May 21, 2023 · Watch the official trailer
Note: This review is based off an advanced screening of the film as well as the world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this year. The columnist is also a programmer for Hill Country Film Festival, where ‘The Lady Bird Diaries’ will screen Thursday, June 1 in the Nimitz Ballroom.
Moments in history can often feel mythical, as if they were the things of fairy tales or great novels with decisions carried out by larger-than-life icons.
Too often, it’s forgotten that those who shape the world are – at their core – ordinary people with inner thoughts and emotions not shared with a wider audience.
While historians often reimagine through records or interviews what drives great men to the choices they make, it’s rare that the woman behind the man has the final word.
Award-winning documentarian Dawn Porter has made a career humanizing legendary political figures like John Lewis and Bobby Kennedy, but her latest feature is perhaps her most personal, introspective look into the most unlikely of subjects who just happened to be a keen, savvy political strategist and champion for civil rights.
“The Lady Bird Diaries” provides audiences with unique, personal insight into the turning point of American politics in the mid-1960s through the lens of one of its most diligent observers and a woman more closely involved with landmark decision than most probably knew, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson.
From the moment she and her husband were thrust violently into the White House after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, “The Lady Bird Diaries” follows the Johnson administration in Lady Bird’s own words, offering up unique revelations both about the political landscape, but also the couple’s dynamic personal relationship that challenged and uplifted them.
Porter’s film is largely based on the ABC News podcast “In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson” and the subsequent book “Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight,” by Julia Sweig, “The Lady Bird Diaries” reveal the inner monologue of a First Lady as Porter and her filmmaking team pour through 123 hours of rarely heard audio recordings made by Lady Bird during her time in the White House.
Melded with archival footage and news reels from the period, “The Lady Bird Diaries” is a groundbreaking, evocative look inside the heart of a Presidency that succinctly captures the gravity of decisions made by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson and just how influencial Lady Bird was throughout the process.
Lady Bird is the perfect narrator for such a compelling yet complicated story. Her diaries reveal a deeply introspective woman, abruptly thrust into a political world that she didn’t desire and yet at every turn, Lady Bird reveals herself to be a hidden, key figure during pivotal moments in American history.
Ironically, Porter treats Lady Bird with a reverence by largely staying out of her way, allowing the First Lady to guide the film with her own voice and storytelling structure, perhaps learned during Lady Bird’s time studying journalism in college. This allows the film to humanize Lady Bird beyond the simple role of wife to a sitting president and place her canonically within the administration as a senior advisor equal to members of his cabinet.
Porter, her archival team and editor Benjamin Zweig do a marvelous job blending historical footage from the 1960s with Lady Bird’s personal recollections of the period, creating a captivating, often emotional look at the inner workings of American politics from a perspective, rarely appreciated, especially in cinema.
While President Johnson is certainly a key figure within the film, Porter places Lady Bird distinctly at the center of the frame at all times, even in moments when she’s not visually at the forefront. It’s exceptionally rare to see a film about the American presidency deal so little with the man in office himself, except as an aside for Lady Bird to converse with.
In fact, some of the private exchanges between the couple showcase, their deep devotion to each other, but also how strongly Lyndon valued Lady Bird’s counsel.
An early sequence where Lady Bird critiques Lyndon’s performance at a press conference is revealing, but especially humorous in providing much needed levity after the initial shock and focus on the Kennedy assassination that thrust the couple out of the shadows and into the forefront of politics.
The film is a terrific showcase for how the position of First Lady became increasingly influential on the day-to-day dynamics of leading America through difficult times and truly offers Lady Bird the opportunity to have the final word on a pivotal era in the nation’s history.
A cinematic, historical showcase from one of the top documentarians working today, “The Lady Bird Diaries” is well worth the price of admission at a film festival or seeking out when it arrives on Hulu later this year.
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