"Our One Common Country" author talk in Stratford, CT

[David Lockmiller]

(08-20-2014 02:07 PM)James Conroy Wrote:  David:

Its accuracy disappointed me. The past can be brought to life without changing it.

In my opinion, "Lincoln" is a beautifully acted, evocatively presented film, and in many ways an admirable work of art, but the true story of the Hampton Roads Peace Conference [and all other scenes] and the roles that men like Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, and Abraham Lincoln played in it are cinematic enough without the embellishments and artistic license that permeate the movie.

[I have changed your quotation somewhat to comport with my thoughts on the subject.]

I do not know why the film could not have been done that way. Access to the highest levels of Lincoln scholarship was there. When the film was still in the conceptual stage, Spielberg gathered together the top "Lincoln" scholars; Spielberg even hired a few Lincoln historians as advisors on the film with the supposed purpose of maintaining the historical integrity of the movie. Then, once Spielberg decided that the principal story line of history would be the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, he gave theatrical carte blanche to the playwright for the movie and both men ignored the red flags thrown by his Lincoln historian movie advisors.

Leslie Stahl and the "Lincoln" movie episode director of 60 Minutes ASSUMED that entire movie was completely historically accurate. Hence, Leslie Stahl introductory line to the segment on 60 Minutes: "The film is filled with things about our 16th President that we, who are not Lincoln scholars, did not know."

What would the vast majority of Americans then watching both the "Lincoln" movie and the 60 Minutes segment then believe about Abraham Lincoln and the history of the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, including all related events of history depicted in the movie?

And, then to "put the icing on the cake" for this historical movie work (corrupted with so much fiction), Director Spielberg offered "Lincoln" movie DVD's for free to schools all accross this nation. Students will not need to read a textbook on Civil War history; they can watch the much more entertaining "Lincoln" movie and learn American Civil War history just as Leslie Stahl was able to do.