Spielberg's Lincoln

[Sally]

I loved the movie. Obviously, DDL did a great job. But I was also impressed by how much the other actors looked like the real people they were portraying. My only disappointment was the way Robert was portrayed. (I'm kind of an RTL fan.)

First, I've always read that he didn't grow a mustache until after his father's assassination. I know this is a minor point, but it seems odd to me that the producers did such a great job getting almost every other detail correct, yet this one slipped by them.

My second (minor) quibble was that Robert had a southern accent. It has also been my understanding that, in his efforts to distance himself from his father's "homespun" background, the young RTL put on the eastern airs and accent of his schoolfriends from Phillips Exeter and Harvard.

Third, as has been stated, Lincoln would NEVER have hit any of his sons. I don't know why that was put in there.

Finally, I was somewhat surprised by the intimation that Robert was conceived on the wrong side of the marriage certificate. This occurred in the scene where Mary and Lincoln are arguing over Lincoln's decision to let Robert join the army. Mary makes a comment to the effect that Lincoln never liked Robert because he was the reason he'd been roped into a marriage that made him miserable. Did anyone else get that? I suppose, since RTL was born only nine months after the wedding, they could easily have fudged his birth certificate for the sake of "decency". But wouldn't that have come out somehow? Mary had so many enemies, like Herndon. You'd think he would have loved to prove that she'd been a "fallen woman". Or did I somehow miss that in Herndon's writings?