 00:27:56.515
And that early success,
708
00:27:56.515 --> 00:27:59.440
he thought confirmed just how good he was.
709
00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:00.530
What about axis of evil?
710
00:28:00.530 --> 00:28:01.944
Axis of evil.
711
00:28:01.944 --> 00:28:05.046
Evil, yeah, I like the ring of that, that's good.
712
00:28:05.046 --> 00:28:09.398
Mr. President, axis brings up World War II.
713
00:28:09.398 --> 00:28:12.970
You can't link Germany and Japan with Iraq and North Korea.
714
00:28:12.970 --> 00:28:14.960
Now the axis of evil that they're discussing here
715
00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:17.290
stems from a speech that Bush gave in 2002,
716
00:28:17.290 --> 00:28:21.440
connecting Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.
717
00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:23.630
And he references specifically, of course,
718
00:28:23.630 --> 00:28:25.480
the axis powers of World War II
719
00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:28.230
as Colin Powell in this film scene tells us.
720
00:28:28.230 --> 00:28:30.047
The problem is in World War II,
721
00:28:30.047 --> 00:28:32.200
the axis powers were actually allies.
722
00:28:32.200 --> 00:28:34.740
So essentially George Bush's speechwriters
723
00:28:34.740 --> 00:28:37.130
come up with a phrase that sounds great,
724
00:28:37.130 --> 00:28:39.860
but has almost zero geopolitical use.
725
00:28:39.860 --> 00:28:41.140
What they were really trying to say
726
00:28:41.140 --> 00:28:42.860
was that each of these countries were threats
727
00:28:42.860 --> 00:28:45.987
for independent reasons, but by linking them as an axis
728
00:28:45.987 --> 00:28:48.370
Bush's speechwriters may have seemed as though
729
00:28:48.370 --> 00:28:50.250
they were actually all on the same side.
730
00:28:50.250 --> 00:28:51.730
Nothing could be further from the truth.
731
00:28:51.730 --> 00:28:53.330
One of the things the movie gets right
732
00:28:53.330 --> 00:28:55.290
is showing his enthusiasm for the war.
733
00:28:55.290 --> 00:28:56.690
One of the things the movie gets wrong.
734
00:28:56.690 --> 00:28:58.907
The scenes where we see the president and his advisors
735
00:28:58.907 --> 00:29:02.340
celebrating the victory are as fictional as one can imagine.
736
00:29:02.340 --> 00:29:05.130
It's not even possible
737
00:29:05.130 --> 00:29:06.817
for the president to meet with all of his advisors
738
00:29:06.817 --> 00:29:08.900
in that close quarters during a war.
739
00:29:08.900 --> 00:29:11.080
And certainly not one where they would jump up,
740
00:29:11.080 --> 00:29:14.420
and watch military affairs in real time and slap high fives.
741
00:29:14.420 --> 00:29:16.020
This is "The Special Relationship"
742
00:29:16.020 --> 00:29:17.700
directed by Richard Loncraine.
743
00:29:17.700 --> 00:29:20.174
In this scene, British Prime Minister, Tony Blair
744
00:29:20.174 --> 00:29:22.845
tries to convince American President, Bill Clinton,
745
00:29:22.845 --> 00:29:26.080
that ground forces are needed in Kosovo.
746
00:29:26.080 --> 00:29:28.540
I just don't see how he can take us seriously.
747
00:29:28.540 --> 00:29:31.074
Look, I hate Milosevic as much as the next guy,
748
00:29:31.074 --> 00:29:34.182
but sending troops into a sovereign state
749
00:29:34.182 --> 00:29:37.350
that hasn't attacked us, now that's a pretty tough sell.
750
00:29:37.350 --> 00:29:39.980
There's a whole lot of geopolitics in this scene.
751
00:29:39.980 --> 00:29:41.060
After the Cold War,
752
00:29:41.060 --> 00:29:43.290
the United States was the most dominant power
753
00:29:43.290 --> 00:29:44.610
perhaps the world had ever seen.
754
00:29:44.610 --> 00:29:48.240
Its main military alliance in Europe was NATO,
755
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:49.740
North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
756
00:29:49.740 --> 00:29:53.320
So now the real question is how does Europe defend itself?
757
00:29:53.320 --> 00:29:55.030
And what role does NATO play?
758
00:29:55.030 --> 00:29:58.040
So essentially what we have here is a European leader
759
00:29:58.040 --> 00:29:59.680
pleading with the United States
760
00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:01.590
to solve a problem in Europe,
761
00:30:01.590 --> 00:30:03.580
which means Bill Clinton, the American president,
762
00:30:03.580 --> 00:30:05.060
isn't too keen to get involved.
763
00:30:05.060 --> 00:30:07.380
I want to do it because it's the right thing to do.
764
00:30:07.380 --> 00:30:08.655
We both want to do the right thing,
765
00:30:08.655 --> 00:30:11.670
and mobilizing NATO so it's ready to strike
766
00:30:11.670 --> 00:30:12.720
is the right thing to do.
767
00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:13.780
But Bill.
768
00:30:13.780 --> 00:30:16.520
In case you haven't noticed there's beaucoups of people
769
00:30:16.520 --> 00:30:18.540
over here looking to get me impeached.
