Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A Glimpse of New Lincoln Documentary

This week, the National Park Service has released online clips of the new orientation film, "Abraham Lincoln: A Journey to Greatness," at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. It is difficult to express how disappointing the previous orientation film was. Aside from looking VERY dated, it was basically just a video tour of the house without much additional context.

The new film looks very different. I'm not quite sure about the acting, but they've certainly found a Lincoln with appropriately big ears. And I think that the new film will provide much better context for visiting Lincoln's home. My only concern watching this is that it might provide too much context -- given that the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library is just blocks away, this film doesn't need to give the full Lincoln story. It would be better to focus specifically on the Springfield years.

Here are two clips. The first seems to be from the opening of the film. And the second seems to be three clips put together. And even though the official Lincoln Home website does not mention the new film, it is evidently on sale at the internet National Parks store.

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