June 28 - Truman

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on June 28. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

TRUMAN      

Harry Truman makes a “Whistle Stop” for a campaign speech in Weston, Missouri. He flashes back to when he told his girlfriend Bess Wallace that he was going to join the army in World War I. They get engaged before he goes to France and fights with the army. When he returns they get married on June 28, 1919. [13:36 to 13:57] He opens a haberdashery, but loses it in a business crash. He is introduced to the Missouri political ‘boss’ Tom Pendergast. He is elected county commissioner and quarrels with Pendergast over road construction. Truman runs for the US senate and wins. After the US enters World War II he heads a committee that investigates graft in war materiel production. He learns of the existence of the Manhattan Project, but keeps it secret. He is browbeaten into becoming the Vice-presidential candidate in 1944. He rarely sees Roosevelt.  When Tom Pendergast dies, Truman attends his funeral in spite of criticism. FDR dies and Truman becomes president. He learns about the atom bomb. The war in Europe ends and he goes to the Potsdam Conference, where he learns that the bomb has been tested successfully and he will have to decide about its use.  He orders the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman integrates the armed forces and calls for the drafting of striking miners. After much discussion Truman recognizes Israel. He pushes the Marshall Plan. He is renominated and pulls off an upset victory.  The Korean War begins. He meets with MacArthur on Wake Island who tells him the Chinese will not enter the war not too long before they do. He writes a rude letter to a newspaper critic who was critical of his daughter’s singing. After a series of inappropriate comments by MacArthur, Truman fires him. Truman refuses to use the FBI file on Joe McCarthy’s personal problems to attack him. Truman’s term ends.

                       

A good bio about one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had. 

Truman by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992) at page 143 gives the date of Harry and Bess’s wedding.

Director - Frank Pierson

Awards - The film won the Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or a Movie; Outstanding Made For Television Movie. It was also nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie (Sinise); Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie (Scarwid); Outstanding Editing For A Miniseries Or A Movie (Single-Camera Picture); Outstanding Makeup For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special;   Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Miniseries or a Movie, and Outstanding Writing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special at the 48^th Primetime Emmy Awards

Running Time - 2 hours 15 minutes                          Released- September 9, 1995

Starring -  Gary Sinise as Harry S. Truman, Diana Scarwid as Bess Truman, Richard Dysart as Henry L. Stimson, Pat Hingle  as  Boss Tom Pendergast, Zeljko Ivanek as Eddie Jacobson, Remak Ramsay as Dean Acheson

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.