BEFORE: And just like that, Halloween and October are over, and November begins. November is the month of three occasions to mark: Election Day, Veterans' Day and Thanksgiving. So it's on to political films, war films and, umm, Thanksgiving films. Don't worry, it'll all make sense when we get there. I do feel like I'm making progress, since the list is still slowly shrinking (209), and some complete categories are empty - sports films are played out, Westerns are now a thing of the past, and horror films have faded back into the darkness for another year.
I did warn everyone I'd be making this rather odd transition - I wonder how many other people watched both 2012 films about Abe Lincoln back-to-back. Linking from "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter", Dominic Cooper was also in "Captain America: The First Avenger" with Tommy Lee Jones (last seen in "Men In Black 3").
THE PLOT: As the Civil War continues to rage, America's president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.
AFTER: It's strange how there's no mention in this film of Lincoln's past history battling the undead. One might think that such a thing didn't really happen... This film instead chooses to concentrate on his attempts to get the 13th Amendment passed. Er, ratified? Damn, now I need to read up on my history AND the legislative process vis-a-vis Constitutional amendments. Apparently in the closing days of the Civil War, Lincoln was pushing for this amendment and trying to negotiate the surrender of the South and the end of the war at the same time. And the 13th Amendment was extremely important, because it was all about trial by jury. No, wait, freedom of the press. Bearing false witness? Oh, right, slavery. That was going to be my next guess.
The way I figure it, the order of these things mattered greatly - because if the Southern states were allowed back into the government, with all of the voting privileges they had before, then this amendment would never have gotten off the ground, what with the economic benefits of using slave labor and all that. So the amendment HAD to happen before peace broke out, and Lincoln was defiantly adamant on that point.
The Emancipation Proclamation was HUGE, but that's all it was, a proclamation, an executive order. It was not a law passed by Congress. This is why we have separate branches of government, so the President can't go around proclaiming this and that, saying we all need to exercise more and putting all naturalized Belgians in camps and such. And the Proclamation didn't even apply to FIVE slave states that didn't secede. And some politicians at the time viewed slavery as a way to restore the Union, crazy as that sounds now.
So we've got a second-term president willing to trade on his political capital in order to pass an unpopular law - but one that will grant rights to the disenfranchised. The Senate has already voted the law into place, but the opposition in the House, including members of his own party, is willing to postpone or otherwise stonewall the bill rather than let it proceed. How is this not a giant metaphor for ObamaCare?
The irony lies in how much has changed since 1865 - Lincoln was a Republican, seeking to grant voting rights to the disenfranchised slaves (who were represented, just as 3/5 of a person each) and these days the Republican party is trying to pass voter registration laws in order to re-disenfranchise the very same minority, who largely vote Democrat.
Beyond the history lesson, the film plays out rather dryly, lots of talkie-talkie. (Turns out it really could have used at least one good battle scene against a vampire. Oh, well...) I think I may have missed quite a bit of the meaning of the political maneuvering, like when a Senator speaks out against a proposed law, when it seems to be in line with the way he's voted for most of his career - did they fail to explain this sufficiently, or is it just me?)
I suppose it is an interesting look at the sort of backroom deals that were made, and still take place, in order to get laws passed in this country. Political appointments, support from the executive branch, and just plain old CASH are thrown around quite liberally in order to get things done. I'm sure this stuff all takes place today, to the point of ridiculousness. Somebody figured out that the recent Republican-arranged shutdown of the government ended up costing so much, it could have funded the Affordable Care Act (the thing they were rallying against) three times over. What a bunch of whining babies.
Now, for my conundrum - how do I judge the two Lincoln films against each other? Can I even use the same scale to cover a horror film and a political drama which are sort of linked but vastly different in both intent and execution? I can because the scale really only reflects MY enjoyment, how I felt at the conclusion of each film, not whether one film is "better" than another for what it was trying to do. (Considering it was 4 am, at the end of "Lincoln" I was mainly just tired...)
Also starring Daniel Day-Lewis (last seen in "The Boxer"), Sally Field (last seen in "The Amazing Spider-Man"), David Strathairn (last seen in "Twisted"), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (last seen in "10 Things I Hate About You"), James Spader (last seen in, umm "Stargate"?), Hal Holbrook (last seen in "Water for Elephants"), John Hawkes (last seen in "Hardball"), Jackie Earle Haley (last seen in "Dark Shadows"), Gulliver McGrath (ditto), Bruce McGill, Tim Blake Nelson (last seen in "O"), Jared Harris (last seen in "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"), Joseph Cross, Lee Pace, with cameos from Gloria Reuben, Walton Goggins (last seen in "Cowboys & Aliens"), Lukas Haas (last seen in "Inception"), Dane DeHaan (last seen in "Chronicle"), Julie White, S. Epatha Merkerson.
RATING: 5 out of 10 lobbyists
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