Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A fictionalized account of the early life of the American president as a young lawyer facing his greatest court case. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC Famous Directors: From Sundance to Prominence From Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino and every Coen brother in between, many of today's most popular directors got their start at the Sundance Film Festival . Here's a list of some of the biggest names to go from Sundance to Hollywood prominence. a list of 46 titles created 28 Dec 2014 a list of 29 titles created 11 months ago a list of 26 titles created 10 months ago a list of 40 titles created 8 months ago a list of 29 titles created 5 months ago Title: Young Mr.

Lincoln (1939) 7.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination. See more awards » Photos Newlyweds Gil and Lana Martin try to establish a farm in the Mohawk Valley but are menaced by Indians and Tories as the Revolutinary War begins. Director: John Ford A Western retelling the tale of the Shoot-out at the OK Corral. Director: John Ford Aboard the freighter Glencairn, the lives of the crew are lived out in fear, loneliness, suspicion and cameraderie. The men smuggle drink and women aboard, fight with each other, spy on ... See full summary » Director: John Ford In 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in. Director: John Ford The story of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was imprisoned after innocently treating President Lincoln's assassin in 1865.

Director: John Ford Two young drifters guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter cutthroats, Indians, geography, and moral challenges on the journey. Director: John Ford A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process. Director: John Ford At Fort Apache, an honorable and veteran war captain finds conflict when his regime is placed under the command of a young, glory hungry lieutenant colonel with no respect for the local Indian tribe. Director: John Ford A dramatized account of the role of the American PT Boats in the defense of the Philippines in World War II. Directors: John Ford, Robert Montgomery Stars: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed Captain Nathan Brittles, on the eve of retirement, takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled. Director: John Ford Hillbilly family life in 1941 rural Georgia. Director: John Ford Anti-Catholic and anti-cleric policies in the Mexican state of Tabasco lead the revolutionary government to persecute the state's last remaining priest.

Directors: John Ford, Emilio Fernández Stars: Henry Fonda, Dolores del Rio, Pedro Armendáriz Edit Storyline Ten years in the life of Abraham Lincoln, before he became known to his nation and the world. He moves from a Kentucky cabin to Springfield, Illinois, to begin his law practice. He defends two men accused of murder in a political brawl, suffers the death of his girlfriend Ann, courts his future wife Mary Todd, and agrees to go into politics. Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> The story of Abraham Lincoln that has NEVER been told! Genres: 9 June 1939 (USA) See more » Also Known As: El joven Lincoln See more » Filming Locations: Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording) Color: Did You Know? Trivia John Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought an extended battle over control of the film. Ford even had unused takes of the film destroyed so the studio could not insert them into the movie. One scene that Ford insisted on cutting was a scene where Lincoln met his future assassin, a very young John Wilkes Booth.

See more » Goofs When comparing a farmer's dog to Scrub White, Abe's hand leaves the bench between shots. See more » Quotes (Naxxar, Malta) – See all my reviews This film was not only one of John Ford's own personal favorites but also numbered directors Sergei M. Eisenstein and Bertrand Tavernier among its high-profile admirers. Ironically, I've just caught up with it myself via Criterion's recent 2-Disc Set after missing out on a couple of original language screenings of it on Italian TV many years ago and again a few times on TV while in Hollywood! The film marked Ford's first of nine collaborations with Henry Fonda and is also a quintessential example of Ford's folksy Americana vein. A beautifully made and pictorially quite poetic piece of work, the courtroom sequences (and eventual revelation) in its second half still pack quite a wallop, apart from giving stalwart character actor Donald Meek a memorably meaty role as the prosecuting attorney. Fonda is, of course, perfectly cast as a bashful, inexperienced but rigorous and humanistic lawyer who was destined to become President; Fonda would go on to portray other fictitious politicians on film - most notably in Franklin J.

Schaffner's THE BEST MAN (1964) and Sidney Lumet's FAIL-SAFE (1964) - and it's surprising now to learn that he was reluctant at the time about accepting the role of Lincoln since, in his view, that was "like playing God"! It is interesting to note here that Ford had previously tackled Abraham Lincoln (tangentially) in THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND (1936), a superb but perhaps little-known gem which has, luckily, just been released as a Special Edition DVD by the UK's veritable Criterion stand-in, Eureka's "Masters Of Cinema" label. Besides, I also have two more Abraham Lincoln films in my DVD collection which I've yet to watch and, incidentally, both were directed by D. W. Griffith - THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) and ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1930) - and, had I not just received a bunch of films I've never watched before just now, I would have gladly given them a spin based on my highly-satisfying viewing experience with YOUNG MR. LINCOLN.

13 of 15 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) Author: Ben Burgraff (cariart) from Las Vegas, Nevada 1939 is universally accepted as the greatest year in Hollywood history, with more classic films released than in any other, and John Ford directed three of the best, "Stagecoach", "Drums Along the Mohawk", and this beautiful homage to frontier days and a young backwoods lawyer destined to eventually save the Union, "Young Mr. Lincoln". With the world plunging into a war that America dreaded, but knew it would be drawn into, Abraham Lincoln was much on people's minds, in 1939, as someone who had faced the same dilemma in his own life, and had triumphed. On Broadway, Robert E. Sherwood's award-winning "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", with Raymond Massey's physically dead-on portrayal, was playing to packed houses (it would be filmed in 1940). Carl Sandburg's continuation of his epic biography, "Abraham Lincoln: The War Years", was published, and quickly became a best seller.

