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"Lincoln" an Authentic and Moving Film
(by E. George Larrabee Woodbury - January 16, 2013)
"Lincoln" an Authentic and Moving Film
Editor:
I was glad to see the Dreamworks film Lincoln finally come to the Capitol Theater in Montpelier. After being told that it would not be shown at the Capitol or the Paramount in Barre, I went to see the film twice in Williston. When it appeared at the Capitol recently (after all!), I saw it a third time, this time with my wife.
It is certainly a worthwhile film for Vermonters to see: for one thing, not only did Daniel Day-Lewis portray a thoroughly realistic Abraham Lincoln, but the film also highlighted “radical abolitionist” Thaddeus Stevens, splendidly portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones. Stevens was originally from Danville, Vt., and as the film shows, was a key player in getting the 13th amendment (abolishing slavery) adopted by Congress despite the opposition of opportunistic Congressman who opposed racial equality.
That the producers of the film were bent on exact historical authenticity is shown by a few scenes where portrayals will escape the notice of historically illiterate Americans: they bothered to cast a bit player as Ely Stone Parker. On the headquarters staff of U.S. Grant at the time was Grant’s pre-war friend Do-ne-ho’gawa (“Open Door”), a Seneca Indian chief from the Tonawanda Reservation in New York State. Parker was a Brigadier General of U.S. volunteers who served as Grant’s Military Secretary. General Parker is portrayed by Native American actor Asa Luke Twocrow. In the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864, Parker single-handedly saved both Grant and Gen. George G. Meade (and their staffs) from walking straight into a well-laid Confederate ambush. A film on the life of the chief, by itself, would be extremely interesting.
It is seldom that Americans can engage in an act of patriotism simply by going to the movies. Lincoln provides just such an opportunity. Not only was the film quite authentic in its portrayal of the struggle for human freedom – in the halls of Congress and the interstices of Washington D.C. as well as on the battlefield – it was extremely moving. Right at the beginning, when young Army recruits, two of whom had, in 1863, heard Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address from the lips of the President himself, recite parts of the Address back to him, in person, each time I saw it I found the scene profoundly moving. And it doesn’t stop there.
E. George Larrabee
Woodbury
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