Book Review: Lincoln: A President for the Ages

Lincoln: A President for the Ages, edited by Karl Weber (Public Affairs, 2012), paperback, 288 pages

In commenting upon Steven Spielberg's great film, Lincoln, many have noted its shrewd juxtaposition of Lincoln's approach to politics compared to the gridlock that is the hallmark of today's federal government.  By focusing on the Congressional passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, the movie portrays the 16th president pursuing a just cause -- in this case, the end of slavery -- through the imperfect and morally ambiguous tools of politics.  Conventional wisdom compares this to the current pattern of Washington DC, where any attempt to do something significant invariably devolves into petty finger-pointing and to dueling talking points in the press.

A companion to the film, Lincoln: A President for the Ages, produced by Participant Media and featuring a picture of actor Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln on the cover, has found an intriguing way to match this aspect of Spielberg's movie.  After introductory essays more closely tied to the film, its characters, and its themes, several Lincoln scholars are asked to consider how Lincoln might have faced subsequent challenges in American history.

Frequently, counter-factual history involves flights of fancy that veer towards the ridiculous.  Here, though, significant historians who have experience writing about Lincoln and his era offer speculations rooted in the 19th Century context of Lincoln's decisions and actions.  Three scholars consider Lincoln and the World War II era: Daniel Farber on executive power, James Takkach on the Hiroshima bomb, and Allen Guelzo on the end of the war.  Jean Baker explores Lincoln and women's suffrage, while Frank Williams imagines how Lincoln might approach the war on terror.  Two others consider Lincoln as public speaker and writer in today's media climate: Douglas Wilson on how Lincoln might shape public opinion with television and the Internet and Richard Carwardine on the specific issue of religious rhetoric.  And the ubiquitous Harold Holzer concludes the book with a look at Lincoln and the culture of celebrity.

By and large, each of these essays is strong and most take a similar approach.  After introducing their chosen anachronistic issue, the historians plumb the Lincoln record, describing how Lincoln approached similar issues in his own time, such as the development of military technology or Lincoln's calculated shaping of his public image.  This analysis is followed by consideration of how Lincoln might have reacted to those later issues.  Surprisingly, the most gingerly argument is made by Baker, who concludes that Lincoln could barely imagine women having the right to vote -- an issue one might reasonably assume Lincoln must actually have considered at some point in his life, as opposed to dropping an atomic bomb or dealing with television.

The opening chapters cover more expected ground in a movie companion-book.  The book's editor, Karl Weber, contributes an essay, "The Faces of Lincoln," which chronicles the physical portrayal of Lincoln in photographs during his lifetime and in other art forms, including movies, in the generations thereafter.  The actress Gloria Reuben, who portrays Mary Lincoln's confidant Elizabeth Keckley in Spielberg's movie, writes of her research and the process, and the deep emotion, of bringing the former slave turned businessswoman to the screen.  And, as the abolition of slavery is the central drama of the movie, it is appropriate that Henry Lewis Gates contributs an essay evaluating Lincoln and his approach to slavery and race relations; Gates has spent recent years considering this issue and his scholarship, along with his judicious approach, shine in the book's most sophisticated contribution.

Overall, the essays are interesting and informative.  The one exception is an interview with Andrew Ferguson, author of the highly enjoyable, Land of Lincoln, which considers the pervasive Lincoln in modern American culture.  Partially, this is due to the form: next to the other carefully crafted essays, the question and response format seems haphazard; mostly, though, it is due to Ferguson not offering much of interest in his answers.  Still, this is hardly reason to ignore the otherwise strong collection assembled here.

Oscar, Oscar...

This morning, the Oscar nominations were announced.  As has been the case throughout the awards season so far, Steven Spielberg's movie Lincoln has received the most nominations and hype among this year's films.  As ABC News has it, "Lincoln Leads the Way...."

I have not yet seen all of the nominated movies, so I cannot hazard a completely informed prediction.  But the fact that the movie has been so well received -- if you had told me, before it opened, that the film would earn more that $100 million in less than a month, I would not have laughed at you -- suggests that it has surpassed expectations by a lot.  This is more influential during awards season, especially in competitive years, and bodes well for some very good nights ahead for the film.

There is also the possibility, explored in some of the media coverage, of an unexpected timeliness to Lincoln.  While every generation seems to appropriate Lincoln into their own time, the story of a president dealing with a big issue with a contentious Congress seems a morality lesson given modern frustrations with the federal government.  This has been noticed even beyond our shores, as in an article this week in the British newspaper, The Telegraph, which considers "The Lure of Lincoln."

How Accurate is Spielberg's "Lincoln"?

As I posted in my review of the new movie, I found the film to be amazingly accurate by Hollywood standards.  So I was intrigued to see comments on the film by two noted Lincoln authors, Matthew Pinsker and Allen Guelzo.

Guelzo's comments highlight some of the many accurate pieces of the film, including the spirit of Lincoln himself.  He is troubled by the "talkiness" of the movie.  Pinsker appreciates the movie, but is troubled by some of its inaccuracies and its simplification of history.

Both are generally correct in their assessments as historians, but I feel like they don't quite understand the possibilities and limitations of film.  Contrary to Pinsker, I am impressed by the sophistication of the storyline, which actually produces a fairly complete, if not fully nuanced, picture of the political realities faced by Lincoln.  In fact, I think this attempt at showing a more sophisticated picture, including the burden of the office beyond simply trying to pass the 13th Amendment, is why the film clocks in at well over 2 hours long.

Certainly there are inaccuracies in the movie, beyond conveniences like having Lincoln explicitly spell out to the Cabinet his underlying rationale for using the 13th Amendment to solve problems caused by executive assumption of war powers.  The Peterson House scene has significant problems in my mind -- the room is too big, Lincoln is in the bed wrong, Lincoln is dressed wrong -- and there is evidence that Lincoln handled military death cases in an established routine different from the late night reading depicted in the movie. 

But the film is hugely successful at exploring the nature of these people and the extraordinary time in which they lived.  While Pinsker is right to point out the confrontation between Lincoln and son Robert, I would argue that the scene is an accurate portrayal of certain key historical attributes -- the uneasy relationship between father and son, Lincoln's occasional flashes of temper (while Lincoln was notoriously lax in disciplining the children, there were exceptions, such as mistreatment of animals, that kindled his anger), Lincoln's defensiveness of Mary, to name a few.

Movie Review: "Lincoln" (2012)

After more than a decade of gestation, Steven Spielberg's bio-pic of Abraham Lincoln, based (as the credits say, "in part") on Doris Kearns Goodwin's best-selling book Team of Rivals, offers a sympathetic and humanizing portrait of the 16th President.  The 2 1/2 hour film, which takes place entirely during the final four months of Lincoln's life, focuses on the contentious debate in the House of Representatives over the proposed 13th Amendment to abolish slavery, including how it might affect efforts to encourage the Confederates to surrender.

Rather directly, the movie seeks to explore the man behind the monuments and myths.  Much like the famous Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, where Daniel Chester French's massive marble Lincoln sits between full-text inscriptions of the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address, Spielberg's movie opens with the war-time president talking with two African-American Union soldiers, who begin reciting the Gettysburg Address, and concludes with the last third of the Second Inaugural.

With these speeches and snippets of surrounding dialogue, screenwriter Tony Kushner bookends the film with the common schoolhouse portrait of Lincoln.  Between the famous words and their magnanimity, though, Kushner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose previous film experience was scripting Spielberg's 2005 movie "Munich," breathes life into the mythic figure.  Through personal interactions with his family, encounters with common soldiers and citizens, and meetings with other government leaders and generals, Lincoln here is funny, passionate, beaten down, wise, cunning, and occasionally misunderstood and unapproachable.