President Roosevelt frequently referred to Lincoln in speeches, and the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C., became the most popular landmark in town (a fact that Frank Capra made good use of, in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"). All this was not lost on Darryl F. Zanuck, at 20th Century Fox; as soon as he read Lamar Trotti's screenplay of Lincoln's early days as a lawyer, he designated it a 'prestige' production, and assigned John Ford to direct, and Henry Fonda, to star. Fonda did NOT want to play Lincoln; he felt he couldn't do justice to the 'Great Emancipator', and feared a bad performance would damage his career. Even a filmed make-up test, in which he was stunned by how much he would resemble Lincoln, wouldn't change his mind. According to Fonda, John Ford, whom he'd never worked with, cussed him out royally, at their first meeting, and explained he wasn't portraying the Lincoln of Legend, but a young "jackanape" country lawyer facing his first murder trial. Humbled, Fonda took the role.

(John Ford offered a different scenario of the events, but the outcome was the same!) Obviously, they found a chemistry together that worked, as nearly all of their pairings would produce 'classics'. Unlike the introverted, melancholia-racked Lincoln of "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", Ford's vision was that of a shy but likable young attorney, who made friends easily, and misses the mother he lost, too young (resulting in a bond with a pioneer mother that becomes a vital part of the story). Injustice riles him, and he speaks 'common sense' to quell violence, interlaced with doses of humor. Both productions play on Lincoln's (undocumented) relationship with Ann Rutledge; in Ford's version, the pair are truly in love, and committed to each other. After her death, Lincoln would frequently visit her grave, to share his life with her 'spirit' (a theme Ford would continue in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"). A murder trial is the centerpiece of the film, and shows the prodigious talents of the star and director.

Fonda deftly portrays Lincoln's inexperience, yet earnest belief in justice tempered with mercy, and Ford emphasizes the gulf between the big-city 'intellectuals' (represented by pompous D.A. Donald Meek, and his slick 'advisor', Stephen Douglas, played by a young Milburn Stone), and the informal, rule-bending country sense of Lincoln. With Ford 'regular' Ward Bond as a key witness, the trial is both unconventional, and riveting. With the film closing as Lincoln strides away into the stormy distance, and his destiny (dissolving into a view of the statue at the Lincoln Memorial), audiences could take comfort in the film's message that if a cause is just, good would ultimately triumph. "Young Mr. Lincoln" is a truly remarkable film, from an amazing year! Was the above review useful to you? Daniel Day-Lewis on Playing Abraham Lincoln - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |Abe Lincoln as You’ve Never Heard Him Search Abe Lincoln as You’ve Never Heard Him Daniel Day-Lewis on Playing Abraham Lincoln Photo Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln," directed by Steven Spielberg.

Credit DreamWorks Pictures “NOW he belongs to the ages,” Edwin Stanton, Abraham Lincoln ’s secretary of war, said at the president’s deathbed. “And to the studios,” he could have added. The latest in a long parade of screen Abes, coming right on the heels of Benjamin Walker’s ax-swinging, martial arts version in “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” is Daniel Day-Lewis , who, though he grew up in England and Ireland and had to learn about Lincoln almost from scratch, plays the lead in Steven Spielberg ’s “Lincoln,” which opens Friday. Mr. Day-Lewis, 55, has already won two best actor Oscars, and his performance here, tender and soulful, convincingly weary and stoop-shouldered, will almost certainly earn him a nomination. He’s neither as zombified as Walter Huston in D. W. Griffith’s 1930 biopic “Abraham Lincoln,” nor as brash and self-assured as Henry Fonda in John Ford’s “Young Mr.

Lincoln” (1939), nor as stagy and ponderous as Raymond Massey , a year later, in “Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” in which he sounds, during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a lot like the television evangelist Harold Camping proclaiming the end of the world once more. Tall and thin, with big hands and a long neck, Mr. Day-Lewis physically resembles Lincoln more nearly than many of his predecessors — more, certainly, than Kris Kristofferson, who in the 1995 television movie “Tad” had to wear platform shoes to boost him to Lincolnesque stature. Yet the first time Mr. Day-Lewis opens his mouth in the movie, he’s also a little startling. His Lincoln speaks not in Massey’s stentorian baritone, or in the echoing, ballpark-announcer tones of the Disneyland animatronic Lincoln first heard at the 1964 World’s Fair, but in a voice that is high, earnest and folksy. Continue reading the main story Mr.

Day-Lewis is famously fussy about what parts he takes, sometimes waiting years between films while spending time in both Ireland and America with his wife, Rebecca Miller (the daughter of Arthur Miller, whom he met while filming “The Crucible”), and their two sons. (He has a third, older son with the actress Isabelle Adjani.) For a while he seemed to give up movies altogether and apprenticed himself to a cabinetmaker and a cobbler. Photo Daniel Day-Lewis Credit Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Mr. Day-Lewis is even fussier about what he calls “the work”: his process of preparing and then inhabiting a part. For “The Last of the Mohicans” he taught himself to build a canoe, shoot a flintlock and trap and skin animals. For the opening scene of “My Left Foot,” about Christy Brown, an artist with cerebral palsy, he taught himself to put a record on a turntable with his toes; he also insisted on remaining in a wheelchair between takes and being fed by the crew.

He learned to box, naturally, for “The Boxer,” in which he played a prizefighter and former member of the Irish Republican Army and in the process broke his nose and damaged his back. To play the gang leader Bill the Butcher in “Gangs of New York,” he took butchering lessons, and to play Abraham Lincoln he half-convinced himself that he was Abraham Lincoln. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Day-Lewis, who has a deep voice and a British accent, not in the least Lincoln-like, prefers not to talk much about his method of acting. He doesn’t entirely understand it himself, he says, and doesn’t want to. “There’s a tendency now to deconstruct and analyze everything,” he said during a recent interview in New York, “and I think that’s a self-defeating part of the enterprise.” He added: “It sounds pretentious, I know. I recognize all the practical work that needs to be done, the dirty work, which I love: the work in the soil, the rooting around in the hope that you might find a gem. But I need to believe that there is a cohesive mystery that ties all these things together, and I try not to separate them.” Mr.

