Lincoln (2012): Before We Watch
How a sausage…I mean democracy…gets made
With a movie called Civil War in theaters and a television series called Manhunt tracking President Lincoln’s fugitive assassin, American viewers currently seem a bit preoccupied with tales of conflict tearing our nation asunder. So much for the sprightly spring optimism in which I indulged just last week.
And yet. This week’s film, Lincoln (2012), plants seeds of hope. Precious and precarious as they are, let’s see how they might grow.
Anyway, hello, welcome, and thank you for stopping by. For new visitors, here’s what this situation is all about:
With Savor the View, we’ll watch, think, and talk about movies and the things that matter. A special welcome and thanks to our regular crew!
Each Monday, I share brief, spoiler-free remarks and questions to frame viewing a movie on our own.
Each Thursday, I share post-viewing questions to poke at the issues, ideas, quandaries, inspirations...whatever...that movie might have summoned (spoilers, ahoy!).
Paid subscribers can talk it all out in a weekly Discussion Thread.
Overview
Lincoln (2012): Director Steven Spielberg once again works with screenwriter (and playwright) Tony Kushner (who also co-wrote Munich…stay tuned for more on that at a later date) in adapting historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Abraham Lincoln. The result is a play-by-play account of how a bill becomes a law. Or, rather, how a constitution becomes amended. The U.S. Constitution, that is – amended to legally, permanently eliminate slavery from the United States. It sounds like a story that couldn’t possibly be riveting. But it absolutely is.
All the way back in 2012, we were all so young and naïve. Talk of an American Civil War, at that time, remained retrospective – directed solely at the 19th-century war between Northern and Southern states over slavery.
Not so anymore. Mainstream press conversations track a worrying trend that adds higher stakes to viewing a story about the past with possible lessons for the present.
The universal/general
Throughout this film, consider: What is democracy? And how does it get done?
The specific/unique
Note how this film begins and how it ends. Why these choices – of these scenes, these characters, this dialogue? What do all of these elements suggest is at stake?
Note how “the people” – citizens, voters, and perhaps others – are invoked throughout the film. Who are they? Who is included and who is excluded? How are they discussed and portrayed? Is it with trust or with skepticism?
Who pops up in the Battle of Wilmington telegraph scene? [Spoiler alert: I spot Jeremy Strong and Adam Driver.]
The viewer is always present
From what position do you view this film? That is, with which characters do you sympathize and why? For only one example, between Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Senator Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones), do you find yourself taking a side? If so, whose – and why?
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