Lincoln

Lincoln has been as well received as any movie in years. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, based on the Doris Kearns Goodwin book Team of Rivals most consider Spielberg and much of the cast to be Oscar worthy.

The movie, unlike the book, which examines the whole Lincoln Presidency, centers on the last four months of Lincoln's life. At this time Lincoln is working feverishly toward getting the 13th amendment, that which bans slavery, to be ratified by the House, the Senate having previously done so. Lincoln's fear is that with the war coming to an end that the Emancipation Proclamation might be somehow reversed as an executive order under the War Powers Act. He himself admits to the plausibility of it being reversed due to the murky process by which he was invested with such powers.

One would think this would be an easy thing, the North after all was against slavery. However Democrats, still in sympathy, with their Southern brethren, and if not for slavery against anything that might indicate an equality between the races had consistently held any thought of the amendment at bay. With the war coming to an end Lincoln has a limited time frame. He knows he needs to have the law passed before it can be used as a negotiating point for any Southern delegation.

What follows is a legislative battle that most folks today would not have presumed taking place in that long ago time. We have visions of Lincoln being all powerful, at least in the North, when in actuality he was not a popular figure to some, we think of the North holding hands and freeing the slaves in unison, this also was far from the truth. What transpired was bare-knuckled politics. A lobbying group was contracted by Secretary of State Steward to try to convert the necessary lame-duck Democrats ( those who would be leaving office in March of 1965) to change their previous votes. Nothing was above these men. Bribery, Patronage, even blackmail if necessary. It becomes evident that in the case of the thirteenth amendment one must hope that the end justified the means because it was not a pretty process.

In the end Lincoln who, while it had been attempted to insulate him from the dirty politics of the lobbyists) worked hand in hand with them in gaining the votes necessary. Lincoln was a consummate politician. He knew what buttons to push in almost every case. One gets a strong sense of his personality and also the exasperation of those around him. Always quick with a story, sometimes frustratingly so to those who revered him, and wished him to be more forceful he ran the country like I sometimes think I parent. Trying to show examples that deliver the message in a nice way but never being afraid to deliver the message as poison if need be.

Spielberg's direction is flawless, the soundtrack is elegant and the acting is the best you will find.

Daniel Day Lewis might well earn another Best Actor Oscar. None of us ever saw Lincoln in the flesh or even on video but one cannot walk out of the theater without feeling like you saw a genuine glimpse of the man.

Sally Field is wonderful as the harpy wife Mary Todd Lincoln. With stresses all her life the death of her son in the White House two years ago is a sadness that never leaves her.

Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens continues his string of improbable rolls. It has been a long way from Woodrow Call to this but Jones never misses a step.

Hal Holbrook, still alive, I did not know, plays Francis Blair, a pivotal Republican, not in office, but controlling a large block of votes who Lincoln must win to his cause and then manipulate the events and timing of the bill to stay the course and not lose his support.

Everything about this movie is first rate. The only caution I can provide is that because the movie centers on just one short time period, primarily on one piece of legislation, and the battle to get that bill passed, for those without much of an interest in politics, the process as it were, the movie can get long. For those of us who love history, are political junkies and appreciate a beautifully filmed movie it does not get better than this.

My highest recommendation for this movie.

Norma Rae

We celebrated Labor Day last Monday by watching one of the most famous labor movies made. Sally Field stars as Norma Rae Webster a textile mill worker in North Carolina. Norma Rae has two kids by two different men, has been married once and is not shy in anyway.

When we first see her in the textile mill in a gritty t shirt and hair up, sweat on her brow and sass on her lips it becomes quite a contrast to how she looks eight hours later when she answers the door to Sonny Webster and goes out with him. Field is stupendous in this role, she is Norma Rae in accent,tone, and bearing.

As she starts dating Sonny ( Beau Bridges) one day when he comes to pick her up for a date she presents her two children to join them. Nonplussed he returns to his house and picks up his young daughter to join them. He is, unbeknownst to Norma, a single father. After an earnest proposal expressing his desire for a good life, a shared life, Norma is married. As she says " it has been a long time between offers."

While Norma's relationship with her future husband is developing she has made friends with a union organizer from New York named Rueben Warshowsky. Rueben, played by Ron Leibman, who also is brilliant, is a fish out of water, a New York Jew in a Carolina mill town, but he believes in the union and is steadfast.

Norma is tired of the working conditions at the mill that have affected her, her friends and loved ones. Of course the bosses are portrayed as typical good old Southern boys who use all the methods available to keep the union from organizing.


The climatic scene in the movie is well known, Norma's silent vigil holding her union sign is one most of us have at least heard of.

It is said that Burt Reynolds, Field's live in at the time of the filming, read the script and said as he handed the script back to field " Ladies and Gentlemen the Oscar goes to Sally Field" He was prescient in this statement and it was well deserved.

This is not a pretty movie. It is grey and gritty with real characters struggling to maintain their dignity. It could be compared to The Grapes of Wrath in how well it portrays it's story of the downtrodden low skill worker in America.

A fantastic movie.

Smokey and the Bandit

For all my affectations of trying to read many of the classic novels, historical and biographical books, enjoying a wide range of all music and of course classic movies I was raised a country kid.

I grew up in a small town, we went to the car races all summer long, and when I was a 12 year old boy and went with a friends family to the drive in ( another thing long gone from the landscape) to see this movie it was a highlight.

I loved this movie. As a twelve year old it had a cool star, fast cars, a Trans Am no less and enough cursing to be be considered cool. Later we would watch Porky's and feel the same but for now the Trans Am was a huge star, one that young boys would fall in love with.

Now I should admit that I also in this time frame or soon thereafter found The Dukes of Hazzard to be a great show too. That show too featured cars and racing as well as those Daisy Dukes.

With the Dukes still on CMT I got a chance to watch this the other day. It does not age well. I do not feel any affection for it. It is awful to watch.

However catching Smokey and the Bandit on cable a week or so ago I have to admit a stunning fact. I love this movie. It is a good story. It is not illuminating in any way. It does not teach or moralize. But it is funny.

Perhaps the best thing about the movie is Jackie Gleason. He was an underrated actor and in this role as Sheriff Buford T Pusser he lays it on thick. It works. Burt Reynolds underrated in many of his roles plays his part well and certainly not in an understated way. Sally Fields and Jerry Lee Lewis were also good.

Some movies just work. This movie is a snapshot of redneck culture in the mid seventies. Good, bad or indifferent it works. It still does.

Forest Gump

I have watched this movie at least ten times. Of course it being on television practically every week on some cable channel makes that easy to do. I actually remember going to see it the weekend it came out on a sneak preview on a Saturday night only. It was a movie to remember.

It was witty and the practice of the special effects inserting Forest into situation after situation through the sixties and seventies was very new.

I still like the movie. We often quote parts of the movie around the house. " You ain't got no legs Lt. Dan, Get Down Shut up!, Run Forest, I was Running, and others are lines that get a chuckle be it me or my kids who say it.

The soundtrack was wonderful. Perhaps one of the most jarring moments comes when we first see Forest and Bubba in Vietnam and the scenery changes so quickly and we hear John Fogerty and Jimi Hendrix introducing us to this new location.

A great movie then. A great movie now. Underrated in this movie also was Sally Field. She is a great actress.