Wilson (1944)

In 1909, Princeton University professor Alexander Knox (as Woodrow Wilson) is recruited to run for Governor of New Jersey. Espousing democratic ideals and ousting establishment crooks, Mr. Knox is a great success. This puts the Governor on the political fast track and, in 1912, he is elected President of the United States. Knox' "Wilson" reluctantly steers America through the "war to end all wars" (later called World War I) against Germany and attempts to prevent future World Wars by organizing a "League of Nations" to settle international disputes. Republicans campaign against the idea. At home, the President suffers great personal tragedy when his wife is taken ill. Later, his own heath falters...One of Hollywood's notorious flops, "Wilson" was actually a hit with audiences – but, like many box office failures, the film did not make enough money to offset its considerable cost. Fox needed a blockbuster, and "Wilson" fell far short. Other expensively-made movies haven't aged well, but "Wilson" has – it's quite artful. The film won five well-deserved technical "Oscar" awards. There were nominations for producer, director Henry King and Knox. They must have wondered what else they had to do to win an "Academy Award". All three won first place "Film Daily" awards, where "Wilson" was seen more in 1945 while the stiffly competing "Going My Way" polled in 1944.******** Wilson (8/1/44) Henry King ~ Alexander Knox, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ruth Nelson, Thomas Mitchell

Before I really get into the meat of this film, specifically why I wasn't impressed by it, I want to first mention what I liked about it. It was a gorgeous movie to view. The film wasn't afraid to use lush colors, especially in scenes in the White House's Blue Room. I also liked the use of period newsreels juxtaposed with (then) current, black and white footage of the actors. This movie was pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately, it was not so pleasing to the ear and mind.There's really not much to Wilson from an intellectual point of view. It gives a very school book depiction of the man as the Ivy League President turned United States President. You can tell they tried to humanize him by putting a great deal of emphasis on his relationship with his family (especially in the first half), but in general the 28th President came off as dull and overly pious. I applaud Alexander Knox's effort, but it came up short for the most part. In general, the depiction of the characters came off as two-dimensional, cliché and generally hokey.When you factor that along with the overly sappy score consisting of "heavenly" choirs and slow, orchestral strains of patriotic tunes and terrible pacing (the movie was a little over two and a half hours, but it felt much longer), it's no wonder why it bombed at the box office. In an era when audiences had a much higher tolerance for over sentimentality, this one pushed it too far.

It's funny how they left out the fact that he segregated the military and segregated all government facilities in Washington DC such as, restrooms, drinking fountains etc. He belonged to the Progressive Party which highly admired the Russian Socialists and wished to implement the same government in the US. He began the Secret Service which was used to spy on Americans which opposed this particular view and had thousands of ordinary Americans imprisoned for opposing the Progressive/Socialist ideology. This was one of the most racist presidents our country has had. Why is this information kept out of history books? He premiered the racist silent film, "Birth of a Nation" in the White House in 1919 which was produced by the KKK to depict blacks as criminals and whites as victims. Why are there grade schools named after him, why is there a school at Harvard named after him? Progressives have always been a political party which has a negative ideology.

Wilson was always known as a propaganda piece, not regarding World War II, but about an otherwise excellent filmmaker's personal political agenda. Only the second Democrat since the Civil War to be elected president, Woodrew Wilson was a mess; definitely not deserving of a respected place in history.With the recent death of Senator Byrd (D) of West Virginia, it became kind of cute to wink at politicians who were in the Ku Klux Klan. Why? Because it's downright inconvenient to liberals to focus on their KKK members. Wilson's encouragement of the KKK was fully credible in light of his dark past, all but eradicated in most history books.Wilson re-segregated the Navy, and quickly disposed of most Black employees of the government. Those who remained were sectioned off into separate buildings; if not separate office space. "Colored" rest rooms and drinking fountains were introduced in the federal workplace. If you doubt this, just Google something like "Woodrow Wilson Black Government Employees." I dare Liberals to check this, but bet 10 to 1 they won't.Wilson was also a false image of a peacemaker. He used our armed forces liberally to fight our Latin American neighbors. And just who, by the way, would follow this man into the League of Nations -- considering his racial ideas were an open book in his lifetime, not the dark secret they've become via dishonest historical spin.