770
00:30:18.540 --> 00:30:20.010
There's a whole lot going on
771
00:30:20.010 --> 00:30:21.480
in Bill Clinton's life at this time.
772
00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:23.345
He is about to be impeached
773
00:30:23.345 --> 00:30:27.710
for having a sexual scandal with a White House intern.
774
00:30:27.710 --> 00:30:30.778
And Clinton knows that he has no political wiggle room
775
00:30:30.778 --> 00:30:33.010
whatsoever to make any mistakes,
776
00:30:33.010 --> 00:30:35.797
or to rally the American people in a war
777
00:30:35.797 --> 00:30:37.080
they don't want to fight
778
00:30:37.080 --> 00:30:39.430
when he has no political capital back at home.
779
00:30:39.430 --> 00:30:41.130
The movie is called "The Special Relationship"
780
00:30:41.130 --> 00:30:42.058
and that's not by accident.
781
00:30:42.058 --> 00:30:44.560
British and American policymakers have talked about
782
00:30:44.560 --> 00:30:47.310
their special relationship for decades.
783
00:30:47.310 --> 00:30:49.520
They both read the same books and think in the same terms.
784
00:30:49.520 --> 00:30:50.530
And more importantly,
785
00:30:50.530 --> 00:30:52.810
they seem to consistently have the same enemies.
786
00:30:52.810 --> 00:30:54.690
I mean, the truth is alliances aren't made
787
00:30:54.690 --> 00:30:55.730
because people like each other
788
00:30:55.730 --> 00:30:57.580
it's 'cause they dislike somebody more.
789
00:30:57.580 --> 00:30:59.108
Historically, the president of the United States,
790
00:30:59.108 --> 00:31:00.668
and the prime minister of Great Britain,
791
00:31:00.668 --> 00:31:04.130
they're as close as two allies could ever want to be.
792
00:31:04.130 --> 00:31:06.209
In some ways, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair
793
00:31:06.209 --> 00:31:08.430
were the same person.
794
00:31:08.430 --> 00:31:10.120
They were the first of their generation
795
00:31:10.120 --> 00:31:12.830
to take power in each of their countries.
796
00:31:12.830 --> 00:31:16.000
They thought of themselves as kindred spirits, as cousins,
797
00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:17.800
they saw the world the same way.
798
00:31:17.800 --> 00:31:20.300
And Clinton having gotten there just a few years before
799
00:31:20.300 --> 00:31:22.660
saw himself as a mentor to Blair.
800
00:31:22.660 --> 00:31:24.630
Dennis Quaid plays Bill Clinton,
801
00:31:24.630 --> 00:31:26.530
and frankly does a pretty good job.
802
00:31:26.530 --> 00:31:27.591
First, they show him on the golf course.
803
00:31:27.591 --> 00:31:29.240
That's something Clinton liked a lot.
804
00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:30.695
And Clinton liked to talk.
805
00:31:30.695 --> 00:31:32.310
Clinton would talk all the time.
806
00:31:32.310 --> 00:31:33.730
In fact, Clinton rarely slept.
807
00:31:33.730 --> 00:31:36.273
That was actually one of the things that caused him trouble
808
00:31:36.273 --> 00:31:39.914
in his relationship with his staff in the second term.
809
00:31:39.914 --> 00:31:42.124
This next film is "The Wind and the Lion"
810
00:31:42.124 --> 00:31:44.130
directed by John Milius.
811
00:31:44.130 --> 00:31:46.170
In this scene, Teddy Roosevelt talks about
812
00:31:46.170 --> 00:31:48.822
a bear he's hunted and compares it to the United States.
813
00:31:48.822 --> 00:31:49.655
Yes, this is the bear
814
00:31:49.655 --> 00:31:51.470
that attacked the horse camp at dawn.
815
00:31:51.470 --> 00:31:55.940
He knew that men would be asleep, or at their worst at dawn.
816
00:31:55.940 --> 00:31:57.120
Do you intend to have this bear
817
00:31:57.120 --> 00:31:58.640
as a rug in the White House, Mr. President?
818
00:31:58.640 --> 00:32:00.000
Rug, no.
819
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:03.070
No, I intend to have him stuffed and placed on exhibit
820
00:32:03.070 --> 00:32:05.333
at the Smithsonian Institute.
821
00:32:07.070 --> 00:32:08.470
The American grizzly bear
822
00:32:08.470 --> 00:32:11.180
is a symbol of the American character.
823
00:32:11.180 --> 00:32:14.960
So this movie is set in 1904 with Theodore Roosevelt out
824
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:17.940
doing one of the things he liked to do, hunting and riding.
825
00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:19.210
He only went out West
826
00:32:19.210 --> 00:32:23.000
after the tragic loss of his wife during childbirth,
827
00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:25.630
and the loss of his mother on the same day.
828
00:32:25.630 --> 00:32:28.840
He went out West for a few months to clear his head,
829
00:32:28.840 --> 00:32:32.230
and found out that he loved not just the strenuous life,
830
00:32:32.230 --> 00:32:33.700
but the outdoor life,
831
00:32:33.700 --> 00:32:35.650
but notice as he's walking throughout the camp,
832
00:32:35.650 --> 00:32:37.920
people still know he's the president.
833
00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:39.040
This scene is pretty good.
