Lincoln -- November 2012

HONEST ABE

This must be the year of the president from Springfield. In 2012 we saw the great success of Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard's book Killing Lincoln. The National Geographic TV
channel has been presenting features about our 16th president. And we now have the motion picture Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg and nominated for 13 Academy Awards. Will the film win Best Picture and Spielberg Best Director at the Academy Awards on February 24? Time will tell.

There's no doubt that Lincoln is a quality film that is probably well deserving of many of the awards for which it is nominated. What is it really about? The focus is not Lincoln's assassination as is the case in the book by O'Reilly and Dugard. Rather, it's the passage of 
the 13th amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in the United States.

Here's how the events unfold historically: The time is January and February 1865. The Civil War is not far from ending, and Congress is in a Lame Duck Session – since at that time in our history the presidential inauguration and the opening of the new Congress took place in March, not in January. Abraham Lincoln is passionate about fulfilling one his major quests: slavery's abolition. He well knows that the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal. He also knows that this principle has generally not been upheld. It's a tricky issue because, on the one hand, if Lincoln ends the war immediately, the South will have no motivation to make peace. On the other, if the war plays on for a time and the South is defeated, the Confederacy will insist on keeping slavery, and nothing will really have changed. The key is to abolish slavery before the war ends, and to do that Lincoln must persuade Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment. Almost everyone tells him this is impossible given the political climate and the fact that he has only a month to get it accomplished. Lincoln is undeterred, however, and pushes ahead in resolute fashion.

One of the most interesting things about the film is what we learn about Lincoln as politician. The image most of us probably have is that of Lincoln the great statesman and orator. We don't often associate him with nitty-gritty political efforts. As we see in this picture, however, Lincoln was a shrewd politician who got into the rough-and-tumble of political action and worked hard to get deals made. There are several good reasons why Lincoln was ultimately successful in his quest:

• He was close to Congress, involved in the day-to-day happenings and not an above-the-fray, ivory tower observer. 
• He was patient in his efforts. 
• He created good will in diverse ways – e.g., visiting the Union troops often.
• He was a consummate communicator who charmed and persuaded many by illustrating his ideas with colorful stories. He was not above resorting to "tricks" to get his goals accomplished. In his negotiations with Congress, for example, he empowered lobbyists to get votes for passage of the Amendment by offering future jobs. (These were not bribes.) 
• Also, Lincoln was entertaining peace offers from the Confederacy while the negotiations were going on. Opponents in Congress accused him of inviting Confederate representatives into Washington. Lincoln responded that he had no knowledge of Confederates being in the city. This was true up to a certain point: he did not specifically know whether they had entered Washington, though he had arranged for their coming.

Spielberg's picture has excellent production values and strong performances. Daniel Day-Lewis is superb in the title role and is said to be likely to win the Best Actor Oscar. Sally Field is effective as the emotionally unstable Mary Todd Lincoln. And Tommy Lee Jones gives a stellar performance as the "Radical Republican" Senator Thaddeus Stevens, who 
was a key player in getting the 13th Amendment passed.

One Area of Reservation

The one aspect of the picture that troubles me is its use of language. We hear the character of Lincoln, for example, use the s-word, and we hear the character of one of the prominent senators utter the f-word. Movieguide, a reviewer of films from a Christian point of view, counts about 40 uses of obscenity in the picture. The Dove Foundation says that "The language they use in the film does not line up with the morals and language of the time period." David Barton, a historian who has appeared on Fox News and CNN, observes that soldiers of the time could be court martialed if they used profanity and that Lincoln would not have tolerated it. Lincoln biographer James McPherson notes that "The profanity actually bothered me, especially Lincoln's use of it. It struck me as completely unlikely – a modern injection into Lincoln's rhetoric." What we seem to have here is a case of presentism rearing its ugly head.

Bottom Line: Well worth your time, effort, and money. The picture portrays Lincoln as both idealistic and practical, as both saintly and earthy. Its greatest strength is its dramatization of the ending of the evil of slavery. HOWEVER: The use of profane language is problematical. I certainly wouldn't take children to see it.

Film Rating: PG-13

My Rating: 3 ¼ stars