Central to this is two-time Academy Award-winner Daniel Day-Lewis, who almost certainly will be nominated again for his performance.  In addition to the brilliant make-up artistry that makes Day-Lewis look uncannily like the often-photographed Lincoln throughout, the famously intense method actor inhabits the role fully, with wit, determination, quiet intelligence, weariness, and a surprising steadiness that manifests itself, intriguingly, in the ease of a man completely comfortable with himself in every situation he faces, whether political, military, or personal.  

Much will likely be made of the high voice Day-Lewis employs, especially by those who have heard actors portray Lincoln with rich baritone voices on television and in previous movies -- or even at Disney's Hall of Presidents.  However, Day-Lewis has relied on the surviving testimony about Lincoln's voice, which says that Lincoln had a high voice, sometimes almost squeaky, and spoke with a Western twang that always turned words like "scared" into "skeered."  (Personally, I think that the voice Day-Lewis uses is a bit more polished than I imagine from contemporary descriptions of Lincoln, but it is clear that the actor has skillfully crafted his performance from these descriptions.)

A key insight into Lincoln's character in this film, and the point at which the movie "Lincoln" is closest to the spirit of Team of Rivals, is that much is revealed through Lincoln's interactions with other equally strong people.  One of the many strengths of Kushner's fine screenplay is the character development of those around Lincoln, especially his wife Mary, son Robert, Secretary of State William Seward, and influential Republican patriarch Preston Blair, but also of other identifiable historic figures with less screen time.

Spielberg has cast strong actors to portray these many roles, and the ensemble gives consistently excellent performances.  While Tommy Lee Jones perhaps has the showiest supporting role as the outspoken Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens, David Strathairn and Hal Holbrook (a portrayer of Lincoln himself on stage and screen) find authenticity as Seward and Blair, respectively.  The most surprising supporting performance, owing in equal parts to the strength of Kushner's script as to the acting, is Sally Field as Mary Lincoln.  Although she is too old for the character (which is noticeable given that most of the other actors are pretty close to the age of the historic figures they portray), she not only gracefully embodies the First Lady's contradictory personality traits, she demonstrates some of the gifts -- noticeably a passion, and relative skill, for politics -- that must have served as the foundation for the lasting, though sometimes stormy, marriage between Abraham and Mary Lincoln.

Such character details, too many to mention, are but one aspect of the depth of research evident in virtually every aspect of the film.  While there are a few mistakes and inaccuracies, the movie is overwhelmingly rooted in well-documented details -- a point made clear in the credits where more than a dozen noted Lincoln and Civil War historians are thanked for their assistance.  From the set design -- including an amazing recreation of Lincoln's White House office -- to the period music incorporated into John Williams' outstanding score to the frequent inclusion of contemporary-recorded comments in the screenplay to the  appearance, dress, and accents of the large supporting cast (even those with few lines), the film is consistently, and by Hollywood standards almost fanatically, accurate.

Even the feel of the movie points to this historical accuracy, which is a credit to Spielberg.  Unlike some films "based on historic events" that simplify characters and plot details for clarity, there is a complexity, even messiness, to "Lincoln" that evokes the turbulence of January 1865.  At times dialogue is overlapping or even muttered inaudibly, and there are disorienting, quick emotional shifts from the deadly serious to the ridiculous, as when yet another public reception painfully reminds both Lincolns of their son Willie's death during a previous formal White House dinner, but they must they must immediately happily welcome their guests in a receiving line.

With the usual top-notch production values of a Spielberg movie, added to Kushner's strong screenplay and the excellent acting ensemble headed by Day-Lewis, "Lincoln" is a remarkable film.  Despite its short time span, it has an epic vision of the personalities and circumstances surrounding the central figure.  And in the midst of those dramatic circumstances, it offers a compelling and vivid presentation of Lincoln the man, quirky and wise, compassionate and irreverent, and in some ways more impressive than even the marble statues.

Trailer Released for Spielberg's "Lincoln"

Earlier this evening, the official trailer for Steven Spielberg's long-awaited "Lincoln" premiered online (with a special online event featuring the director and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Robert Lincoln in the film).