834
00:32:39.040 --> 00:32:41.030
Roosevelt is the closest thing we have
835
00:32:41.030 --> 00:32:45.040
to a genuine Renaissance man in the White House.
836
00:32:45.040 --> 00:32:47.040
He was incredibly athletic.
837
00:32:47.040 --> 00:32:49.180
He was incredibly smart.
838
00:32:49.180 --> 00:32:51.530
The man wrote 50 books over the course of his lifetime.
839
00:32:51.530 --> 00:32:54.790
He could converse with anyone on a high plane.
840
00:32:54.790 --> 00:32:56.400
The high part is what I don't like.
841
00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:58.620
Roosevelt had a squeaky voice.
842
00:32:58.620 --> 00:33:01.180
Are the American people fit to govern themselves,
843
00:33:01.180 --> 00:33:03.010
to rule themselves, to control themselves?
844
00:33:03.010 --> 00:33:05.420
If everyone could hear what he really sounded like,
845
00:33:05.420 --> 00:33:07.930
well, he wouldn't have sounded quite as manly
846
00:33:07.930 --> 00:33:10.000
as he wanted them to think he was.
847
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.070
We're accustomed to wild animals taking flight
848
00:33:12.070 --> 00:33:13.678
at the sight of men with guns.
849
00:33:13.678 --> 00:33:16.050
The American grizzly fears nothing.
850
00:33:16.050 --> 00:33:18.750
But the idea that Roosevelt could sit down with reporters,
851
00:33:18.750 --> 00:33:20.240
and talk philosophically,
852
00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:22.280
in some ways write stories for them.
853
00:33:22.280 --> 00:33:24.627
That's perfectly aligned with his whole way of life.
854
00:33:24.627 --> 00:33:28.500
The American grizzly embodies the spirit of America.
855
00:33:28.500 --> 00:33:32.509
He should be our symbol, not that ridiculous eagle.
856
00:33:32.509 --> 00:33:35.350
He's no more than a dandified vulture.
857
00:33:35.350 --> 00:33:37.000
Roosevelt suggested in this scene
858
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:39.540
that we should change our national symbol
859
00:33:39.540 --> 00:33:42.130
from the American eagle to the grizzly bear.
860
00:33:42.130 --> 00:33:45.140
The bear he said was strong, it was powerful,
861
00:33:45.140 --> 00:33:47.210
but it was also alone.
862
00:33:47.210 --> 00:33:49.200
It has separate place in the world,
863
00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:51.530
whereas an eagle is just a scavenger.
864
00:33:51.530 --> 00:33:52.420
This is the kind of thing
865
00:33:52.420 --> 00:33:54.540
that Theodore Roosevelt would have done.
866
00:33:54.540 --> 00:33:56.180
What's more likely is that he would have sent it
867
00:33:56.180 --> 00:33:58.830
to the Natural History Museum in New York City.
868
00:33:58.830 --> 00:34:02.100
You know, the one with the big Roosevelt statue in front,
869
00:34:02.100 --> 00:34:04.870
the one that's dedicated in many ways to Theodore Roosevelt
870
00:34:04.870 --> 00:34:06.820
because his family gave the money for it.
871
00:34:06.820 --> 00:34:08.030
He was a naturalist.
872
00:34:08.030 --> 00:34:10.469
He believed in studying the real world
873
00:34:10.469 --> 00:34:11.780
that was in front of him,
874
00:34:11.780 --> 00:34:14.700
but he also had the money to fund his own studies.
875
00:34:14.700 --> 00:34:17.070
He was a big picture guy.
876
00:34:17.070 --> 00:34:19.660
And one other trait that goes with all previous.
877
00:34:19.660 --> 00:34:20.709
And that, Mr. President?
878
00:34:20.709 --> 00:34:24.803
Loneliness, a bear lives out his life alone.
879
00:34:25.749 --> 00:34:30.749
Indomitable, unconquered, but always alone.
880
00:34:30.910 --> 00:34:33.230
And this is why I don't really like this scene
881
00:34:33.230 --> 00:34:37.290
because he suggests that Americans are lonely, are isolated.
882
00:34:37.290 --> 00:34:38.400
That wasn't Roosevelt.
883
00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:40.400
He thought Americans were integrated,
884
00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:42.390
should do more overseas,
885
00:34:42.390 --> 00:34:44.949
but the idea that the United States would have no allies,
886
00:34:44.949 --> 00:34:46.700
wouldn't jive with Roosevelt
887
00:34:46.700 --> 00:34:48.900
because he thought that the United States
888
00:34:48.900 --> 00:34:50.658
was supposed to be a leader of nations
889
00:34:50.658 --> 00:34:53.400
that we would lead and people would follow.
890
00:34:53.400 --> 00:34:55.210
Roosevelt was one of the key leaders
891
00:34:55.210 --> 00:34:57.750
in a movement that we now call the Progressives.
892
00:34:57.750 --> 00:34:59.920
People who thought that government could be used
893
00:34:59.920 --> 00:35:04.010
to reel in capital, to reel in corporations,
894
00:35:04.010 --> 00:35:05.110
to reel in monopolies.
895
00:35:05.110 --> 00:35:09.010
He believed in progressivism by which he meant progress.
896
00:35:09.010 --> 00:35:10.890
We need to make the country better.
897
00:35:10.890 --> 00:35:12.530
He knew that he was at the top of the food chain,
898
00:35:12.530 --> 00:35:14.040
and he wanted to stay at the top,
899
00:35:14.040 --> 00:35:15.541
but he also knew he could appeal to people
900
00:35:15.541 --> 00:35:17.670
throughout the American electorate
901
00:35:17.670 --> 00:35:18.760
because he could say to them,
902
00:35:18.760 --> 00:35:21.590
I'm gonna improve your life no matter where you live.
903
00:35:21.590 --> 00:35:25.423
The world will never love us, may respect us.
904
00:35:26.390 --> 00:35:29.210
May even grow to fear us, but will never love us.
905
00:35:29.210 --> 00:35:31.077
So Roosevelt leaves office in 1909,
906
00:35:31.077 --> 00:35:33.850
and discovers he doesn't like not being in office.
907
00:35:33.850 --> 00:35:37.310
So he came back and ran against his own party in 1912.
908
00:35:37.310 --> 00:35:38.810
They wouldn't have him the Republicans,
909
00:35:38.810 --> 00:35:41.450
so instead he forms another party, the Progressive Party.
910
00:35:41.450 --> 00:35:45.240
During that campaign in Wisconsin, he was shot.
911
00:35:45.240 --> 00:35:49.000
Now the bullet, thankfully, went through his jacket,
912
00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:51.950
but then it landed in his eyeglass case.
913
00:35:51.950 --> 00:35:56.070
And then in the 75 pages of the speech he was about to give,
914
00:35:56.070 --> 00:35:58.248
he goes to the fairgrounds to give his speech,
915
00:35:58.248 --> 00:36:00.260
and he stands up and says, essentially,
916
00:36:00.260 --> 00:36:01.390
they tried to kill me.
917
00:36:01.390 --> 00:36:03.060
That's how afraid they are of the change
918
00:36:03.060 --> 00:36:05.120
I'm going to bring to the country, opens his shirt.
919
00:36:05.120 --> 00:36:07.850
Look, I have blood from the assassin's bullet.
920
00:36:07.850 --> 00:36:09.710
If he had walked off the stage at that point,
921
00:36:09.710 --> 00:36:10.630
I think it would have gone down
922
00:36:10.630 --> 00:36:13.570
as the greatest speech in election history.
923
00:36:13.570 --> 00:36:15.280
Instead he talked for another 90 minutes.
924
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:17.567
He gave his speech kind of underplaying
925
00:36:17.567 --> 00:36:20.100
the drama of the idea that he had been shot.
926
00:36:20.100 --> 00:36:23.470
This is "Thirteen Days" directed by Roger Donaldson.
927
00:36:23.470 --> 00:36:26.437
In this scene, JFK is meeting with his top military advisors
928
00:36:26.437 --> 00:36:31.100
on how to deal with the supposed nuclear missiles in Cuba.
929
00:36:31.100 --> 00:36:32.866
General, how long until the army is ready?
930
00:36:32.866 --> 00:36:35.037
We've just begun the mobilization
931
00:36:35.037 --> 00:36:37.510
under cover of a pre-arranged exercise, sir.
932
00:36:37.510 --> 00:36:39.840
We're looking at another week and a half.
933
00:36:39.840 --> 00:36:41.783
But you can order the strikes now.
934
00:36:42.842 --> 00:36:45.410
The plans call for an eight-day air campaign.
935
00:36:45.410 --> 00:36:47.690
This is October of 1962.
936
00:36:47.690 --> 00:36:49.884
American spy planes have discovered
937
00:36:49.884 --> 00:36:54.884
the construction of Soviet nuclear facilities in Cuba,
938
00:36:55.060 --> 00:36:57.530
90 miles away from America's shores.
939
00:36:57.530 --> 00:37:00.070
The presumption in real life
940
00:37:00.070 --> 00:37:01.920
is that there are no missiles there.
941
00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:03.340
That they just started building
942
00:37:03.340 --> 00:37:05.410
these construction sites for them.
943
00:37:05.410 --> 00:37:07.396
In the movie it's a little bit more tenuous.
944
00:37:07.396 --> 00:37:08.590
Throughout this scene
945
00:37:08.590 --> 00:37:10.550
they'll discuss the missiles being there.
946
00:37:10.550 --> 00:37:12.140
They didn't think the missiles were there,
947
00:37:12.140 --> 00:37:13.870
but here's the kicker, here's the real fun part.
948
00:37:13.870 --> 00:37:15.630
The Kennedy administration real life was wrong.
949
00:37:15.630 --> 00:37:17.390
There weren't nuclear missiles in Cuba,
950
00:37:17.390 --> 00:37:19.070
but there were nuclear weapons.
951
00:37:19.070 --> 00:37:21.560
Longer range IRBMs.
952
00:37:21.560 --> 00:37:25.310
They can hit every place in the country except Seattle.
953
00:37:25.310 --> 00:37:27.610
So every person that we see in this movie
954
00:37:27.610 --> 00:37:30.140
is a real person except Kevin Costner.
955
00:37:30.140 --> 00:37:31.980
He's a character that they created
956
00:37:31.980 --> 00:37:35.440
in order to have conversations recorded in the room.
