Unfinished Work

l809 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 2009 SHADOW PLAY by Martha Bayles Unfinished Work ANCY HANKS LINCOLN, THE "ANGEL might be possible for ordinary gifted mortals graph brought to life. When these converge, the mother" of Abraham Lincoln, died of (such as Tom Hooper, who directed Jofcn Ad result is an eerie but wonderful illusion; the real Nmilk sickness when her son was nine. ams and, before that, Elizabeth I) to scratch the Abraham Lincoln cracking up at one of his own But she has many proud descendants, including surface, at least. Yet in Lincoln's phrase from droll stories. actor Tom Hanks, who co-produced the recent the Gettysburg Address, the cinematic record The next major dramatization of Lincoln was HBO series, John Adams (see my "A Monument of America's greatest president remains "unfin Abe Lincoln in Illinois, a 1938 play by Robert E, to Adams," CRB, Summer 2008), Hanks has ished work." Sherwood, adapted for the screen in 1940. Dur spoken of a comparable effort for his illustri ing World War II Sherwood wrote speeches for ous ancestor, but that doesn't seem to be hap Early Efforts FDR and served as director of the Office of War pening this bicentennial year. Instead, Steven Information, and afterward he distinguished Spielberg will direct a feature film based upon HE REAL LINCOLN WAS NEVER CAPTURED himself by writing the screenplay for the 1946 Doris Kearns Goodwin's book. Team of Rivals: on magic lantern, zoetrope, or any other classic. The Best Years of Our Lives, Because of The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005), Tmotion-picture device invented during these achievements, Abe Lincoln in Illinois is fre starring Liam Neeson and written by Tony the 1860s. But beginning in 1908 he was a fa quently lauded, not least because its star, Ray Kushner. vored subject in silent films, with impersonators mond Massey, bears a strong physical resem I wonder whether Kushner, the author of like Ben Chapin later portraying him pardon blance to Lincoln. And Massey certainly brings Angels in America and a gay icon, will base his ing condemned soldiers and doing other good out Lincoln's folksy, yarn-spinning side, as in the interpretation on C.A. Tripp's The Intimate deeds in an extension of what historian Merrill invented scene where he is traveling down the World of Abraham Lincoln (2005), which argues D. Peterson calls Lincoln's "apotheosis." Typi Sangamon River on a flat-bottom boat loaded that Lincoln was the original Log Cabin Repub cally these films did not show Lincoln freeing with pigs, only to run aground in New Salem, Il lican. A "sex researcher" not a historian, Tripp the slaves, or if they did, it was to show that he linois. The pigs get loose and ol' Abe gives chase, has been faulted for skewing the evidence. For freed them in order to deport the entire black and when he's jus' about to grab a-holt of the last instance, he places great emphasis on Lincoln's population to an overseas colony. Such was the squealer, he spies the purtiest gal in town, Ann youthful bond with Joshua Speed, which includ message of Thomas Dixon's best-selling novel Rutledge. Folks, I don' mind tellin' you, this is ed sharing a bed and signing letters "yours for and play. The Clansman (1905), and of D.W. one of the cutest gosh-darn meetin's them movie ever." But as several historians (Goodwin among Griffith's much admired and abhorred film. The fellers ever throwed up on the screen. them) have noted, bed-sharing and sentimental Birth of a Nation (1915), Unfortunately, Sherwood's hayseed lacks friendship were both common in 19th-century Early 20th-century America had two Lin- certain essential parts, such as a thick hide, an America. It is well known that young Lincoln colns, one for the white folks and one for the iron will, and a belly burning with ambition. It was awkward around women and preferred the black. Griffith never accepted the latter, but his is sometimes said of Lincoln that he was "pas company of men. But in all the inherited gossip, 1930 film, Abraham Lincoln (one of only two sive," meaning he sat back and waited for events there is no hint that his sex life followed suit. "talking pictures" he ever made), contains none to shape themselves. But according to Republi Walt Whitman wrote that "the complete of the racist riffs found in The Birth of a Nation. can Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, this limning of...