Comments on: Abraham Lincoln’s Hollywood Comeback

By: Rebekah

Rebekah — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:46:37 +0000

Has it really been 80 years since the last Lincoln film? Why so long? He’s one of our most beloved presidents. That’s just strange.
That “Saving Lincoln” movie that Nina mentioned sounds interesting though. I’ll definitely keep a look out for that.

By: Nina Litvak

Nina Litvak — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 22:37:32 +0000

Greetings! There is another Lincoln movie coming out soon. It’s called “Saving Lincoln” and it’s about Lincoln’s fiery trial as commander-in-chief as recounted by his close friend and bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon. “Saving Lincoln” is an indie movie made for a modest budget, but it covers the entire Civil War. The story begins in 1847 when Lincoln and Lamon first met. Lincoln is played by Illinois’ own Tom Amandes. Lamon is played by Lea Coco, who also has an Illinois connection because he was prominent in the Chicago theater world before moving to LA. Penelope Ann Miller plays Mary Lincoln; she doesn’t have an Illinois connection, but she hits it out of the park as Mary Lincoln!

By: Richard Fox

Richard Fox — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 22:27:32 +0000

Thanks for the interesting comments. Folo Watkins rightly points to the excellent TV offerings on Lincoln, which may help explain why Hollywood studios shied away from making feature films on Lincoln’s life after World War II.

Lisa Hogan correctly notes the age gap between Mary Lincoln and Sally Field. Mary turned 46 on December 13, 1864, four months before the assassination. Field will turn 66 on November 6, 2012, three days before the initial release of Steven Spielberg’s feature-film “Lincoln.”

The trailer for the film includes a brief glimpse of Field’s performance, and though she may reveal a few more wrinkles than Mary did at age 46, I’m guessing that overall, in makeup, her face will show a reasonably close resemblance to Mary’s.

The issue that remains: will the film give us a balanced interpretation of Mary the person, or will she appear, true to stereotype, as the perpetual thorn in Lincoln’s side– as she did in D. W. Griffith’s feature “Abraham Lincoln” (1930) and the feature-film version of Robert Sherwood’s play “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” (1940)?

With Spielberg’s film in mind, I wrote on the “balance” issue in depictions of Mary in my June 6, 2011 post on this site, “And Starring Sally Field as the Fragile Mary Lincoln.“

By: Lisa Shawn Hogan

Lisa Shawn Hogan — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:29:49 +0000

I agree with Folo about Mary. I’m always interested in how current documentaries make her look so old. She was in her early 40s when she became First Lady. How old is Sally Field???

By: Folo Watkins

Folo Watkins — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:22:50 +0000

Depending on how you define “Hollywood,” this disregards Hal Holbrooks’ wonderful mini-series (1974-5) and the Sam Waterston mini-series of 1988. What I hope above all else in the Spielberg film is a fair treatment of Mary!