Hello Beautiful People,
Abraham Lincoln…
Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America. He was president during the Civil War. He was assassinated, shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater. He was tall, and wore tall top hats. He wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Most of this is common knowledge. So when I was informed that I had to go see a movie about Honest Abe that would last 150 minutes, I was less than excited. I mean, what else is there to really say about this guy? He was an awesome president. He was cool, and did some cool things. Oh, yea, and it was almost 200 years ago. Also, isn’t this a war movie? How good can it be?
I’ll tell you how good. Ah. Mazing.
So good, I was forced to break one, seemingly commonplace word into two, grammatically incorrect (and capitalized!) words in order to convey the depth of my feelings to you about this film.
This movie was brilliant. Why? Because Daniel Day-Lewis was brilliant, and because Sally Field made an incredible Mary Todd Lincoln, and because Tommy Lee Jones was in it, anywhere, being Tommy Lee Jones. And you just remember him in Men in Black, and then…wait. I’ve gotten off track, haven’t I?
If you thought you knew everything there is to know about our 16th president, you were vastly mistaken. Unless you’re a civil war history buff. In which case you can still be expected to be drawn into what was surely the most dramatic debate in history, which is backlit by the most terrible war fought on American soil, whose depiction of is interrupted by the most delightful and dysfunctional First Family ever found in the White House. The story doesn’t attempt to chronicle the whole of Lincoln’s life, or even his presidency. Instead, it begins at the end, and tells the “true story” (I hope fervently that every moment really happened just like it did on-screen) of the weeks surrounding the passage of the 13th Amendment.
Daniel Day-Lewis is exactly as I imagined Abe Lincoln would be. If I’m more honest, I can say that I’ve never actually imagined Abe up and walking around, but if I had, he’d be like Daniel Day-Lewis. Lewis created such a strong and believable Abe because of the deliberateness of his speech, and because of the cool exterior he presented, which hid the passion that stirred just below the surface. I can’t imagine the amount of research that Lewis must have done, but it was thorough and it showed. I believed for every second that Lewis had been our 16th president. He told such wonderful stories, and had such a rapport with his advisors and cabinet, and yet surprised us with fire and steel when the occasion warranted. I was particularly moved by his honest and respectful conversations with those people around him, which other presidents might not have deigned to notice. Yes, Lincoln was a human president, and Daniel Day-Lewis gave him such life.
I also loved Sally Field as the hysterical First Lady of 1865. I had not known much about Mary Todd Lincoln, but Field gave us an incredibly diverse and three-dimensional portrayal of the life and time of the woman who loved one of our best presidents. We grieved with her as she grieved for her son, we applauded her when she politely yet pointedly talked politics at parties, and we could see the love for her husband that radiated from her, even through the pain of her headaches, the result of a “carriage accident” some time before.
I just loved Tommy Lee Jones and his portrayal of radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens, a man who would now be a Democrat, and a passionate supporter of emancipation and African-American rights. His character, Stevens, was so in keeping with the typical no-nonsense Jones that I am pretty sure the two individuals must share some common relative. Jones provided an enormous amount of comedic relief, and yet brought some profoundly sweet and sincere moments surrounding the issue of civil rights. The rest of the cast must be commended in their portrayal of the House of Representatives, as they had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, biting my nails and worrying about the outcome of an event which took place some 147 years in the past.
Naturally, this film can’t be discussed without bringing up the ever wonderful Mr. Spielberg, whose direction of this film landed it such acclaim, praise, and several Oscar nominations. The cinematography was breathtaking, with the warm White House scenes in sharp contrast to the stark realities of war. The costumes seemed accurate, although I’m not an expert in civil war uniforms, and the underscoring, written by John Williams and performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was beautiful.
Lincoln is a critically acclaimed, cinematic masterpiece; a film that successfully turns “boring history” into an exciting story of a time when our country was torn apart. I’ve never loved a historical biopic this much. If there was ever a time to brush up on your history, it would be now. Go learn some things, eat some popcorn, and get closer to one of the most dynamic moments America has ever seen. This certainly deserves to win on Oscar night, and as soon as it is released on DVD, it’ll be a winner in history classes all over this great nation.
“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a final portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Abraham Lincoln
The Gettysburg Address
November 19, 1863
Go. See. Lincoln. Now.
Like I said, it’s Ah. Mazing.
Live, Love, Learn,
Rebecca & The Write Teacher(s)