C U LT U R E S

Photos by David James 2012 Dreamworks II Distribution Co., LLC and Twentieth Century Fox

President Abraham Lincoln pressures leaders of Congress to abolish slavery through the 13th Amendment.

Lincolns Abiding Challenge

a boat moving at incredible speed through a night sky toward some end, keenly aware of my udiences are clearly moved by director aloneness. He usually has the boat dreams Steven Spielbergs Lincoln. At films end, as before battles, notes Mary, who sees herself as his credits start to roll, there is an almost stunned soothsayer, but this one, with its speed when silence. It is not as if youve seen an actor por- he usually sees himself as a deliberate mover traying Lincoln as much as an experience of Lin- whom others decry as Lincoln the doddler, Lincoln himself with a deserved awe and a step back coln the inveterate compromiser: this one, she from the palpable brildecides, must be about the liance, conviction, carslavery amendment. ing, sacrifice and burBased largely on Doris den of the man. Actor Kearns Goodwins Team of Daniel Day-Lewis is Rivals, the film focuses on Directed by Stephen Spielberg known for throwing four months, January DreamWorks/20th Century-Fox himself into his roles: through April 1865, just Sally Field, who plays after Lincolns second elecMary Todd Lincoln, tion in the waning days of says she received many notes and memos from the Civil War. The President has decided to push Lincoln before filming began. Day-Lewis vir- for the passage of a 13th Amendment to the U.S. tually channels the President, from his high- Constitution that will outlaw slavery for all pitched voice to his gait and idiosyncratic sense time, at the same time that he attempts to bring of humor. an end to the terrible war. Lincoln is a lonely man. He knows it deep in There are two problems. First, there can be no his bones. Grief has been a part of his life since recognition that the South is a separate nation. It he decided that he and Mary would leave their is not Southern states that are out of the union, dying son Willie alone while they participated in but only people within them who have rebelled. a required, crucial mid-war White House recepBut second, in issuing his Emancipation tion. His nights are often sleepless, torn by Proclamation, Lincoln may have overstepped thoughts and emotions, and his dreams haunt what his War Powers authorize. Mid-war he his waking hours. He has a dream of himself on based it on his ability to confiscate the property

Review by Leonard Freeman

Lincoln

16 THE LIVING CHURCH February 3, 2013

of an enemy nation. The post-war problem is that this is flimsy ground, for if the South really is not a separate nation then confiscating Southerners property might not stand up in court, and freed slaves might return to bondage. Similarly, in the political calculus of the waning days of the war people are motivated to pass an amendment if it will help force the South to surrender, but after the war ends there may be much less heart for such an amendment. Slavery could in fact return. Decisions about opportunities to end the bloodshed will have to face into that hard calculus. Lincoln knows that the The President visits a Civil War battlefield in Lincoln. time is Now, Now, Now! but at great cost, as personified in painful family recriminations useful, but if youre stuck in a swamp, between Abe and Mary. The rough whats the use of knowing true and tumble of political infighting, and north? Not so thinly beneath lie subtle and Lincolns walking a razor line of reasoning to keep his integrity while real spiritual choices. Do we choose pressing on, is equally laid bare. The to be born, or are we fitted to the House of Representatives is a rats times were born into? Lincoln asks a nest of hicks and hacks, Lincolns couple of young telegraphers in the closest adviser and friend, Secretary wee morning hours, as he wrestles of State William Seward (David through to a key decision of his struggle. And, of course, there is the balStrathairn), reminds him. And Tommy Lee Jones as Pennsyl- ance between purity and pragmavania Republican abolitionist radical tism. At its heart Lincoln is as much Thaddeus Stevens (here Republicans truly are social progressives) almost about the courage and spiritual warsteals the show as a man at the center fare of thoughtful decision-making, of mobilizing votes, and tempering as it is about our coming to apprecihis own eloquence, to win the day. ate the greatness and uniqueness of a Closeted in a basement White House genuine American hero. Its parallels kitchen while a reception goes on and resonance with current political, above them, Lincoln asks Stevens to social, and religious wrestling are tone down his ardent abolitionist most likely not accidental. rhetoric for the sake of winning the necessary votes, reminding him that The Rev. Leonard Freeman is a veteran film knowing the compass of true north is critic.

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