Spielberg, who had never directed Mr. Day-Lewis before, said of working with him: “I never once looked the gift horse in the mouth. I never asked Daniel about his process. I didn’t want to know.” They did talk a lot about Lincoln, however, not just on set but also starting in 2003, when Mr. Spielberg first approached Mr. Day-Lewis. The script then was very different — less presidential and more about the Civil War, Mr. Spielberg said — and Mr. Day-Lewis didn’t care for it. He also said he thought that the idea of playing Lincoln — or of his playing Lincoln, anyway — was preposterous. Photo Mr. Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher in "Gangs of New York." Credit Mario Tursi/Miramax Films Six years later Mr. Spielberg came back with a new script: by Tony Kushner , loosely based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” and covering just the last four months of Lincoln’s life. That’s when he pushed the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, through Congress. “I found it quite intriguing,” Mr.

Day-Lewis said. “I thought it was a great idea — for someone else.” Even after accepting the part, “I thought this is a very, very bad idea,” he added. “But by that time it was too late. I had already been drawn into Lincoln’s orbit. He has a very powerful orbit, which is interesting because we tend to hold him at such a distance. He’s been mythologized almost to the point of dehumanization. But when you begin to approach him, he almost instantly becomes welcoming and accessible, the way he was in life.” Mr. Day-Lewis prepared for the part not by splitting rails or doing sums on the back of a shovel but mostly by reading. He started with Ms. Goodwin’s book, pored over Lincoln’s own writing and finished up with the Carl Sandburg biography. He also spent a lot of time studying the photographs taken toward the end of Lincoln’s life by Alexander Gardner. “I looked at them the way you sometimes look at your own reflection in a mirror and wonder who that person is looking back at you,” he said. All told he spent about a year studying and thinking about Lincoln. “There are always practical decisions to be made about any character you’re playing,” he explained.

“But I always try to find my way toward, and into, a life in a manner that allows me to think those decisions make themselves.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The voice was one such decision. There is historical evidence, in the form of contemporary accounts, that Lincoln had a high-pitched voice, and Mr. Day-Lewis has a private theory that higher voices carry better in crowds, and that made Lincoln such an effective orator. “All these things are variables, luckily for me,” he said, smiling. “No one can categorically say this is or isn’t what Lincoln sounded like.” For any part, he went on, he listens for a voice, and generally he hears it at some point. “That to me was a genuine breakthrough for Lincoln,” he said, adding that being able to reproduce a voice after you’ve heard it is another matter and so, sometimes, is holding on to it. Photo Mr. Day-Lewis with Ruth McCabe in “My Left Foot.” Credit Lionsgate To hold on to Lincoln’s voice, he used it all the time, between takes and even after the filming was over. Mr. Spielberg said he couldn’t remember for certain whether Mr.

Day-Lewis used his Lincoln voice in their private conversations but then added: “I just came to see him as the character. I assume he didn’t change the voice. Why would he?” Jared Harris (better known to most Americans as Lane Pryce in “Mad Men”) plays Ulysses S. Grant in the movie. He recalled that like other British cast and crew members on the set, he was asked not to throw Mr. Day-Lewis off by speaking in a British accent, so Mr. Harris too stayed in character. “It was sort of an extended improvisation,” he said in a telephone interview. “You didn’t go up to him and say, ‘Hey, did you see the Pirates game last night?’ It was important for him to retain the attitude, if you like, and the dialect he had created. So we would sit there and joke, for example, about the Vicksburg campaign.” He added, “At the end of the day sometimes we’d ride back in the car, and he’d stay in character but talk about ‘Mad Men,’ which of course he couldn’t know about, because television hadn’t been invented then.” Mr. Kushner said that Mr.

Day-Lewis warned him that once shooting began he would no longer be speaking to him, only to Mr. Spielberg. He also recalled a day early in the filming when they shot possibly the movie’s most important scene: a speech Lincoln gives to his cabinet explaining the importance of the 13th Amendment. “Everyone’s jaw was on the floor,” he said. “It was one of the great things I’ve ever seen. To do that, you have to be there, in that moment. It’s not psychosis; it’s sustained concentration. Is all that necessary, the staying in character? It makes sense to me.” He added: “I’ve never seen a great actor do a major role that didn’t cost a lot. They’re sacrificial animals of a sort.” Mr. Day-Lewis said that he felt a “great sadness” when the movie was done and that he still feels connected to it. “I’m woefully one-track-minded,” he said. “Without sounding unhinged, I know I’m not Abraham Lincoln. I’m aware of that.

But the truth is the entire game is about creating an illusion, and for whatever reason, and mad as it may sound, some part of me can allow myself to believe for a period for time without questioning, and that’s the trick.” He laughed. “Maybe it’s a terrible revelation about myself that one does feel able to do that.” Correction: November 4, 2012 An article on Page 2 of the special Holiday Movies section this weekend about the actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays Abraham Lincoln in the new Steven Spielberg movie, “Lincoln,” misstates the given name of the president’s secretary of war. He was Edwin Stanton, not Edward. A version of this article appears in print on November 4, 2012, on Page MT2 of the New York edition with the headline: Abe Lincoln As You’ve Never Heard Him. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Biopics Films Biopics Films Part 1 | Examples Biopic Films (or biographical pictures) are a sub-genre of the larger drama and epic film genres, and although they reached a hey-day of popularity in the 1930s, they are still prominent to this day.

