There's an old saying that you can't know where you are going until you know where you have been. And so I decided to go way back- all the way back to the civil war in fact, and dragged myself out of house and down to the cinema to see Spielberg's Lincoln. I have to admit I was wary going into it, Spielberg does have this saccharine tendency and I was not about to sit through two and a half hours of watching an idealized impossibly moral and perfect Lincoln's whole life story, with those random anecdotes you here about in seventh grade social studies. After laughing hysterically with others in the theatre at the terrible preview for Jamie Foxx's new vehicle Django Unchained (complete with tagline : Django's Off the Hook!), my cynical side was put sharply in its place by what was undoubtedly one of the better political biopics I have seen.
Daniel Day Lewis portrays Lincoln in his most defining hour, which interestingly enough is not the Emancipation Proclamation or the onset of the Civil War. Instead, the story finds Lincoln trying to figure out a way to pass the highly controversial 13th Amendment (no definition- look it up if you don't know!) while trying to win the Civil War itself. The film opens with such footage of a grim, hard, entirely-unromantic depiction of a battle comparable to the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan. The war is a mess and the steady flow of carnage has Lincoln visibly tired. The President needs the war to end, and yet the quickest way to end said war would surely not be to end what the South are fighting for in slavery. Thus, Lincoln is between a rock and a hard place, and it is not the hokey "Honest Abe" that frees himself James Franco-like into the hallowed halls of history, but rather a father and a husband fighting desperately to protect all who he has sworn to lead.
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| He's no Marsellus Wallace, but "does he look like a b**tch?!"... I think not |
Interestingly, Lincoln is not just Daniel Day-Lewis being a bad-ass. Spielberg fills Lincoln with many lighthearted moments, using a playful and witty script to make you laugh at the ingenuity of yet another drawn out metaphor from Lincoln, as Lewis' eyes twinkle in a way that makes everyone want to play in their grandfather's lap again. But Lewis' performance is aided by an excellent ensemble cast- in fact, key moments of the film take place without Lincoln saying anything or even being the one to drive the plot. In the end, it is the outrageous political bargaining of his staff as well as the ridiculous floor debates of the House of Representatives that really pushes the movie forward every which way, with Tommy Lee Jones excelling as the abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens. Because the movie is centred around an amendment getting passed through congress, Spielberg does well to make the House a central location in the film, building characters on both sides of the debate so that when the inevitable vote arrived, I could have cut the tension in the theatre with a machete.
But while the congress scenes give us good background and keep the plot driving along, I could not help but find myself looking forward to the next moment Lincoln would be on screen again, as it felt that each time I learnt more and more about the man from Spielberg's point of view. In particular, Lincoln's relationship with his wife was explored time and time again. This was done ever so gently at first ,with Sally Field , who plays Mary Todd Lincoln, giving (albeit sometimes forcibly) her opinion on matters to her husband. But as the uncertainty about the amendment and the war escalate, Field flips a switch- finally shedding the whiny chipmunk impression and showing us a woman still beset with grief over the passing of her son and anguished at Lincoln's lack of public mourning. In fact, at certain points Field becomes believably unhinged and in response Lewis sinks even deeper into his character in a performance that can only be called Oscar-worthy, if only for the fact that Lincoln actually managed to put up with a woman in such constant hysteria.
And what of Joseph Gordon Levitt? My boy is sadly miscast , as any young actor could have played his role as Lincoln's oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln. There really isn't much for him to do with the part and let's face it, a 19th century mini mustache just doesn't look that good on him, but you know you've had a good year when your worst movie role is in Lincoln.
One of my good friends, who is also black, has often shared the notion that there is nothing funnier than watching a movie dealing with race when you are the only black person around. I have to admit I had quite the chuckle feeling people around me actually looking at me every now and then throughout the film to see my reaction to different events. When the crucial vote finally occurred, I honestly thought an old gentleman a couple seats away, who kept giving me smiles and thumbs- ups, was going to attempt to celebrate with me. Such a move I must say would not have been out of place , because so well acted and crafted was the film, that I felt as if I were there at that exact moment. I was moved, and so I returned that old man's smile knowing I had seen a really good movie.
As I walked home, I could not help but think that the man in the theatre was old enough to have been around before the sixties and that he had probably been to fancy parties where the only black men were waiters and staff. Now, more than forty years later and even longer since the days of Lincoln, that man was sitting next to a black college student who had begun his friday night at the front of the room and not the back.
Almost 150 years after Lincoln, we still have a long way to go, but I think I like my people's chances.
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