957
00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:37.751
He's there as a dramatic device
958
00:37:37.751 --> 00:37:40.090
with a terrible Boston accent.
959
00:37:40.090 --> 00:37:41.200
Because I was ready to knock that son of a bitch
960
00:37:41.200 --> 00:37:42.140
across the room.
961
00:37:42.140 --> 00:37:42.973
We knew it was coming.
962
00:37:42.973 --> 00:37:44.525 line:15%
You give me the order right now.
963
00:37:44.525 --> 00:37:46.594 line:15%
My planes will be ready to carry out the air strikes
964
00:37:46.594 --> 00:37:50.400 line:15%
in three days' time, all you got to do is say go.
965
00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:52.300
My boys will get those Red bastards.
966
00:37:52.300 --> 00:37:53.680
That was Curtis LeMay.
967
00:37:53.680 --> 00:37:57.270
He's the guy who commanded all the U.S. bombing of Japan.
968
00:37:57.270 --> 00:37:59.270
He's the man that thought up the idea that,
969
00:37:59.270 --> 00:38:01.730
well, we could strategically firebomb,
970
00:38:01.730 --> 00:38:04.300
and starve the Japanese into submission.
971
00:38:04.300 --> 00:38:08.780
Remember more Japanese died in individual attacks in Tokyo,
972
00:38:08.780 --> 00:38:10.561
and other cities organized by LeMay
973
00:38:10.561 --> 00:38:13.730
than were killed during the atomic bomb strikes.
974
00:38:13.730 --> 00:38:15.530
So this is a man who had,
975
00:38:15.530 --> 00:38:17.840
shall we say no compunction using force.
976
00:38:17.840 --> 00:38:20.430
This movie gets right a real key dynamic
977
00:38:20.430 --> 00:38:22.230
of the Cuban Missile Crisis,
978
00:38:22.230 --> 00:38:25.520
which is that John Kennedy was not liked,
979
00:38:25.520 --> 00:38:27.870
or respected by many of his generals,
980
00:38:27.870 --> 00:38:30.350
Curtis LeMay, in particular, and you can understand why.
981
00:38:30.350 --> 00:38:34.130
John Kennedy had been a lieutenant in the Pacific theater.
982
00:38:34.130 --> 00:38:37.650
Curtis LeMay had been in charge of the entire Air Corps.
983
00:38:37.650 --> 00:38:39.380
And they didn't like the idea.
984
00:38:39.380 --> 00:38:42.810
This young whippersnapper was the man in charge,
985
00:38:42.810 --> 00:38:44.149
and they didn't miss many opportunities
986
00:38:44.149 --> 00:38:45.420
to remind him of that.
987
00:38:45.420 --> 00:38:47.620
You're in a pretty bad fix, Mr. President.
988
00:38:51.631 --> 00:38:53.214
What did you say?
989
00:38:54.962 --> 00:38:56.713
You're in a pretty bad fix.
990
00:38:59.220 --> 00:39:01.433
So maybe you haven't noticed you're in it with me.
991
00:39:02.480 --> 00:39:03.690
That exchange happened.
992
00:39:03.690 --> 00:39:07.210
It's really a dramatic scene that shows how enthusiastic
993
00:39:07.210 --> 00:39:09.500
LeMay and others were to use military force,
994
00:39:09.500 --> 00:39:12.090
and how reticent Kennedy was.
995
00:39:12.090 --> 00:39:13.393
This is really the great secret
996
00:39:13.393 --> 00:39:16.284
of Kennedy's brilliant diplomacy during this period.
997
00:39:16.284 --> 00:39:18.540
He bought time to consider other options.
998
00:39:18.540 --> 00:39:20.450
Curtis LeMay wanted to bomb yesterday.
999
00:39:20.450 --> 00:39:22.430
John Kennedy found that he could use
1000
00:39:22.430 --> 00:39:26.360
all 13 days of the crisis to find the one peaceful avenue
1001
00:39:26.360 --> 00:39:29.260
out of what seemed like a sure course to nuclear war.
1002
00:39:29.260 --> 00:39:30.401
There are two things that people need to appreciate
1003
00:39:30.401 --> 00:39:32.100
about John Kennedy the person.
1004
00:39:32.100 --> 00:39:35.900
The first is how sick he was and how much pain he was in.
1005
00:39:35.900 --> 00:39:37.210
He was a genuine war hero.
1006
00:39:37.210 --> 00:39:40.080
He had broken his back as a P.T. commander
1007
00:39:40.080 --> 00:39:41.007
during World War II.
1008
00:39:41.007 --> 00:39:43.742
And he also suffered from a variety of adrenal,
1009
00:39:43.742 --> 00:39:45.360
and gland diseases.
1010
00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:47.090
He basically was in constant pain,
1011
00:39:47.090 --> 00:39:49.560
which meant he was constantly being revved up
1012
00:39:49.560 --> 00:39:52.070
by amphetamines, painkillers of all kinds.
1013
00:39:52.070 --> 00:39:53.560
He was a walking drug store.
1014
00:39:53.560 --> 00:39:54.690
The other thing about Kennedy
1015
00:39:54.690 --> 00:39:57.090
was he liked his relaxation time,
1016
00:39:57.090 --> 00:40:00.300
and he liked his relaxation time to be not by himself,
1017
00:40:00.300 --> 00:40:02.670
and not necessarily with the comfort of his wife.
