Jana J. Monji

‘Lincoln’ paints a picture of Abe as a political animal

For the Steven Spielberg movie, “Lincoln,” Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner has written an intelligent political thriller that keeps us involved even though we know the ending.

Kushner won his Pulitzer for his 1993 drama “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” Kushner had previously worked with Steven Spielberg on the 2005 “Munich” for which he co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth. “Lincoln” is based on the work of another Pulitzer Prize winner: Doris Kearns Goodwin. Goodwin won a Pulitzer in 1995 for her “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.”

Her 2005 book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” looks at three particular personalities who were on Lincoln’s cabinet: Attorney General Edward Bates, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Secretary of State William H. Seward. All three of these men had run against Lincoln for the Republican nomination for the 1860 presidential election.

The movie covers the four months between Lincoln’s re-election and his efforts to pass the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. If you’re not up on Civil War history and political party maneuvering, don’t worry. Kushner quickly sets up the divisions of the nation. Daniel Day-Lewis’ voice is thin and reedy; his posture is tall and his shoulders are rounded and stooped. He’s listening to the opinions of two soldiers, both black. Two soldiers, new and eager to the field, also come and stand to one side, delighted to meet this president on a dark rainy day. The awkward division between the two black and two white soldiers sets up the problems that will confound the nation for decades to come. This sequence eloquently introduces Lincoln’s most famous speech (The Gettysburg Address which was originally delivered on Nov. 19, 1863) and also sets up part of the argumentation against the 13th Amendment.

Although the black soldiers got equal pay, they weren’t equal before the eyes of the law and most certainly before the eyes of the lawmakers. The military would continue to segregate the troops until the Korean War and even then, America’s citizens weren’t prepared to treat each others as equals before the law.

This portrayal of Lincoln shows him as a deceptively ordinary man seemingly out of place in Washington. He’s plain spoken and given to telling tales and parables that, at times, try the patience of his listeners. Sometimes the cadence of his delivery is so slow, it will try the viewer’s patience too which is probably part of Spielberg’s plan. Yet far from the crusading saint, Lincoln was also an astute politician; he understood that in order to get the 13th Amendment passed, he needs to make some deals and offer incentives.

These were dangerous times when men could be hanged by mobs. A mob had led abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison through the streets of Boston at the end of a noose before the police rescued him in 1835.  Editor Elija P. Lovejoy was attacked and murdered by a mob in Nov. 1837. The Amistad trial occurred in 1841 with Quincy Adams defending the the Africans. In May 22, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts was attacked by representative Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina.  Brooks beat Sumner in defense of his uncle, Andrew Butler of South Carolina, who had co-written the Kansas-Nebraska Act which Sumner had denounced. John Brown’s raid was  in 1859 and he was sentenced and hanged the same year. These were violent times. Kushner’s script doesn’t mention these, but we get the idea of the rough and tumble times from shots of the mud streets and the fearful eyes of the lame duck candidates Lincoln’s agents pursue.

Lincoln also has to contend with Radical Republicans such as the real life Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) who believes in complete racial equality (for a reason that becomes clear toward the end), something that sends shivers down the spines of even some abolitionists. The older bachelor Stevens is bated by the dashing young Democratic Congressman Fernando Wood (Lee Pace) and hopes to give the press some controversial quotes that will frighten those candidate on the wall about the amendment.

Of course, Lincoln was also a family man. His oldest son wants to join the Army; his Mary Todd Lincoln (Sally Field) opposes this. Mary and Lincoln have their own private grief (the recent death of their son Willy in 1862) and guilt as well as fears. Mary was injured in a carriage accident which she was certain was an assassination attempt. She has headaches and she is deeply fearful, but she is also a strong intelligent woman. Remember that she was from a wealthy slave-owning family and well-educated (speaking French). Unlike his wife, Lincoln was self-educated and his manners rough.

Lincoln sees neither the ambitious spark nor intellectual hunger in either of his boys, Robert or Tad, though he loves them both. Tad, at the time of Lincoln’s death, had just turned 12 and would die at 18. We feel the presence of his children in his life.

We also feel the presence of women. They are more than just ornamental spectators. They watch, they listen and they help make the government run. The former slave, Elizabeth Keckley (Gloria Reuben) is not just a dressmaker, she’s Mary Todd Lincoln’s confidante. Elizabeth Blair Lee (Julie White), the daughter of an influential politician Francis Preston Blair (Hal Holbrook), looks after her father and recorded wartime life in her letters to her husband. There’s also the presence of Thaddeus Stevens’ housekeeper, Lydia Smith (S. Epatha Merkerson).

The U.S. Senate passed the 13th Amendment in April of 1864.   Kushner’s dialogue explains why the amendment was necessary despite the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. The House passes in January 31, 1865. The movie covers only January 1865 and then shift forward to Petersburg, Virginia with Lincoln visiting the battlefield and speaking with General Ulysses S. Grant (March 1865) and then Lincoln’s assassination in April 14, 1865 (five days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at the Appomattox Court House to Grant).

As with many Steven Spielberg films, the ending goes too far to pound in the point by backtracking to Lincoln’s second inaugural address (which was actually delivered on March 4, 1865). Up to this point the movie have been chronological with no flashbacks that I can recall.

A good companion piece to this movie is the 2010 Robert Redford movie, “The Conspirator.”  “The Conspirator” is also a legal drama that looks at the controversial conviction of Mary Surratt, the woman who owned the boarding house where the assassins met and made their plans. Her son, John, had fled the country. The assassins were tried by a military tribunal instead of a civil court.

“Lincoln” portrays this president, the first president to be assassinated, who brought this country through its Civil War, as a man well aware of how the political old boys club in Washington, D.C. works. A good judge of character, this Lincoln is also a man willing to take risks and force issues; he’s aware that his rough ways are part of his common touch appeal and yet could lead his opponents to underestimate his intelligence. This is a fine pairing of two Pulitzer Prize-winning wordsmiths, guided to the silver screen with sensitivity by Spielberg.

Other Lincoln related movies:

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