'Biopics' is a term derived from the combination of the words "biography" and "pictures." These films depict and dramatize the life of an important historical personage (or group) from the past or present era. Sometimes, historical biopics stretch the truth and tell a life story with varying degrees of accuracy. Big-screen biopics cross many genre types, since these films might showcase a western outlaw; a criminal; a musical composer; a religious figure or leader of a movement; a war-time military hero; an entertainer; an artist; an inventor, scientist, or doctor; a politician or President; a sports hero or celebrity; or an adventurer. In many cases, these films put an emphasis on the larger events (wartime, political or social conditions) surrounding the person's entire life as they rise to fame and glory. Some begin with the person's childhood, but others concentrate on adult achievements. Biopics have existed since the earliest days of silent cinema in films such as French filmmaker Georges Melies' feature-length epic Jeanne D'Arc (1899) (and Cecil B. DeMille's Joan the Woman (1916) with opera star Geraldine Farrar), D.W.

Griffith's religious epic Judith of Bethulia (1914), Abel Gance's innovative six-hour-long epic Napoleon (1927), and director Lloyd Ingraham's Jesse James (1927) with Fred Thomson as the western outlaw. According to some sources (although not confirmed), the most represented historical character on the screen is French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Others that are very often represented include: US President Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ, Vladymir Ilich Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Cleopatra, Queen Victoria, Henry VIII, and Queen Elizabeth I. Western characters often portrayed include William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody, William Bonney ("Billy the Kid"), Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickock, General George A. Custer, and Wyatt Earp. Various actors and actresses have won Academy Award acting Oscars for their tour-de-force biopic performances, such as James Cagney as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) , George C.

Scott as the cantakerous WWII General Patton in the widely-acclaimed Patton (1970) , Katharine Hepburn as King Henry II's Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (1968), Sissy Spacek as legendary country singer Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), Daniel Day-Lewis as Irish cerebral palsy victim Christy Brown in My Left Foot (1989), and Ben Kingsley as the charismatic, pacifist, 20th century Indian spiritual leader Mahatma in Sir Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982). Historical Characters in Biopics: Following the British success of the historical-biographical film The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) with Best Actor-winning Charles Laughton, other studios (both in the UK and in Hollywood) followed suit with similar treatments of historical characters in the mid- to late 30s: Paul Czinner's Catherine the Great (1934) Alexander Korda's Rembrandt (1936) Paul Muni as "Great Men" in Warner Bros.

Prestige Pictures in the 30s: In the mid-1930s, three honored Warner Bros. historical/biographical films (all by director William Dieterle) starred Paul Muni - the archetypal portrayer of "Great Men" in engrossing character studies: The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) about the famous French scientist who attempted to find a cure for anthrax and hydrophobia, with Muni honored as Best Actor the fictionalized Best Picture-winning The Life of Emile Zola (1937) about the famous French writer and court defender Juarez (1939) with Muni as Mexican President Benito Pablo Juarez opposite Bette Davis as Empress Carlotta von Habsburg Earlier, Muni was featured as an Al Capone-like gangster in Scarface: The Shame of a Nation (1932) , and in seven different roles in Seven Faces (1929) including Chopin's teacher Joseph Elsner, Napoleon and Franz Schubert. Later, he portrayed French explorer Pierre Radisson in Hudson's Bay (1941).

Other examples of historical characters in biographies in the 1930-40s included Norman Taurog's children's dramatic film Young Tom Edison (1940) about the famed inventor (Mickey Rooney), The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939), the historical drama Marie Antoinette (1938) about the famous Austrian princess who married future King Louis XVI, Michael Curtiz' costume drama The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), and Mervyn LeRoy's oft-nominated Madame Curie (1943) with Greer Garson as the title character researching radioactivity with her husband Pierre (Walter Pidgeon). Abraham Lincoln and other Political Biopics: President Abraham Lincoln has often been the primary subject of biopics, including: D. W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930) with Walter Huston in the adult title role John Ford's quasi-biography Young Mr.

Lincoln (1939) with Henry Fonda in the title role Raymond Massey in an adaptation of Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012), portrayed convincingly by Best Actor-winning Daniel Day-Lewis Other presidential, political, and military figures have also been immortalized in film: Henry King's historical/political drama Wilson (1944) told the life story of WWI's US President Woodrow Wilson The Desert Fox (1951) was a superb and sympathetic dramatization/biography of German general Erwin Rommel with James Mason in the lead role the film biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's life was contained in Sunrise at Campobello (1960) with Ralph Bellamy David Lean's sweeping spectacular Lawrence of Arabia (1962) provided an intense look at the enigmatic British leader of the Arab tribes Oliver Stone's intense character study Nixon (1995) examined the tragic downfall of Richard M.

Nixon with Anthony Hopkins as the scandalous 37th President of the US and Joan Allen as his supportive, long-suffering wife Pat Alan Parker's musical biography Evita (1996) showcased Madonna in the role of beloved Argentinian Eva Peron Gus Van Sant's Milk (2008) was a biopic of assassinated San Francisco city supervisor and gay-rights-leader Harvey Milk (portrayed by Sean Penn) Oliver Stone's satirical W. (2008) - a chronicling of the life of the 43rd President George W.

Bush (portrayed by Josh Brolin), a film released during the last few months of W's unpopular tenure Michael Sheen and Frank Langella reprised their Broadway roles as British talk-show host David Frost and post-Watergate Richard Nixon from the adaptation of the scintillating Broadway drama about their famous 1977 TV interviews in director Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon (2008); Langella had won the Tony for Best Actor Artists and Literary Author Biopics: Although the film traces the career of a fictional newspaper tycoon (patterned after William Randolph Hearst), Citizen Kane (1941) can be considered a life-story 'biopic.' Artists and literary authors have also inspired biographical film epics, such as two films from Vincente Minnelli. His film Madame Bovary (1949) starred James Mason as Gustave Flaubert on whose classic novel the film was based, and another film, Lust for Life (1956) featured Kirk Douglas as tormented Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh. Celebrities, Entertainers, Criminals, and Sports Heroes: Billy Wilder's The Spirit of St.

Louis (1957) dramatized the historical figure of 27-year old Charles Lindbergh (James Stewart), the "Lone Eagle." (See the dramas genre and sports films sub-genre for biopics such as Knute Rockne, All-American (1940) and The Pride of the Yankees (1942)). Dustin Hoffman starred as tormented comedian Lenny Bruce in Lenny (1974), and Rod Steiger played the title role of Chicago's famous mobster in Al Capone (1959). Attenborough's reverential Chaplin (1992) chronicled the life story of silent comedian and film-maker Charlie Chaplin (Robert Downey, Jr.), as did part of Peter Bogdanovich's The Cat's Meow (2001). And Tim Burton's zany Ed Wood (1994) was about the maverick, low-budget, Hollywood director (Johnny Depp) of cult films who often is regarded as the 'worst director' of all time. Milos Forman's Man on the Moon (1999) starred comic Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, a quirky and eccentric comedian.

Paul Schrader's cautionary Auto Focus (2002) was the quasi-biopic of the double-life of Hogan's Heroes sitcom star Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), who engaged in various sexcapades due to his newfound fame. Further Examples of Biopics: Other recent examples of biographical epics in the last few decades include the following films: the multiple award-winning film adaptation of the musical Broadway hit Amadeus (1984), from director Milos Forman, viewed the antics of young musical prodigy Mozart (Tom Hulce) and jealous composer Salieri (F.

Murray Abraham) Lou Diamond Phillips portrayed the life and career of Chicano rock 'n' roll star Ritchie Valens in La Bamba (1987), titled after his 'signature' song Bernardo Bertolucci's honored epic of the Chinese Ching Dynasty and the life of Pu Yi, China's last emperor was the Best Picture-winning The Last Emperor (1987) writer/director Spike Lee's epic film Malcolm X (1992) told the life story of the slain civil rights leader with a great performance from Denzel Washington What's Love Got to Do With It (1993) followed the travails of the song/dance team and couple: Ike (Laurence Fishburne) and Tina Turner (Angela Bassett) Shine (1996, Australia) brought Geoffrey Rush a Best Actor Oscar for his role as troubled Australian pianist David Helfgott in a breakthrough role, Jennifer Lopez portrayed Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez who was murdered in 1995 by a jilted ex-president of her fan club, in Selena (1997) Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999) - a mock-bi

ography of a fictional 1930s jazz guitarist named Emmett Ray (portrayed by Sean Penn) two films about the porn film industry and star John C.

Holmes: Boogie Nights (1997) and Wonderland (2003) Ron Howard's award-winning A Beautiful Mind (2001) about the life of schizophrenic, Nobel Prize-winning mathematics prodigy John Forbes Nash, Jr.

(Russell Crowe) 8 Mile (2002), not technically a biopic - about hip-hop rapper Eminem (as Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr.) in the mid-1990s in the Detroit area, and his relationship with Alex (Brittany Murphy) British cinema's great comedy actor Peter Sellers who specialized in multiple roles, portrayed by Geoffrey Rush in HBO Films' production The Life & Death of Peter Sellers (2004) -- adapted from Roger Lewis' controversial book of the same name and directed by Stephen Hopkins Jamie Foxx as legendary American musician Ray Charles in director Taylor Hackford's Ray (2004), a biographical drama about the legendary figure's career and life's problems with women and drug addiction [the film was released only months after Charles' death in 2004] Bill Condon's biopic of controversial human sexuality researcher Kinsey (2004) (its tagline: "Let's talk about sex"), with Liam Neeson as the title character and Laura Linney as his wife, stirred up further protest about the impact of his pioneering work, interviews and publications on morality and behavior Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's biopic The Aviator

 (2004) as the central character - the eccentric and high-flying Howard Hughes - over three decades James Mangold's biopic Walk the Line (2005), about the early life and career of country music artist Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and his romance with long-suffering June Carter (Oscar-winnng Reese Witherspoon) Rob Cohen's King of the Nudies (2009), a biography on sexploitation filmmaker and adult film pioneer Russ Meyer (dubbed "King Leer"), based on the book of the same name Notorious (2009) was the life-story of Christopher Wallace - aka The Notorious B.I.G.

or Biggie Smalls (played by Jamal Woolard), who was tragically shot to death at the age of 24 during a drive-by shooting Close Abraham Lincoln Movies The new Abraham Lincoln movie from Steven Spielberg will be hitting theaters before the end of 2012. Lincoln will focus on the president’s fight to get the 13th Amendment through a reluctant Congress. In advance of Spielberg’s Lincoln movie, HistoryNet presents six other portrayals of Abraham Lincoln in film and television. In the early 20th century a short, plump gentleman walked into the American embassy in Australia and informed its staff he was an actor who had been selected to portray Abraham Lincoln in a stage production. The Americans tried to politely explain to him that he might have difficulties in the role, without outright telling him a short, fat man wouldn’t be very believable as the tall, lanky Lincoln. The actor assured them he was quite prepared for the role: he just had one or two minor points he wished to clear up and hoped they could help him do that.

As unlikely as that story sounds, the 16th president has been portrayed so many different times by so many different people, with so many different interpretations of what he was like—well, why shouldn’t a rotund, vertically challenged Aussie have a go at it? Abraham Lincoln has been a popular subject for filmmakers since the days of silent movies. His films have often been propaganda devices for their times, from 1915’s The Battle Cry of Peace (which starred W.J. Ferguson, who claimed to have been present when the real Lincoln was assassinated) to 1939’s Young Mr. Lincoln and beyond. More often than not, a great deal of historical accuracy has been sacrificed in the name of entertainment and, in search of the all-important "happy ending," the story often ends before that tragic night in Ford’s Theater. Learn More Six Abraham Lincoln Movies When Lincoln Paid (1913, b&w), starring and directed by Francis Ford, older brother of John Ford, who directed Young Mr. Lincoln in 1939 (see below). It is the only known surviving film of at least seven in which Francis Ford portrayed Lincoln.