1018
00:40:02.670 --> 00:40:05.010
John Kennedy let's say had a good time,
1019
00:40:05.010 --> 00:40:07.090
but he had had some trip-ups.
1020
00:40:07.090 --> 00:40:10.350
Essentially everywhere that Kennedy turned, he talked tough,
1021
00:40:10.350 --> 00:40:13.160
but it looked as though he wasn't willing to back it up.
1022
00:40:13.160 --> 00:40:14.660
He was personally popular then,
1023
00:40:14.660 --> 00:40:15.940
but people were still wondering
1024
00:40:15.940 --> 00:40:18.270
even as late as two years into his administration,
1025
00:40:18.270 --> 00:40:19.342
if he was really up to the job.
1026
00:40:19.342 --> 00:40:22.630
This is "LBJ" directed by Rob Reiner.
1027
00:40:22.630 --> 00:40:25.210
In this scene, LBJ is having a policy discussion
1028
00:40:25.210 --> 00:40:28.010
with some of his closest advisers in close quarters.
1029
00:40:28.010 --> 00:40:30.321
Why the fuck am I busy alienating
1030
00:40:30.321 --> 00:40:35.321
every son of a bitch in my party when
1031
00:40:35.513 --> 00:40:38.690
if I'm gonna make a run in '68,
1032
00:40:38.690 --> 00:40:42.950
well, I'm gonna need people to fucking like me.
1033
00:40:42.950 --> 00:40:43.860
Shut the door.
1034
00:40:43.860 --> 00:40:46.038
You're probably wondering what you're watching.
1035
00:40:46.038 --> 00:40:50.490
Did LBJ actually have meetings while sitting on the toilet?
1036
00:40:50.490 --> 00:40:52.680
The thing that's really wrong about this movie
1037
00:40:52.680 --> 00:40:56.220
as near as I can tell is that LBJ just said close the door.
1038
00:40:56.220 --> 00:41:00.210
LBJ wasn't somebody who was interested in privacy, why?
1039
00:41:00.210 --> 00:41:03.040
Because everything he did was about power.
1040
00:41:03.040 --> 00:41:05.090
The reason he had meetings on the throne
1041
00:41:05.090 --> 00:41:07.420
was because you have to be there uncomfortable,
1042
00:41:07.420 --> 00:41:08.560
and listening to him.
1043
00:41:08.560 --> 00:41:12.790
So LBJ being a crass, vile, profane guy
1044
00:41:12.790 --> 00:41:15.814
who wants other people to see him doing his business
1045
00:41:15.814 --> 00:41:16.860
that's about right.
1046
00:41:16.860 --> 00:41:18.980
He also was a very large man.
1047
00:41:18.980 --> 00:41:20.950
He liked to use his physical body
1048
00:41:20.950 --> 00:41:22.880
to do what they called the Johnson treatment.
1049
00:41:22.880 --> 00:41:25.283
Essentially, he would get closer and closer and closer,
1050
00:41:25.283 --> 00:41:27.810
and closer to you while he was talking, leaning over you,
1051
00:41:27.810 --> 00:41:29.610
'til frankly, you finally agree with him
1052
00:41:29.610 --> 00:41:31.570
because you were too afraid to do anything else.
1053
00:41:31.570 --> 00:41:34.290
LBJ was, yes, a good old boy from Texas.
1054
00:41:34.290 --> 00:41:36.680
And he was also the smartest guy in the room.
1055
00:41:36.680 --> 00:41:38.570
The story of LBJ and civil rights
1056
00:41:38.570 --> 00:41:40.920
is one of the most fascinating,
1057
00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:44.610
and important sagas of American history, frankly.
1058
00:41:44.610 --> 00:41:48.420
Here's a guy from Texas, grew up in Jim Crow South.
1059
00:41:48.420 --> 00:41:50.800
Voted as a legislator for lots of
1060
00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:52.630
Jim Crow anti-black policies.
1061
00:41:52.630 --> 00:41:55.100
When he becomes president does the unexpected.
1062
00:41:55.100 --> 00:41:57.410
He winds up being a champion for civil rights.
1063
00:41:57.410 --> 00:41:58.970
Why did LBJ change?
1064
00:41:58.970 --> 00:42:01.360
He told us that when a person becomes president,
1065
00:42:01.360 --> 00:42:05.120
they suddenly feel responsible for every citizen,
1066
00:42:05.120 --> 00:42:08.170
not just the ones that voted for him, but for everybody,
1067
00:42:08.170 --> 00:42:11.120
especially those who don't have an advocate for themselves.
1068
00:42:11.120 --> 00:42:14.740
This is "John Adams" directed by Tom Hooper.
1069
00:42:14.740 --> 00:42:17.780
In this scene, gathered around George Washington's table,
1070
00:42:17.780 --> 00:42:20.939
Alexander Hamilton explains his economic plan
1071
00:42:20.939 --> 00:42:22.500
to Thomas Jefferson.
1072
00:42:22.500 --> 00:42:27.500
I must admit, Mr. Hamilton, I am a little uncertain
1073
00:42:27.550 --> 00:42:29.800
as to the purpose of the treasury department.
