Producers should learn: viewers want more films like this

Rating: 9/10 (24 November 2012)

Having seen Spielberg's Lincoln film Thanksgiving afternoon, I'd like to comment on the president's war powers, which "Lincoln" said he wasn't sure of, which is incorrect. First, a president's powers as commander-in-chief are implemented under the 1795 Act of Insurrection. Secondly as Anna Ella Carroll, Lincoln's legal adviser wrote, given that the Confederate government had imposed itself upon the Southern people, the Confederacy could be treated as a defacto belligerent (read: foreign) government. Under the doctrine of military necessity, slaves could be freed as a temporary war measure to prevent their public use to provide material aid to the Confederate Army. Carroll was the first to write publicly on war powers and her two major pamphlets "The War Powers of the General Government" and "The Relation of the National Government to the Revolted Citizens Defined" were partly financed by the War Dept. and distributed widely in Washington, D. C. and the Border States. My definitive biography of Carroll, Great Necessities: The Life, Times, and Writings of Anna Ella Carroll, 1815-1894 reprints these. Also see and join www.friendsofannaellacarroll.org Otherwise, kudos to Mr. Spielberg et al. for a superb movie, and to Mr. Lewis, for the best portrayal of Lincoln ever. The main topic of the passage of the 13th Amendment is one I'm not familiar with in detail. Brilliant idea. The script was dense and a chef d'oeuvre in and of itself. I do wish, however, for less reality in lighting. I know gas lighting was not very bright, but with all those beards, and a number of male characters, it'd be nice to get clearer images to keep the players straight. This is a serious film, not dumbed down. As a matter of fact to catch its full implications, one would have to see it more than once.