The grandest, greatest protagonist in that grandest, greatest drama is Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln has been portrayed in twenty-five or so movies, beginning with D. Sherwood, were brought forth more than three score and some-odd years ago. And neither of those dared to show Lincoln as President. I was, therefore, delighted to learn, more than a decade ago, that Spielberg had decided to take up the challenge.
With the possible exception of the still unmade adaptation of Robert A. A week or so ago, in a packed auditorium at where else? Two days later, I saw it again. For me, on first viewing, the devil—well, not Satan himself, more of an annoying imp—was in the details.
A sampling of the nits I found myself picking as the film unspooled:. The House of Representatives was a much more raucous place a hundred and fifty years ago than it is now, but the rules, then as now, forbid addressing members directly.
Every intervention must take the form of an address to the Speaker. Speaker, the gentleman from New York bears a strong resemblance to a fatuous nincompoop. When the Confederate peace commissioners, led by Vice-President Alexander Stephens, arrive at Fort Monroe, they are met at the door of their carriage by black Union soldiers.
Though some two hundred thousand black men were serving in the Union Army in which is the valuable point the scene is making , greeting Confederate peace envoys was not among their duties. She is a graduate of Berry College in Floyd, Georgia, where she majored in history.
Moviegoers flocked to the theaters to see Lincoln over Thanksgiving weekend, and the history buffs among them probably wondered, with some anxiety, how much of it would be fact and how much of it would be fiction.
The quality of the production, on top of some truly remarkable performances by Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones and others, certainly lent it a grounded feel. But how accurate is it? There is a short answer and a long answer to this question. The short answer is: very. The long answer requires a bit more digging. Lincoln is set during a short period of a few months in early , and its overall plot is entirely factual. As the movie shows, it was an intense time in Washington: Confederate peace commissioners were trying to work out an end to the war, the House of Representatives was debating the 13th Amendment, and both events involved some shady political maneuvering, some of it by Lincoln himself.
Critics of the movie have pointed out that there were other events happening at the same time, which helped to push the 13th Amendment forward and end the war. Anthony, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the actions of free blacks themselves. When CSA Vice-President Alexander Stephens and the rest of the Confederate delegation arrived in Union territory, they were not greeted by a contingent of black soldiers. This would have been seen as an overt diplomatic faux pas that would have threatened any chance of peace talks.
The scene did help illustrate the fact, however, that over , black soldiers fought to preserve the Union. And, boy, are some people incensed. Congressman Joe Courtney D-Conn.
Courtney pulled up the official congressional record to point out that all four members of Connecticut's delegation voted in favor of the amendment. Screenwriter Tony Kushner has since shot back , trying to remind the Congressman that it is just a movie. Speaking of the House of Representatives and its debate, Thaddeus Stevens never called a congressman a fatuous nincompoop during debate.
The same rules that governed the House then govern it today: Members are not allowed to directly address each other during debate. They have to address the Speaker, who would have surely ruled the radical Republican out of line if he called someone a nincompoop. That said, Stevens certainly did have quite a sharp wit, which comes through in certain scenes.
While Lincoln was conversing with the political operatives he employed, James Spader's character comments that he couldn't bribe undecided Congressmen to vote yes because so many cent pieces had Lincoln's face on them.
Lincoln probably never even talked to these political fixers, especially not about bribes. While Lincoln's political skills and his all-out attempt to get the amendment passed were real, he probably never met directly with the political operates his administration employed. If he did, bribes were almost surely never discussed.
Part of the man's political genius would have ensured he resisted exposing himself too much to the mud of politics. The last five minutes of Spielberg's Lincoln are the worst five minutes of the film.
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