Overall, it certainly looks impressive (and sounds impressive, with that sweeping music playing underneath).  I was pleasantly surprised at the scope implied by the trailer.  Previous films about Lincoln (with much smaller casts) always had a pretty quaint feel, but this is evidently an epic where dozens of important people will surround the president at the center of the storm.

Among the locations/events I could identify in the trailer, aside from scenes of Lincoln in the White House: Lincoln with the troops (probably in late March 1865), the fall of Richmond and Lincoln's subsequent visit, the Hampton Roads conference (led by Lincoln and Confederate vice-president Alexander Stephens), debate (over the 13th Amendment?) in the House of Representatives, the Second Inaugural Address, the surrender of Robert E. Lee (at which Robert Lincoln was present), and the War Department Telegraph Office.

Only one thing bothers me in the trailer -- but it is a big thing.  I'm not convinced that Daniel Day-Lewis has gotten Lincoln's voice right.  The descriptions of it that survive imply that Lincoln had a rather high-pitched voice and that he never really lost his Kentucky -- or frontier -- twang.  While the actor is certainly speaking in a higher range, I hear very little twang and very little of the slightly shrill quality sometimes ascribed to it.  (One newspaper report famously had Lincoln beginning a speech, "Meester Cheerman.")  Daniel Day-Lewis' approach sounds to me like a flat Hoosier accent, which does not match any of the contemporary descriptions of Lincoln's voice.  Hopefully this is too short a sample of dialogue in the trailer, but it concerns me because I had high hopes that the notoriously precise actor would offer a definitive performance.

[You can read more about Lincoln's speaking voice from Harold Holzer here.  He compares the description of Lincoln's voice to Kathryn Hepburn, which seems very a propos to me.]

Aside from this, though, I am pleasantly surprised by the trailer, which suggests that the project is more ambitious than I had imagined.  More than this, the focus on race implies that screenwriter Tony Kushner has perhaps crafted a narrative arc from the debate over the 13th Amendment to Lincoln's April 11 speech, in which he suggests granting voting rights to African-Americans who have served in the Union army and navy, which would offer a new perspective on the more often-told Lincoln stories.  I'm sure there will be a few more clues before the film is released in two months.

Yet Another Lincoln Movie?

Owing to my hectic summer schedule, and not having been in the mood, I have yet to venture out to see "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," though I have finally obtained a copy of the book on which the R-rated thriller is based.  I imagine that I will be more anxious to see Steven Spielberg's long-awaited Lincoln biopic in December (a project that has taken about 15 years since he obtained the pre-publication movie rights to Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals").

Imagine my surprise today, though, when I came across this mention of yet another Lincoln-related movie.  According to movie-related chatter online, actress Diane Kruger, perhaps best known for her appearance in "National Treasure," has revealed that she will play Lincoln's step-mother in "Green Blade Rising," which will be produced by noted director Terrence Mallick.  Aside from the historically troubling statement that it will focus on Lincoln's Kentucky years -- and thus on a period before his biological mother Nancy died and his father remarried -- this seems like an interesting way to do a coming-of-age drama.  On the other hand, given the disappointing box office for "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," I find it amazing that someone is willing to invest in a Lincoln movie that would seem, on its face, to have even less general appeal.

Spielberg's Lincoln Movie May Shoot in Fall 2011

The long-gestating Steven Spielberg movie about Abraham Lincoln, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's acclaimed Team of Rivals, has lost one Lincoln (Liam Neeson) and hired another (Daniel Day-Lewis).

There are rumors that Spielberg plans to begin shooting in the fall of 2011. Toward this end, a production team including "the man who would be Lincoln" recently met with a representative of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency doing research. Evidently they toured Lincoln sites and viewed some Lincoln artifacts.

