By Talmage Boston on November 14, 2012 Posted in Uncategorized
Most everyone in our country has spent parts of his lifetime encountering photographs and statues of Abraham Lincoln. We’ve also studied his power-packed words, on the order of: “Four score and seven years ago, . . .;” “This nation, of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish . . .;” and “With malice toward none. With charity for all.”
And yet . . . and yet . . . we’ve never seen him move. We’ve never heard his voice. We’ve never observed his smile or heard his laugh. We haven’t witnessed his eyes glisten or blink. Not until now we haven’t.
No, there’s not recently been uncovered in some obscure attic a long lost newsreel documentary with grainy images showing film footage of our Sixteenth President going about his business from 1861-1865. The technology to create moving pictures with a camera was still decades away at the time of the Civil War.
What’s appeared, however, is what some of our country’s best artistic minds have created through a divine collaborative effort, which now brings us “Honest Abe” up close and personal in the film, “Lincoln,” premiering in local theaters Friday, November 16.
This exquisite concoction of merged talents began seven years ago with the research and insights of leading American historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who authored Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Simon & Schuster 2005). Then added into the “Lincoln” film mixing bowl came the direction of our greatest American filmmaker, Steven Spielberg. Next to enrich the bundle of ingredients was Pulitzer Prize-winning screenplay writer Tony Kushner, transforming Ms. Goodwin’s tight, historical prose into electric drama. The last (and not least) part of the film’s recipe was delivered in the form of the world’s finest actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who took absolute ownership of Lincoln’s persona. Lincoln biographer Ronald White says that Lewis “inhabits” Lincoln. These extraordinary talents then coalesced and fermented together for awhile, and then . . . “All of a sudden. There you have it!”
Those making the prudent decision to see this film in the months ahead will come away with an image of Abraham Lincoln that goes beyond sculptures, Mathew Brady’s pictures, and print on the pages from the 16,000 books written about the Great Emancipator. Viewers, in fact, will go beyond every past reference they have for knowing Lincoln, and will now have burned into their hard drive a strong sense of his flesh, voice, and movement that combined a century and a half ago to produce the heart, mind, and soul of our country’s greatest hero.
Less is more. Rather than create a biopic to “tell the story” of A. Lincoln’s fifty-six year life, or even the four year long Civil War, the film’s decision makers zeroed in on the single most dramatic month of his presidency to serve as the movie’s setting. In January 1865, our president had on his to-do list the following: (i) get passed through a hostile, lame duck Congress a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery; (ii) bring an end to the Civil War in order to stop the killing and restore the union; (iii) evaluate whether to pardon teenaged soldiers who had fled from combat’s horrors and faced execution; (iv) maintain civility and productivity with his “team of rivals” Cabinet; and (v) coexist amidst major personality conflicts with his fiery distraught wife Mary and ambitious eldest son Robert, while pulling out every ounce of human tenderness he had to nurture his pre-adolescent son Tad.
In short, Abraham Lincoln’s life in January 1865 was a thermonuclear pressure cooker that would have caused mere mortals to explode from such an extreme level of flammable combustion. By April 1865, somehow he had succeeded in keeping the lid on his cooker, and achieved all five of his objectives.
Then he was killed, leaving the country with only memories, photographs, and his immortal words on which to build a personal connection with Abraham Lincoln. With this film, before our very eyes, Lincoln now comes to life. Arising from his old dead bones, as of this month, are new properly proportioned and textured pounds of meat.