Historical Accuracy: Pure fiction, but reflecting the sort of magnanimous behavior often attributed to Lincoln. A print of this long-lost film was found in a barn in New Hampshire in 2006 and restored by Keene State College. It tells the story of the mother whose son was killed in the service of the Union. She goes to Lincoln and asks him to pardon a Confederate whom she had previously turned in to authorities. Ford has the correct physical build to portray Lincoln, but apparently the president was having a bad hair day. View two clips from When Lincoln Paid. Clip Reviews Abraham Lincoln (D. W. Griffith Productions with Feature Productions, 1930, b&w), starring Walter Houston, the father of director John Houston. Historical Accuracy: Not its stong point Directed by D. W. Griffith of Birth of a Nation fame (or infamy, depending on your viewpoint), it does not portray the racism associated with Birth, which was based on the novel The Clansman. Abraham Lincoln was one of only two talkies Griffith directed. It presents a heroic portrayal of Lincoln but in trying to tell his entire life story, it is essentially a series of vignettes.

The script was written by John W. Considine, Jr., and adapted by poet Steven Vincent Benet. Jason Robards, who portrays Lincoln’s law partner William Herndon in the film, went on to portray Lincoln himself three times. The hokey acting is on a level with that found in many films during the transition from silent to sound movies. View a clip from Abraham Lincoln: Clip Reviews Young Mr. Lincoln (Twentieth Century Fox, 1939, b&w), starring Henry Fonda. Directed by John Ford. Adapted from a play by Robert E. Sherwood, who would later write the screenplay for The Best Years of Our Lives. Historical accuracy: Not its strong point, but Fonda’s Lincoln has often been the standard by which other actors’ portrayals have been judged This film, the first to feature the winning combination of John Ford directing Henry Fonda, covers 10 years in the life of Abraham Lincoln, beginning with him moving from a log cabin in Kentucky to Illinois—which overlooks the fact his family moved from Kentucky to Indiana when he was a boy—to his entry into politics. This Lincoln is physically strong with a mind far beyond that of most of the people around him in the film.

Fonda’s performance is well-regarded; he captures Lincoln’s shrewdness and cunning . View a trailer for Young Mr. Lincoln. Clip Reviews Abe Lincoln in Illinois (RKO Pictures, 1940, b&w), starring Raymond Massey. Historical accuracy: Not its strong point, but it captures Lincoln’s "melancholia," perhaps too much so Based on Robert Sherwood’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play, this film traces Lincoln’s life from his early days in Illinois as a young man to his election to the presidency. Massey presents a Lincoln who is more tortured and depression-prone than Fonda’s portrayal. A financial failure, it garnered two Oscar nominations, Best Actor and cinematography. View a trailer for Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Trailer Reviews Lincoln (NBC television miniseries, Chris/Rose Productions, et al, 1988, color), starring Sam Waterston. Directed by Lamont Johnson. Historical Accuracy: Waterston captures Lincoln’s high-pitched voice, whereas most actors portray him as deep-voiced, but the miniseries also contains a number of inaccuracies; the premise of the novel on which it is based is not widely accepted among those who study Lincoln.

This 190-minute TV miniseries was based on Gore Vidal’s best-selling novel, Lincoln. By his own admission, Vidal "pretty much" saw Lincoln as so ambitious that he essentially caused the Civil War in order to raise his own stature and join or surpass the Founding Fathers in American memory, but this miniseries tones that down a bit. Mary Tyler Moore was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special category for her portrayal of Lincoln’s wife, the former Mary Todd. The miniseries was nominated for seven Emmys; it won just one, for Lamont Johnson’s directing. Click here to see a clip from Lincoln. Clip Reviews Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012, color), starring Benjamin Walker. Directed by Timur Bermambetov. Historical accuracy: You’re kidding, right? Okay, see, uh, a vampire kills young Lincoln’s mother and the boy grows up to be a tall, ungainly, male version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Actually, it’s a good action movie, and if you can’t figure out from the title that this isn’t supposed to be a documentary you probably need to check out PBS more often.

Click here to see the trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Trailer Reviews Read the Best and Worst of Lincoln in film and on TV, taken from Gerald J. Prokopowicz’s book Did Lincoln Own Slaves? And Other Frequently Asked Questions About Abraham Lincoln. Prokopowicz spent nine years as scholar-in-residence at Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Abraham Lincoln Movie 2012 In November 2012, Steven Spielberg will release his Lincoln movie. To see trailers, click on the links below. Westerns Films Westerns Films Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Examples John Ford's Westerns in the Late 30s and 40s: Ford also offered up other films in 1939 with emphasis on action and character: Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) with Henry Fonda in the title role, and Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), a film about upstate New York settlers (Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert) facing the trials of living on the frontier during the Revolutionary War period.

After World War II, John Ford returned to the western icons of his beloved Monument Valley and filmed his dark version of the OK Corral shootout (between the Earps and Clantons) in the stunning legendary classic My Darling Clementine (1946) again with Henry Fonda (as Wyatt Earp) and with Victor Mature (as Doc Holliday). The film adaptation, written by Samuel G. Engel, Sam Hellman and Winston Miller, was based on the book Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake, and proved to be another western film milestone.