Neeson was reported to have done such research during his several years of association with the project, so development scouting does not mean that the film will definitely be shot. However, there are some indications that this effort may finally come to fruition. Spielberg's calendar is open for shooting this fall -- before beginning his anticipated sci-fi Robopocalypse in early 2012; Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning screenwriter, has been publicly touting his screenplay in recent months; Day-Lewis is the sort of actor whose prestige projects are always taken seriously (this will only be his fifth film in the past decade). More important than all of these, though, is the slate of other Lincoln films in production, especially Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which means that several studios believe there is a market for Lincoln right now.

I hope the film will one day be shot, as a new Lincoln-related movie is long overdue. However, I am sad that Neeson withdrew from the project. Unlike others who believe the project has awards written all over it, I think that Neeson (even at age 59) would be a better fit for Lincoln than Day-Lewis. Some point to Day-Lewis' obvious -- even extraordinary -- talents, and his performance may be compelling, but after seeing Neeson in Kinsey, I became convinced that he could offer a definitive Lincoln.

Lincoln Movie Updates

News about the new Robert Redford Lincoln-related project, "The Conspirator," has brought a comment from Steven Spielberg about his long-gestating Lincoln project. Brian Dirck over at A. Lincoln blog has posts about the news coverage here, here, and here.

Evidently Variety got Spielberg to comment on whether the Redford film will make it harder for him to make his movie. His response:

We are very happy that Redford will be doing this Lincoln movie. It is completely different from what our DreamWorks Lincoln movie will be, and we believe that it will add to the commercial potential of our film. Lincoln as a subject is inexhaustible.

Perhaps Dirck is right in his assessment that the script must not be finished yet. I think that Spielberg had an opportunity to film it this fall, if he had wanted. Obviously, something is holding the project up, and I don't think it's funding anymore.

New Lincoln Film Announced; Evidently No Progress on Spielberg Project

In the past week, news broke of a new Lincoln-related movie project. The new project, to be directed by Robert Redford, will focus on one of the people convicted of conspiracy after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. You can read the brief AP story here or the best of the blog stories here.

Titled "The Conspirator," the movie will evidently focus on Mary Surratt, who owned the boardinghouse where Booth met with others to plan to kidnap Lincoln (hoping to exchange him for the release of tens of thousands of Confederate POWs) and later to kill him. While Surratt was never tied to those meetings (though her son John was apparently heavily involved), she was accused of housing the conspirators and taking items to the family tavern in Surrattsville, MD for assassin John Wilkes Booth to pick up on his flight from Washington. On the basis of this testimony, she was sentenced to death and became the first woman hung by the US Government.

Even before her execution, there were many who believed that Mary Surratt was innocent, and her involvement in the conspiracy has been debated over the years (a debate that is only slightly less passionate than the one surrounding Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set Booth's leg during his escape). As such, one wonders how Redford and screenwriter James Solomon will approach the touchy subject.

On an aesthetic note, one also wonders which Redford will show up. Will it be the director of the masterful "Quiz Show," the Oscar-nominated film that looked into the game show scandals of the 1950s? Or will it be the director of "The Legend of Bagger Vance," a 1920s period piece about golf, which just may be the worst high-profile film ever made?

This now makes three high-profile Lincoln-related projects in the works. In addition to this one, there is also the long-gestating Steven Spielberg project, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals," and another assassination-related project, based on James Swanson's "Manhunt: The 12-Day Search for Lincoln's Killer," once supposed to be a film starring Harrison Ford, but now in development as a miniseries for HBO.

Of the three, it seems that Redford's will beat the others to the screen, as it is slated to begin filming sometime this fall. There seems to be no movement on Spielberg's project -- certainly no recent news -- which all but ensures that production will not begin before 2010. As for the proposed HBO project, there seems to be no news about it in almost a year.

Update on Spielberg's Lincoln Movie

A brief article from The Belfast Telegraph reports that Liam Neeson is ready to begin production of the long-awaited Lincoln biographical film based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's award-winning Team of Rivals. The Steven Spielberg-helmed film, with a script by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Kushner, has been in the works for years, but recent reports had suggested that there were financial problems.

