Some births are long and bloody

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2013)

LINCOLN
A review by Dr Deena Padayachee
The legal end of slavery in the USA occurred in Feb 1865, but it was a close run thing - only two votes secured that decision, one of them by the Speaker of the House in the American house of Representatives. Fifty six representatives did not think it dishonourable (in Stiebel fashion) to vote against this amendment to the American constitution which had been put forward to end slavery.
There was no secret ballot and this 13th amendment aroused a great deal of vile, racist vitriolic even from those who voted for it. These Americans did not believe that all people are created equal and were not ashamed to say so quite unequivocally. They raged, 'where will all this end, with women getting the vote?'
The war was fought to keep the USA united and free of slavery but in order to free the slaves and make slavery illegal, the US constitution had to be changed. The majority which was needed might not be attained if the slave states were voting again in a united USA. So the lawyer, President Lincoln, had to plan cunningly and move very fast, before the South surrendered.
Just think, if slavery had not been ended, it would have been impossible for Obama to become President of the USA. The British empire ended slavery almost a generation before the Yanks. For most of human history, conquered peoples and others have known the scourge of slavery.
Spielberg has brought to life a vital, and indeed a great and seismic time, in U S history. His characterisation of the main participants is a tour de force. Thank you so much, Steven. Lincoln is portrayed as a charming, elderly, dynamic gentleman with the ability to relate, as most great leaders are able to do, to the average human being while winning the confidence of even the most cantankerous trouble-makers.
At difficult moments in a debate he was wont to break the tension with a delightful homily about something that had happened in his life which might have a bearing on the subject being discussed. The actors, Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln, Sally Field as his wife, Molly, and Tommy Lee Jones as an articulate, acerbic left-wing orator in the House of Representatives give the film a rare life – a life which marked a turning point in the history of the 'land of the brave and the home of the free.'
Watching the film was like being in a Spielberg time-machine as we saw history unfold before our eyes.
Lincoln is shown as a man willing even to lie to Congress and even bribe congressmen in his desperate attempt to get the amendment passed. And all the while he has the 'everyday' problems we all have – he has a strong-willed spouse who is determined to keep her son out of the army and he has other domestic responsibilities.
The bloody, mud-splattered opening sequence is a trade-mark Spielberg battle-scene. If Apartheid were still legal we would not have been allowed to see it, as it depicts black soldiers often getting the better of the confederates - and even sticking dirty big boots into their muddied white faces. A black soldier speaks of how they were paid (like we were during Apartheid) less than white soldiers while both races served in the Union forces.
In my teens, when I was learning to type from an American tome, the typing exercise involved typing Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
'Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent...'
Soldiers quoted that address back to Lincoln in a scene and I found myself recalling those memorable words. Some births are very long and very bloody.
One came away from the movie with a sense of amazement that two sets of very racist, very unethical, very unjust human beings can actually be cajoled and eventually forced into giving up power over people. (It reminded one of how South Africa eventually came to be enfranchised) If there's one thing that the film shows, it is that, actually, there was not all that much difference in the racism deeply embedded in the north and the south.
Homo Sapiens has certainly come a long way, despite the Stiebels who still, with South African government funding, unethically discriminate against dark-skinned, historically disadvantaged human beings who triumphed despite all the odds stacked against them.
This is a movie full of intricate legal argument and lots of furrowed pondering on weighty matters. Sadly my experience was spoiled by my alarm company's persistent phoning me as my lounge passive was repeatedly activated. However I stayed till the end and all was well at home when I got there.
A review by Dr Deena Padayachee