a delicate theme. and inspired art to give to it the right image. brilliant performances. and a rare portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson out of clichés and sketches and the South stereotypes.its significant gift - to present a realistic portrait of states behind the scenes of war. behind decisions. behind the verdicts from all the parts. a real surprise - Alec Baldwin as Robert McNamara. a surprise not for the talent to define a complex character but for the art to define his fragile equilibrium in the middle of high pressure. Alecc Baldwin imposes his character as pillar of many scenes and easily becomes the lead character. and that is one of the fundamental motifs to admire this special film. special for its status of trip in the deep reality of a period. for the force to remind the roots of a history page. for the image of sacrifices, frustrations and ideals, doubts and expressions of force. for be something different, more than a docudrama or artistic movie. a great support for reflection. and for understand. the rhythm, the direction, the bitter taste of making history.

This is a thought provoking and surprisingly watchable movie about LBJ and his success with Civil Rights and his failure with foreign policy in Vietnam. There are a lot of characters but it's clearly presented. It is no mean feat with the different advisers giving contrary advice on escalating or cutting back on the war efforts then changing positions. Effectively shows LBJ as a man caught between a rock and a hard place and making the wrong choices in a war he didn't start or end but tragically escalated. There are some faults. The diction of some of the actors is not clear. Alec Baldwin as McNamara swallows his words. Michael Gambon struggles with a Texas accent too. But he still does a good job at capturing the gruff essence of LBJ.Good movie to watch now the country is embroiled in another terrible conflict. So many lessons to learn. Why is history repeating itself so soon?

It is hard to watch 'Path to War' and avoid remarking the similarity between historic and present circumstances. Although dedicated to the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the film brings to mind the situations the current US President had to face - after being elected on an internal social agenda, he has to face an external conflict and runs down on a spiral towards an external war costly in American and other peoples human lives. The film is interesting by itself, although there may be many comments to be made on the accuracy of the historical details. 'Path to War' also succeeds better than other films in bringing to screen historical characters and giving them a life of their own - Johnson, Clark Clifford, Bob McNamara are well built film characters in the film. I recommend this film, and not only to the history fans - 8 out of 10 on my personal scale.

Many today are not aware of the LBJ Whitehouse and the political side of the Vietnam war told from this perspective. This should be a must see in all schools today to better understand this part of our history. Good look at Johnson's feelings towards the Kennedy's which I don't think is widely known. If after seeing this you are still not sure why the military should run wars and not the Whitehouse watch the PBS series Battlefield Vietnam. I think this is a must see... 9/10