While the report is good news, I have been unable to find additional reporting suggesting that production is about to begin. If it does begin soon, though, Spielberg may realize his hope of releasing the film in December of 2009 (just in time for awards season).

Random Lincoln News: Spielberg, Podcasts, and a New Website

Three bits of short information to pass along today. Last week, I wrote about recent information about Steven Spielberg's long-planned Lincoln movie. Earlier this week, Spielberg's publicist confirmed that the award-winning director plans on shooting the movie sometime in 2009. Read the brief confirmation given to a reporter from Entertainment Weekly. Despite the financial and legal issues involved, I imagine that Spielberg will get to do what he wants.

I'm still coming across bicentennial week features about Abraham Lincoln. Bloomberg.com featured a series of five Lincoln podcasts with scholars like Harold Holzer and James McPherson. (A tip of the hat to Samuel Wheeler at his Lincoln Studies site for uncovering these interviews.) I've listened to the solid interview with McPherson and look forward to listening to the others during upcoming trips to the gym. Here are links to the podcasts:

• James McPherson
• Michael Beschloss
• Harold Holzer
• Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Mario Cuomo

Earlier this week, I wrote about a new educational site designed to introduce middle school students to the Lincoln White House, sponsored by the White House Historical Association. Last night, I found another new online resource, Lincoln's Commute, sponsored by the White House Historical Association and President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldier's Home. This site, appropriate for all ages, shows some of what Abraham Lincoln would have seen on his roughly three-mile commute in the summer month's between the Soldier's Home and the White House. There is a short film and the ability to learn about various locations and people along Lincoln's normal route.

No News about Spielberg's Lincoln Movie

Long before Doris Kearns Goodwin published her acclaimed Lincoln biography Team of Rivals, Steven Spielberg and his company DreamWorks Pictures acquired the movie rights. (I cannot find a reliable date as to when Spielberg acquired the rights; I find confirmations of this as early as 2001, but I seem to recall rumors about this film about ten years ago.) Since then, the project has idled, with only occasional flashes, such as when Goodwin's book was published in 2005.

Last year, Spielberg himself stoked new rumors about the film when he announced that he hoped to film it in 2009, the year of Lincoln's bicentennial. At that time, it was known that Liam Neeson had verbally agreed to star as Lincoln, and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner, who was Spielberg's screenwriter for Munich, was set to write the script.

The rumors erupted again this year, as the named players have been questioned about the potential film. Neeson told reporters last month that he was still attached to the film, but that he didn't know anything new. Just last week, Kushner reportedly suggested at a Lincoln forum at Harvard that a decision would be reached "next week," if it was to be filmed this year and released in December 2009 (just in time for awards season).

This has led to lots of anxious speculation this week, waiting for an announcement about the film. However, it looks like the problem is not the script -- reportedly finished -- or Spielberg's intentions -- evidently he still wants to film this movie next. The problem is money, part of the recent squabbling between DreamWorks and Paramount (which bought DreamWorks in 2006). Spielberg has recently cut some of his ties to Paramount (and created tension in his relationship with Universal Studios with a recent deal to distribute movies though Disney), but in the process, Paramount apparently ended up owning the rights to Goodwin's Team of Rivals. Per Slate's "The Big Money," Spielberg is now scrambling for cash to support his production company, fund the Lincoln movie, and convince Paramount to either sell the rights to him or allow him to direct.

As yet, there is no news about whether Spielberg is finding success or not. The folks at IMDB are pessimistic, suggesting that the film is slated to release in 2011. I am slightly more optimistic. If the script is done, and Neeson is attached, and (more importantly) Spielberg wants to do the movie, the problems with funding and rights will probably be worked out. While some people think that the movie has limited financial prospects -- one suggesting that it would be as unsuccessful as Amistad which only grossed $44 million -- I think that it has a better financial upside, especially if the Team of Rivals association is played up. And I think the movie itself has great potential, aside from Spielberg's instinct to be rather stuffy with historical elements sometimes, especially with Neeson as Lincoln. If the right movie executives agree, the movie will get made sooner rather than later.