[Lincoln's] future portrait'' would Starring Walter Huston, the celebrated stage was because he "communicated no more of his require "the eyes and brains and finger-touch of actor and father of director John Huston, Abra own thoughts and purposes than he thought Plutarch and Aeschylus and Michelangelo, as ham Lincoln dutifully pauses at each Station of would subserve the ends he had in view." Lin sisted by Rabelais." Yet even that dream team the Lincoln Cross, including the signing of the coln was a master poker player, not a Raggedy would find it hard, in the space of a two-hour Emancipation Proclamation. And it has two Abe doll needing a woman, Mary Todd (Ruth movie, to do justice to Lincoln's political genius. other saving graces: an undercurrent of sardonic Gordon), to supply him with spunk. In the In an eight- or ten-hour TV series, perhaps, it humor and the look of a 19th-century photo words of his law partner, William Herndon, Claremont Review of Books • Winter 2008/09 Page 67 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED l809 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 2009 Lincoln "was always calculating, and always with Mary's mental instability, this reticence hundreds of people who had known Lincoln, planning ahead. His ambition was a little en has been fodder for psychobiographers ever concocted a posthumous account of his youth gine that knew no rest." since 1931, when a squabble broke out among that, reflecting Herndon's lack of imagination Why did Sherwood create such a shrunken psychoanalysts over how best to diagnose Abe. and dislike of Mary, adhered to the formulas Lincoln? Maybe because he wanted to make a That particular dispute was settled, more or less, of 19th-century melodrama: happy, footloose statement about American democratic values in a 1933 book called Lincoln and the Doctors, by young Abe falls in love with Ann Rutledge, the at a time when the future was being claimed Milton H. Shutes, which beat back some of the embodiment of feminine perfection, only to lose by totalitarian dictators ravenous for conquest more bizarre theories in favor of calling Lincoln her to a fever. Broken-hearted (cue the violins), and power. Compared with Hitler, Mussolini, "a depressive type of psychoneurotic within the he heads for Springfield, where, dazzled by the and Emperor Showa (Hirohito), Sherwood's bounds of so-called normality." wealthy, well connected Todd family, he allows Lincoln is a simple, good-hearted Cincinnatus, Less clinically, Goodwin concludes that himself to be roped into a marriage that quickly happy to plow his fields and indifferent to the although Lincoln suffered "two despondent descends into a living hell. lure of high office. "Please," he says, "I just want episodes in his early life" and "had a melan According to Peterson, the majority of biog to be left alone." When persuaded to wear the choly temperament," he also "possessed an un- raphers have either ignored this melodrama or toga, he obeys, but with a stoop, as though al swallowed it whole, depicting Mary as "a modern ready groaning under the yoke of duty. In the Xanthippe—a shrew, a curse, a haughty fool." symbolic realm of the stage, this device might Films discussed in this essay: A few chroniclers have treated Mary gently, but have worked. But 70 years later, in the more lit overall, there have been "hundreds of brutal eral medium of film, it rings false. words for every kind one." They should all heed Abraham Lincoln, directed by D.W. Andrew Ferguson's sage advice: "The Lincolns' Greatness and Melancholy Griffith. Screenplay by Stephen marriage, like your marriage and mine, was a Vincent Benet, John W. Considinejr,, mystery to everyone but the two people involved Y CONTRAST, JOHN FORDS CLASSIC FILM, and Gerrit J. Lloyd. United Artists. directly, and maybe to them too." From this per Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), still rings true. spective, the best approach would be to extend BThe star, Henry Fonda, is too handsome, Abe Lincoln of Illinois, directed by maximum sympathy to both husband and wife even with skillfully applied schnoz, and too John Cromwell. Screenplay by as they meet, marry, produce children, rise to graceful, even with artfully executed clumsi Grover Jones and Robert E. Sherwood. political power, and then pass together through ness, to resemble Lincoln. But Fonda captures RKO Radio Pictures. the valley of the shadow of death. what Massey misses. First, he captures Lincoln's wiliness. Watching this unprepossessing young Young Mr. Lincoln, directed by John Vidals Lincoln lawyer in a rural murder trial gull both the pros Ford. Screenplay by Lamar TrottL ecutor and the plaintiff, we glimpse the future Twentieth Century Fox. AS ANY FILM DONE THIS? CURIOUSLY, THE president who, when two cabinet members, first to try was a TV miniseries based William Henry Seward and Salmon P. Chase, Gore Vidal's Lincoln, directed by H on a novel that does not try. In 1988, handed in their resignations, refused to accept Lamont Johnson. Teleplay by NBC aired Gore Vidal's Lincoln, a 190-minute them but conspicuously stuck them in his pock Ernest Kinoy.

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