(There were at least five other sound films with the same subject matter, Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, before Ford canonized the tale.) Ford's Cavalry Films - Trilogy: In the late 1940s, John Ford also explored other possibilities for westerns and created a famous 'so-called' trilogy of western 'cavalry' films, noted for their glorious landscapes of Arizona's Monument Valley and their affectionate and militaristic perspective on the winning of the West by overtaking the Indians: Fort Apache (1948), with Henry Fonda as an arrogant, Indian-hating lieutenant She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), an autumnal western in which John Wayne played a retirement-age cavalry captain named Nathan Brittles, who prevents a large-scale Indian uprising following the Battle of the Little Big Horn; noted for Winton C. Hoch's beautiful Oscar-winning cinematography (the film's sole nomination and win); this was Ford's personal favorite of the trilogy Rio Grande (1950) By the end of his career, John Ford had made fifteen sound Westerns, and numerous silent westerns.

The prolific Henry Fonda would eventually star in 8 John Ford films, and 21 westerns in total. Other Well-Received Westerns: There were many other westerns in 1939 and the 40s, some of which were grade A-westerns with strong character emphasis and greater maturity, including: Zanuck's fictionalized, glamourized, big budget film Jesse James (1939), directed by Henry King, with Henry Fonda as Frank James William Wyler's entertaining saga The Westerner (1940) with Walter Brennan (who won a record-setting third Academy Award for his role) and Gary Cooper the somber, thought-provoking indictment of mob rule in William A. Wellman's noirish The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) - starring Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan as drifters who attempted to prevent the lynching of three innocent men Sex-Westerns: Two 40s westerns were infamous sex-westerns, both salaciously marketed to full effect.

Obsessed millionaire director/producer Howard Hughes' B-grade, much-censored The Outlaw (1943) was notorious for leering camera views of Jane Russell's ample cleavage (in her breakthrough debut film). The storyline, the pursuit of Billy the Kid by Sheriff Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell), with Russell as Doc Holliday's (Walter Huston) sexy, half-breed mistress Rio (with an oft-unbuttoned, low-cut peasant blouse), was considered too racy for contemporary audiences in 1941 and postponed until 1943 for limited release. After a one-week run, Hughes shelved the film for three years after which it was finally placed in general release in 1946 (in a cut version), and again in 1947 And the ambitious scandalous production Duel in the Sun (1946) from producer and credited scriptwriter David O. Selznick was a "Gone With The Wind"- type western. This lurid Technicolor western, directed by King Vidor (who quit and was one of eight directors and cinematographers), was a sprawling melodramatic saga of sexual longing that was forced to cut nine minutes of its content before widespread release.

It was critically renamed "Lust in the Dust" by its detractors. Jennifer Jones starred as 'half-breed' Pearl caught in a destructive love triangle between the two sons of a cattle baron family (Lionel Barrymore and Lillian Gish) - moderate Joseph Cotten and hot-tempered Gregory Peck. It still remains one of the top box-office westerns - in inflation-adjusted dollars. John Wayne and Howard Hawks: Director/producer Howard Hawks worked with John Wayne in four films, the best of which was the realistic cattle drive epic in the genre - the beautifully-photographed black and white Red River (1948) . It dramatically told about an historic cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail (the film was the Western equivalent of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) ) from Texas to Abilene, in which Wayne played an obsessive, authoritarian, tough and irrational cattle baron battling his foster son Montgomery Clift. [This was Hawks' first Western, although he had earlier worked - uncredited - on Viva Villa!

(1934) and The Outlaw (1943).] Red River had all the elements of classic westerns: Indian attacks, scenic grandeur, stampedes, romance, and a generational battle of wills between father and son with John Wayne in an unsympathetic role. The other magnificent westerns Hawks and Wayne made together included the humorous, action-filled western Rio Bravo (1959) with John Wayne as a tough-guy sheriff (and deliberately filmed as a reaction to High Noon), El Dorado (1967), and Rio Lobo (1970). Rio Bravo (1959) teamed Wayne with a drunken sheriff (Dean Martin) and teenaged sharpshooter (Ricky Nelson - and was remade as John Carpenter's action-thriller Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). Film-Noirish Westerns: Mann, Boetticher, and Daves Through the lens of film noir and psychology, Westerns during the post-war period of the late 1940s and 1950s took on brooding, dark, and intense themes.

Hollywood infused them with cynicism, character complexities, flawed outlaw heroes, and dark pessimism. Two genuine noir westerns, both starring noir actor Robert Mitchum, were: Raoul Walsh's bleak, Freudian-tinged, stylish and intriguing western psychodrama Pursued (1947); it was similar in theme to Ford's The Searchers (1956) , with superbly-brooding cinematography by James Wong Howe and from a script by novelist and screenwriter Niven Busch (known for writing Duel in the Sun in 1944 that was later made into a film by David O. Selznick as Duel in the Sun (1946) , and married to the film's female lead Teresa Wright) director Robert Wise's claustrophobic Blood on the Moon (1948) Anthony Mann The most prominent examples of 50s noir Westerns were the series of five films that teamed actor James Stewart with director Anthony Mann in some of the darkest, adult "psychological westerns" ever made.

