Starring television stalwarts Sam Waterson and Mary Tyler Moore as Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, this 3 hour telefilm, Lincoln, is based on Gore Vidal’s historical novel. Unlike John Ford’s imagining of the Young Mr. Lincoln or D.W. Griffith’s sweeping pastiche, here we see only the presidential Lincoln, from the moment his train rolls into Washington for the first time to the moment the train with his remains rolls out 
of town. Compared to other interpretations of the man and myth that comprise the 16th U.S. president, this Lincoln seems unnaturally modern, a slick and ambitious politician with an enormous personal burden to fulfill. Lincoln’s role as a martyr to his greater cause is immediately, repeatedly, and unsubtly communicated throughout the narrative of this interpretation, suggesting that Lincoln shared with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesus Christ, and Harvey Milk a prescient acceptance of his mortal fate. The film’s treatment of Mary Todd, on the other hand, is far less flattering, suggesting, as have some scholars, that mental illness was behind her irrational spending sprees, course manners, and even selling of presidential secrets to the media. The film also addresses some of the less admirable aspects of Lincoln’s presidency, such as the suspension of habeas corpus (the legal process that requires the government to inform prisoners of the charges for which they are held) and his suggested plan to relocate African Americans to Africa. Given that all of history must be filtered through the author’s point of view, Lincoln is a well constructed history lesson, one that transcends its medium and constructs memorable, if not contemporarily re-imagined, portraits of impossibly large figures.
Gore Vidal’s Lincoln
February 22nd, 2009 · No Comments
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Drama
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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