LBJ

John F. Kennedy is considered to be the first television president. He is able to manipulate the media for his own purpose. Kennedy is able to make it seem as if his political future is not at risk when in front of the camera because he is so at ease. That ability to be at ease and look natural in front of the camera is very beneficial for Kennedy because he does not look like he is performing. He let his image glorify him and Americans loved him. John F. Kennedy and his brother symbolized goodness.


In the 1968 documentary film LBJ, Santiago Alvarez casts John F. Kennedy's successor Lyndon B. Johnson as a villain. The documentary starts out with horror music and creepy laughing playing in the background. Santiago Alvarez shows pictures and clips of Johnson's daughter getting married in the white house. It is a happy occasion. Immediately after though, Alvarez flashes to clips of the fighting and shooting that is occurring in the war. After that scene, Johnson is shown being happy and then it goes back to the war. Alvarez is clearly blaming Johnson for the war.



The documentary shows how happy everyone is when Kennedy is president. Kennedy's murder is played and then it shows Johnson taking office. Later, Martin Luther King is shown and we hear his famous "I have a dream" speech but it is interrupted with the sound and image of guns firing. Robert Kennedy is shown dead soon after this clip. The film goes back to show Lyndon B. Johnson happily holding a baby and then to people on fire and burning to death. With this continuous cross-cutting, the audience gets the message that Johnson is simply performing in the white house. He acts like a good person and is constantly shown with family, but in reality, he has caused so many deaths due to the war and is somehow to blame for those of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy.