A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand
Originally published December 2012. MY REFLECTION OF LINCOLN Steven Spielberg does it again with Lincoln , Daniel Day-Lewis giving an awe-inspiring performance of Honest Abe and Tommy Lee Jones giving one of his finest performances as the quick-witted Thaddeus Stevens. While Sally Field looks a lot like Mary Todd Lincoln, I personally felt that casting the actress who was 20yrs older than Ms. Lincoln at the historical time period of the movie removed elements of consistency (it's easy to age an actor; it's much harder to make them look younger). Another Oscar is in the future for Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis. Movies like these remind us how human the players of history really were--full of imperfections and shortcomings as we are. We take for granted when we read our history books that the passing of the 13th Amendment meant that our nation just came to terms with slavery and then got sidetracked with Reconstruction. If you don't like C-SPAN, scenes drama...