1074
00:42:30.968 --> 00:42:34.610
No doubt its function will reveal itself to me in good time.
1075
00:42:34.610 --> 00:42:36.710
I think everybody at this point knows that
1076
00:42:36.710 --> 00:42:39.800
Hamilton and Jefferson despised each other,
1077
00:42:39.800 --> 00:42:41.920
they had different worldviews.
1078
00:42:41.920 --> 00:42:43.964
One way to think about it is the speech that Hamilton
1079
00:42:43.964 --> 00:42:45.630
is about to give explains to us
1080
00:42:45.630 --> 00:42:47.267
the importance of financial power,
1081
00:42:47.267 --> 00:42:49.450
and of structures of government,
1082
00:42:49.450 --> 00:42:53.490
and Jefferson counters talking about liberty and freedom.
1083
00:42:53.490 --> 00:42:55.250
In essence, Jefferson is a man who thinks
1084
00:42:55.250 --> 00:42:57.180
the world is moved by ideas.
1085
00:42:57.180 --> 00:42:58.730
Hamilton is a man who thinks the world
1086
00:42:58.730 --> 00:43:00.440
is moved by money and power.
1087
00:43:00.440 --> 00:43:03.310
The future prosperity of this nation
1088
00:43:03.310 --> 00:43:05.770
rests chiefly in trade.
1089
00:43:05.770 --> 00:43:08.000
Trade depends among other things
1090
00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:10.440
on the willingness of other nations to lend us money.
1091
00:43:10.440 --> 00:43:14.450
So Thomas Jefferson was concerned about central authority.
1092
00:43:14.450 --> 00:43:15.290
So was everybody else,
1093
00:43:15.290 --> 00:43:17.120
but the truth is in the late 1780s
1094
00:43:17.120 --> 00:43:18.810
after the Revolutionary War,
1095
00:43:18.810 --> 00:43:20.520
but before the Constitution was signed,
1096
00:43:20.520 --> 00:43:23.120
people longed for central authority because chaos reigned.
1097
00:43:23.120 --> 00:43:24.610
It was a terrible Great Depression.
1098
00:43:24.610 --> 00:43:26.170
Perhaps as bad as the Great Depression,
1099
00:43:26.170 --> 00:43:28.200
there was essentially lawlessness going on.
1100
00:43:28.200 --> 00:43:29.650
And there was no central authority
1101
00:43:29.650 --> 00:43:31.140
who could put things in order.
1102
00:43:31.140 --> 00:43:32.500
The Constitution in many ways
1103
00:43:32.500 --> 00:43:34.840
is a remarkably conservative document.
1104
00:43:34.840 --> 00:43:36.830
It's about keeping things in check.
1105
00:43:36.830 --> 00:43:39.230
The Declaration of Independence is the radical document
1106
00:43:39.230 --> 00:43:40.510
we must break with the world.
1107
00:43:40.510 --> 00:43:42.155
Jefferson who wrote the first,
1108
00:43:42.155 --> 00:43:45.330
I think in some ways never fully appreciated the second.
1109
00:43:45.330 --> 00:43:47.935
This scene demonstrates really Adam's discomfort
1110
00:43:47.935 --> 00:43:50.190
within the Washington administration, why?
1111
00:43:50.190 --> 00:43:52.990
Because he was vice president and Washington makes clear
1112
00:43:52.990 --> 00:43:54.395
that he does not really consider
1113
00:43:54.395 --> 00:43:56.640
Adams a member of the cabinet.
1114
00:43:56.640 --> 00:43:59.353
Washington does not want Adams' opinion, why?
1115
00:43:59.353 --> 00:44:01.190
Because he's another elected official.
1116
00:44:01.190 --> 00:44:03.650
He's not a chosen adviser from Washington.
1117
00:44:03.650 --> 00:44:05.240
George Washington wants to make sure
1118
00:44:05.240 --> 00:44:08.230
that we remain a democracy with a small-d,
1119
00:44:08.230 --> 00:44:09.640
a republic with a small-r.
1120
00:44:09.640 --> 00:44:10.984
John Adams had suggested
1121
00:44:10.984 --> 00:44:13.082
that perhaps we should call the American president
1122
00:44:13.082 --> 00:44:16.320
his excellency the president, and go on and on and on.
1123
00:44:16.320 --> 00:44:19.373
Washington said, no, Mr. President will do.
1124
00:44:19.373 --> 00:44:23.063
Mr. President.
1125
00:44:23.063 --> 00:44:26.153
Mr. President, nothing more.
1126
00:44:27.147 --> 00:44:29.110
"John Adams" is a great representation
1127
00:44:29.110 --> 00:44:31.191
of the early colonial period
1128
00:44:31.191 --> 00:44:33.900
in the early national period for the United States.
1129
00:44:33.900 --> 00:44:35.520
The clothes are right, the looks are right.
1130
00:44:35.520 --> 00:44:37.660
Frankly, the fact that people seem a little dirty.
1131
00:44:37.660 --> 00:44:39.522
There's a wonderful scene in here with George Washington
1132
00:44:39.522 --> 00:44:41.360
talking about his wooden teeth.
1133
00:44:41.360 --> 00:44:43.200
Well, he didn't just have wooden teeth, of course.