[Note: In the late 1940s, Mann had two stunning noirish films: the pseudo-documentary T-Men (1947), and the crime drama Raw Deal (1948).] In Mann's films, the director focused on chilling tales of revenge, obsession, and the paranoia of a lone, confused, tortured, vengeful western figure played by a darker James Stewart: Winchester '73 (1950), the first in the series of classic westerns in the 50s - a tale of the relentless pursuit of a one-of-a-kind Winchester '73 gun and revenge sought by Stewart on his brother (who killed their father) Bend of the River (1952), the stark and compelling story of the Oregon Trail journey across the country, with Stewart as an ex-outlaw going straight and having to confront his former partner on the opposite side of the law the sophisticated and excellent The Naked Spur (1953), a study of compulsive greed for reward money by a self-loathing bounty hunter (Stewart) inspired by the goal of re-purchasing farm land lost during the Civil War, and up against Robert Ryan The Far Country (1954), another story

 of deceit and revenge The Man From Laramie (1955), with suspenseful, savage rough action in a murderous feud between two 'sons' of a patriarchal rancher named Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp) - Dave (Alex Nicol) and ranch foreman Vic Hansbro (Arthur Kennedy), while Will Lockhart (Stewart) avenged his brother's death (caused by Dave illegally and secretly selling guns to Apaches) [Footnote: Studio control of stars significantly eroded when James Stewart signed a precedent-setting independent (or free-lance) contract to share in the box-office profits of the Anthony Mann western Winchester '73 (1950), and for the comedy Harvey (1950).

In fact, for all his Universal Studios films (including Bend of the River (1952), and The Far Country (1954)), Stewart took no salary in exchange for a large cut of the profits -- a very lucrative deal. As a result, he earned increasingly high salaries, became a pioneer of the percentage deal (a performer accepted a reduced salary in exchange for a percentage of the box office profits), and was the industry's top box-office star by mid-decade.] Budd Boetticher Budd Boetticher, an often-neglected director of westerns, is best known for his seven B-grade, low-budget westerns filmed between 1956 and 1960. Seven were made in collaboration with western actor Randolph Scott (screenwriter Burt Kennedy's scripts are marked with * below).

These gritty, cult classic westerns with lean and simple plots and with small casts were mostly shot in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and included: the psychological western Seven Men From Now (1956)* with Randolph Scott as vengeful former sheriff Ben Stride tracking down the seven killers of his wife during a Wells Fargo holdup; also starred Lee Marvin as the central villain Decision at Sundown (1957) with Randolph Scott as Texan Bart Allison, ending his three-year vengeful search for Tate Kimbrough (John Carroll) in the town of Sundown; Tate had seduced his wife and then caused her suicide in his hometown of Saving Pass The Tall T (1957)*, the story of stagecoach passengers (including Scott and other captives) held by outlaws (led by Richard Boone) - a quintessential "battle of good and evil" Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), with Scott as West Texan Tom Buchanan, involved with a feuding family in the California/Mexico border town of Agry Westbound (1958), with Scott as Union Army Captain John Hayes; with the tagline: "Hellbound for Vengeance for the Flaming Redhead Who Betrayed Him

!" the excellent "B" western Ride Lonesome (1959)*, with Scott as lawman/bounty hunter Ben Brigade competing with others searching for an outlaw/killer; also featured James Coburn in his first film, and Lee Van Cleef Comanche Station (1960)* - the last of seven films, with Scott as stoic Jefferson Cody - a lone cowboy whose wife was kidnapped by Indians; also with Claude Akins Delmer Daves Director Delmer Daves directed the adult western drama 3:10 to Yuma (1957) from an early Elmore Leonard story - a variation of High Noon and Shane about a suspenseful wait for the arrival of a train bound for Yuma prison, by a poor rancher (Van Heflin) who holds a notorious gunman (Glenn Ford in a casting role-reversal).

The Comic Western: James Stewart had appeared in only one other western before this time as Thomas Jefferson Destry, Jr., a peace-loving, milk-drinking sheriff in the town of Bottleneck battling crooked Last Chance Saloon owner Brian Donlevy - it was a light, appreciative, humorous spoof of B-grade westerns titled Destry Rides Again (1939) . and featured a comeback role for the earthy Marlene Dietrich (in a marathon wrestling match against Una Merkel). Cult Westerns: Other directors incorporated noirish or cultish elements into their 1950s 'non-Western' westerns. German director Fritz Lang made three exceptional westerns from 1940-1952, all of which were in Technicolor.

The first film, made in the early 40s, still suffered from the restrictions of the Hays Code requiring that a bad man couldn't be a hero, so Fonda's character was made to be more saintly and less brutal than the film required: The Return of Frank James (1940), a superior sequel to Henry King's and Fox's popular Jesse James (1939), with Henry Fonda reprising his role as Jesse's brother Frank and featuring the film debut of Gene Tierney as a reporter; this was Lang's first color film, and his first Western the big-budget feature for Fox, Western Union (1941), with Robert Young and Randolph Scott - Lang's second Technicolor film and second western, a fictional story against the backdrop of the achievement of installing WU telegraph wires between Omaha and Salt Lake City at the start of the Civil War Rancho Notorious (1952), the last of Lang's three westerns, featuring Marlene Dietrich and Mel Ferrer in a quirky, dream-like revenge western Nicholas Ray's astonishing one-of-a-kind camp cult classic Johnny Guitar (1954) starred Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge who shoot it out in the film's bloody finale

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Similarly, maverick director Samuel Fuller's female-centric cult-western Forty Guns (1957) (originally titled The Woman with the Whip) featured Barbara Stanwyck as the whip-wielding matriarch of Tombstone, sexual innuendo, and imaginative, visceral camerawork. And Joseph Lewis' final feature film, the off-beat, low-budget, black and white cult film Terror in a Texas Town (1958) starred the rugged Sterling Hayden as a Scandinavian whaler who was armed with a harpoon in a showdown against a black-clad gunman. And sci-fi writer/director Michael Crichton's Westworld (1973), his first theatrical feature (and a precursor to Spielberg's Jurassic Park), told a futuristic story of a remote 'Disneyland Western Theme Park for Adults' where the mechanical cyborgs (one of which was a gunslinging Yul Brynner) developed serious malfunctions. The film inspired the cheap sequel Futureworld (1976) with Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner, and a TV series Beyond Westworld.

Question: Who played the title role in the 1939 film ‘Young Mr Lincoln’?
Answer: HENRY FONDA