The Grand Historical Style

Rating: 9/10 (15 February 2013)

With "Lincoln", Steven Spielberg returns to the theme of the fight against slavery in America, which he had earlier tackled in "Amistad". It is not a comprehensive biopic of Abraham Lincoln, or, for that matter, a comprehensive history of the American Civil War. It only covers the last few months of Lincoln's life, between January and April 1865, and concentrates on his efforts in to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolished slavery, passed by the House of Representatives.
The conservative British journalist Max Hastings recently seized on this film as an example of American cinematic patriotism and bewailed the supposed fact that the British cinema does not currently produce similarly patriotic offerings. With all due respect to Mr Hastings, this strikes me as a classic example of "What do they know of England, who only England know?" Hollywood these days is not always the bastion of American nationalism it once was- indeed, some critics, such as Michael Medved, have attacked it for being insufficiently patriotic. And "Lincoln" itself, although it is undoubtedly sympathetic to the President, paints a much less sympathetic picture of the American political system.
The Democrats are represented by Congressman Fernando Wood of New York, a fiery orator who speaks eloquently of republican freedoms but who is also a bigoted racist and an apologist for slavery and the Confederacy. (During the Civil War there were a number of Northerners, known as "Copperheads", who supported the South's right to secede). Conservative Republicans like Francis Preston Blair oppose secessionism but would be prepared to abandon their support for abolitionism if retaining slavery were the price to be paid for ending the war and saving the Union. Radical Republicans such as Congressman Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania are sincere in their detestation of slavery and their belief in racial equality, but often show contempt for democracy and a hatred of white Southerners.
The Confederate leaders, realising that their cause is lost militarily, are prepared to negotiate the readmission of the Southern States to the Union on condition that they are permitted to retain slavery. Such a compromise peace would be attractive to many Northern politicians, but unacceptable to Lincoln who believes that the war will have been fought in vain if slavery is allowed to continue. He knows that his Emancipation Proclamation is of dubious legal validity and is therefore anxious that the 13th Amendment be passed as soon as possible, fearing that once the slave states have been readmitted to the Union they will be able to block it. In order to secure passage for the amendment, Lincoln is prepared to countenance underhand methods, such as offering prize Government jobs to Democratic Congressmen in exchange for their support. When asked about the Confederate peace mission he gives a reply which is, strictly speaking, truthful but nevertheless misleading.
The film has been nominated for twelve Academy Awards and I hope that it does well when the results are announced later this month. Although I have not seen all the films which have been nominated for Best Picture, I would certainly rate this one higher than, say, "Les Miserables" or "Life of Pi". Daniel Day-Lewis is always a fine actor, and his performance here as Abraham Lincoln may well make him the first man ever to win three Best Actor Oscars. His portrayal here is, of course, very different to his two Oscar-winning roles as the crippled Irish writer Christy Brown in "My Left Foot" and as the ruthless oilman Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood", but all three are equally compelling. His Lincoln here is not (as I had expected) an orator with a deep, booming voice, but surprisingly soft-spoken, a practical politician who possesses an immense moral authority despite the compromises he is forced to make in order to secure the triumph of liberty. There are a number of other performances which stand out, especially from Sally Field as Lincoln's troubled wife Mary and Tommy Lee Jones as Stevens.
Spielberg's early attempts at making historical dramas on weighty themes, "The Color Purple" and "Empire of the Sun", were rather ponderous, long-winded and heavy-handed. Ever since "Schindler's List" in the early nineties, however, this has become the style of film-making with which he has seemed most at home. His attempts to recapture the spirit of his early science-fiction and adventure movies have seemed lightweight by comparison; I enjoyed "War Horse", for example, far more than "War of the Worlds" or "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull".
"Lincoln" is another example of Spielberg's mastery of the grand historical style. The action mostly takes place indoors, against the grand but sombre interiors of the White House and the Capitol, and the look of the film is generally dark, a reminder of the tragic events which form the backdrop to the action. The film is dominated by dialogue rather than physical action, apart from one brief battle scene near the beginning. Even Lincoln's assassination, although referred to, is not shown directly. Yet Spielberg handles his material so well that his account of murky nineteenth-century political intrigues becomes as thrilling as any action-adventure movie. Most importantly, we are never allowed to forget what is at stake, the question of whether American democracy means that all men are created equal or merely (as many Southerners and some Northerners preferred to believe) that all white men are created equal. 9/10