1134
00:44:43.200 --> 00:44:45.850
He had actual teeth that were taken from his slaves,
1135
00:44:45.850 --> 00:44:47.250
and implanted in his own mouth.
1136
00:44:47.250 --> 00:44:49.290
They didn't go quite into that detail in "John Adams,"
1137
00:44:49.290 --> 00:44:51.951
but they certainly give a good sense of what it was like
1138
00:44:51.951 --> 00:44:55.560
to be in these hot stuffy rooms without air conditioning,
1139
00:44:55.560 --> 00:44:58.810
fully buttoned up in those clothes made of wool and cotton,
1140
00:44:58.810 --> 00:45:01.050
working through some of the toughest issues of the day.
1141
00:45:01.050 --> 00:45:03.340
There's also a real sense that John Adams,
1142
00:45:03.340 --> 00:45:05.440
not necessarily somebody you wanted to hang out with.
1143
00:45:05.440 --> 00:45:07.810
He was not the most fun guy in the room.
1144
00:45:07.810 --> 00:45:10.340
So the men around this table are iconic.
1145
00:45:10.340 --> 00:45:12.170
We call them the Founding Fathers.
1146
00:45:12.170 --> 00:45:15.450
George Washington, who, of course, was the virtuous man,
1147
00:45:15.450 --> 00:45:18.640
the man who, yes, had led American forces in the Revolution,
1148
00:45:18.640 --> 00:45:20.890
but he wasn't respected and elected president
1149
00:45:20.890 --> 00:45:23.010
just because he was the smartest guy in the room.
1150
00:45:23.010 --> 00:45:24.280
He was the most trusted.
1151
00:45:24.280 --> 00:45:26.050
He was the one who you knew
1152
00:45:26.050 --> 00:45:27.820
if he said something he meant it.
1153
00:45:27.820 --> 00:45:29.901
Thomas Jefferson, now he may have been the smartest guy
1154
00:45:29.901 --> 00:45:32.030
in the room, at least he thought so.
1155
00:45:32.030 --> 00:45:34.100
And he was activated by ideas.
1156
00:45:34.100 --> 00:45:35.570
He was a romantic at heart.
1157
00:45:35.570 --> 00:45:37.680
Jefferson actually is full of contradictions.
1158
00:45:37.680 --> 00:45:39.080
A man who writes about freedom
1159
00:45:39.080 --> 00:45:42.180
yet actually had his slave children,
1160
00:45:42.180 --> 00:45:44.300
those children he had with one of his slaves
1161
00:45:44.300 --> 00:45:46.740
wait on his white children.
1162
00:45:46.740 --> 00:45:49.330
And he was able to recognize the complexity of that
1163
00:45:49.330 --> 00:45:51.600
yet never find a solution to it.
1164
00:45:51.600 --> 00:45:53.730
And then, of course, there's Alexander Hamilton,
1165
00:45:53.730 --> 00:45:55.640
the orphan boy from the Caribbean
1166
00:45:55.640 --> 00:45:57.880
who winds up becoming secretary of the treasury.
1167
00:45:57.880 --> 00:46:00.522
And I would argue perhaps the most influential
1168
00:46:00.522 --> 00:46:02.760
of all of Washington's first cabinet,
1169
00:46:02.760 --> 00:46:05.400
the man whose mark we still see today.
1170
00:46:05.400 --> 00:46:07.891
These men defined our country then,
1171
00:46:07.891 --> 00:46:10.810
and still do even in own times.
1172
00:46:10.810 --> 00:46:12.500
Throughout today we've seen presidents
1173
00:46:12.500 --> 00:46:14.300
from George Washington
1174
00:46:14.300 --> 00:46:16.000
all the way through up to Donald Trump.
1175
00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:17.750
And I think we've seen an evolution
1176
00:46:17.750 --> 00:46:19.250
of the presidency as well.
1177
00:46:19.250 --> 00:46:22.010
The president becomes obviously more powerful,
1178
00:46:22.010 --> 00:46:25.260
becomes more important in everyone's immediate lives.
1179
00:46:25.260 --> 00:46:27.603
He becomes more important in the function of government.
1180
00:46:27.603 --> 00:46:29.930
And we see time and time again in these movies,
1181
00:46:29.930 --> 00:46:33.050
presidents who are willing to have difficult conversations
1182
00:46:33.050 --> 00:46:35.460
with their advisors that they are not necessarily willing
1183
00:46:35.460 --> 00:46:36.700
to have with the American people.
1184
00:46:36.700 --> 00:46:37.840
And increasingly, especially,
1185
00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:39.090
as we get into the age of Trump,
1186
00:46:39.090 --> 00:46:40.880
presidents who are willing to have conversations
1187
00:46:40.880 --> 00:46:42.830
that they're not willing to admit happened.
1188
00:46:42.830 --> 00:46:45.230
Ultimately, we see the presidency in the film
1189
00:46:45.230 --> 00:46:48.700
is a presidency that frankly reflects the power of America,
1190
00:46:48.700 --> 00:46:50.260
and also the perils.
1191
00:46:50.260 --> 00:46:51.400
These films show us
1192
00:46:51.400 --> 00:46:54.160
that the person in charge affects your life.
1193
00:46:54.160 --> 00:46:56.183
Go vote, you're the boss.