Lincoln, the film

I knew Lincoln was a film I wanted to see, Abe being one of my favorite historical figures, but I was not sure I had the courage. I knew the film would undoubtedly include Civil War battle scenes and I have been known to get up and leave the movie theatre when people begin killing people. This difficulty severely limits one's movie choices, and I know I have missed some great ones because of this aspect of my personality.

Many years ago, when Ken Burns came out with his award winning series on the Civil War, I had the same fear. Years went by and I never watched the acclaimed series. Then one weekend, having contracted strep throat, I was feeling pretty incapacitated; so I turned on PBS and collapsed on the couch.  As fate would have it, pledge week was in progress and the entire Ken Burns series was about to begin.  In those days we did not have a remote, and being too weak to get up I decided fate had spoken.  I was hooked after the first episode.

A friend in my building and I had recently made plans to see "a movie" together after New Year's.  She called and suggested we see Lincoln.  I knew it was either now or wait a few years.  I cheerfully told told her it was a great choice and that I wanted to see it too.  Within the first few minutes of the film a brief battle scene emerged, a scene that will forever burn in my memory. War is often romanticized but director Spielberg does not suffer such fools lightly. The scene was one of graphic horror, men waist deep in water killing each other with bayonets.

To say the rest of the film is a bit slow moving is an understatement, and this from a woman who loves nothing more than watching the BBC's Jane Austen video series.  Spielberg depicts the last five months of Lincoln's life with all its complexity using the best-selling book by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals, as his guide.  I taught Lincoln and the Civil War back in my middle school teaching days, but I was embarrassed to realize how little I really knew or remembered about the passage of the 13th amendment.

Spielberg's direction makes you feel as if you have unobtrusively moved into the White House to watch the intimacies of Lincoln's family life from January to April 1865.  The film portrays Lincoln for the savvy politician he was but more importantly it portrays the man he was.  Lincoln frequently and tenderly shows affection for his youngest son, often reading to him while cradling him on his lap.  Lincoln rides on horseback, top hat in hand, across a battlefield littered with hundreds of bodies.  An aide tells Lincoln it is not really necessary for him to do so.  Lincoln accepted the fact that some votes would have to be bought to ensure passage of the 13th amendment.  He uses a stroke of deceptive genius to move the amendment forward to a vote when its opponents find reasons for delay that would undoubtedly kill the amendment forever.  

There is an explosive, raw and painful argument in the film between the Lincolns concerning the death of their young son, Edward, in 1862.  Mary Todd refuses to let the elder son join the Union army.  Lincoln supports his wife in this decision, but he understands his son's rage and shame at not being allowed to fight. It is clear that both Abe and Mary Todd had formidable personalities.  Lincoln honestly tells his wife that she is the one in their relationship who has expressed all the emotional agony around the death of their son so he would not have to.  He  defends his threats to put her in an insane asylum as a rational response to her overwhelming and debilitating despair.  On a carriage ride the day before the assassination, Lincoln tells Mary they could try being a little happier in their marriage as they have been unhappy for so long.  The couple never got a chance to be happier.  I once read somewhere that after the assassination Mary Todd spent the remaining years of her life in bed. The nation spent the ensuing years without the leader whose gentle magnanimous spirit might have been have been able to put it back together properly.

It may seem incredible that so many members of congress opposed passage of the 13th Amendment,  but many did, and they did so with great senatorial oratory.  Just before the roll-call vote, one anti-amendment senator declares that passage of the 13th amendment will be the beginning of the end; the end being black men eventually obtaining the right to vote, which would inevitably lead, God forbid, to women voting. Mary Todd, whose family owned slaves, sits in the balcony of the house chamber with her black maid at her side as a large group of black men and women fill in the rows behind them.  They are welcomed by the speaker as he notes this is the first time blacks have been allowed into house chamber.

Lincoln is portrayed as a man who would listen attentively to people, especially to those who did not agree with him.  He frequently told stories with a message to give supporters and non-supporters a perspective he felt they lacked.  He told jokes when tensions were high and when it would be best for people to rein in their passions   Angry outbursts were not part of Lincoln's character but when he did get angry, sort of like Jesus in the temple, it was justified and people took note.  Lincoln tells his wife that he believes people are about as happy as they decide to be in life.  Quite a profound statement from a man who battled deep personal depression and bitter losses during his life without the aide of a prescription or a therapist.  In a moving scene he tells Mary Todd's black maid he has no idea how the two races will get on together after the war.

The film ends abruptly with the assassination, and as the lights came on, rather than the crowd moving  up and out quickly as usual, many in the packed theatre sat motionless for several minutes. As my teary eyes surveyed the crowd I noticed some people giving each other hugs.  The fact that you know how it's all going to end does not soften the devastation you feel as this movie ends.  Lincoln tells members of his cabinet just before he leaves for the play that evening that he would rather stay with them. We watch as he ambles slowly with that unmistakable walk out of the front door of the White House and into the history books.  We are spared seeing the gunshot to the head.  Instead we see Lincoln on his deathbed encircled by his cabinet as the doctor pronounces the exact time of his death.  The soundtrack suddenly goes silent and we are given a close-up of Mary Lincoln's face: no sound is necessary.      


We will never live in a country where liberty and justice for all, the pledge we all chant like robots as we salute the flag, is a reality.  But we do live in "one nation" that ended legalized slavery thanks to the Abolitionists and Abe Lincoln. Yes, it took some compromise and dirty tricks for sure, but Lincoln delivered.  The realities of this painful horrific history make it very hard to stomach some of today's Texans who recently resurrected their cry today for independence from the Union.  Lincoln knew the institution of slavery must end, no matter the economic consequences to the powerful and entitled.  A nation with the dream of liberty and justice for all comes with a great price, however.  To quote Lincoln: "The war, possibly divine punishment for slavery, might continue until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword."