The trailer...I will see this movie!

[Rob Wick]

Given the length of time it took me to see "Lincoln" I pretty much went into it knowing how I would feel coming out. I anticipated that I would enjoy the film generally, but feel a little disappointed and let down, given that the normal outcome for such a build up is usually disappointment. I was one of only three people in the theater which turned out to be very nice.

I wasn't prepared for the flood of emotions which overcame me after it ended.

For the first time in the 42 years that I've studied and been interested in Lincoln, it struck me that this was the very first time I ever experienced him as a full-blooded human being. One of the perils of studying history is that people tend to be almost otherworldly. You can read their letters, or maybe a diary, but to actually be able to recognize them as you see yourself is lost. They are simply two-dimensional. The passage of time has robbed them of the emotive characteristics inherent in all of us, especially someone so subject to pathos and mythos as Lincoln. Of course, film allows one to see the three-dimensional character, but there was something missing from earlier Lincolns that somehow filled me up with this version. Of course, much of the credit goes to Daniel Day-Lewis. Tony Kushner's script and Steven Spielberg's direction did their part, but what took my breath away and left me sitting there awestruck was my sudden realization that this was exactly what Carl Sandburg and, before him, Ida Tarbell were trying to do with their respective lives of Lincoln. Lincoln, of course, belongs to everyone, but Sandburg and Tarbell succeeded (and a number of academic historians failed) because they understood that the only way for us to fully comprehend him is to pull him from the two-dimensional trap of being either saint or sinner and realize just how much he embodies the American spirit in both its positive and negative connotations. This was something that Spielberg also captured. And let me add that I'm fully aware that some might question that given the view that both Sandburg and Tarbell's lives were unqualified cheerleading, but that's only to those who fail to see the deeper meanings in their respective works.

Of course, one can point to the parts which strained the story. Did he really slap Robert? Maybe. Maybe not. But that one scene transmitted both the fear he felt as a father and the heavy weight of oppression that he also felt knowing that not only could he lose his oldest son, but he bore great responsibility for all the other sons who never came home. As much as I'm a stickler for the truth, one thing which hit home and hit home hard was that the truth can emerge even when the facts may be suspect. That doesn't mean "anything goes" in the service of a good story, but both Sandburg and Tarbell knew that for Lincoln to serve a purpose for a society which struggles every day to find its way, we must see him as he truly was.

I say this with no attempt at hyperbole, but this was the best movie I have ever watched. Ever!

Best
Rob