Thanksgiving, Family, Idolozed US Historical Figures...
Thanksgiving weekend was busy and happy for me -- I spent pretty much the entire time surrounded by family, saw all my siblings, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews, both parents. My siblings and I took my mom out for brunch on Sunday to celebrate her 60th birthday. It went really well, everyone had a good time. It was nice.
I think though, that I caught something from one of the kiddos, or from my brother possibly, because now I am feeling crumby. I stayed home from work today and have been sitting around reading Team of Rivals. I have been making pretty quick progress.
Because, see, on Saturday, I went and saw "Lincoln." My reaction has followed a trajectory that is by now pretty familiar to me: first, restrained optimistic curiosity - I go in sort of critical and skeptical but open to getting fully swept up in the story. (The audience burst into applause at the end -- I smiled and thought, "Yeah, it was good.") Then I go home and think over the little things about it that bugged me*. As well as the things that impressed or intrigued me. I find myself preoccupied with it. Keep digesting it and then just... want more of it. (I would be vidding it now, if I could. (I even have a song picked out.)) I watched a History Channel documentary on Abe Lincoln, then started Doris Kearns' book which inspired the movie. This is what it looks like when I discover a new fandom. (But guys, I can't be developing a crush on Lincoln, because, seriously, that's just weird.**)
**However, it is probably perfectly reasonable to have a crush on Daniel Day Lewis. And Daniel Day Lewis totally has a crush on Lincoln, so, you know.
... And now back to reading Team of Rivals.
*First of all, there's just the corniness some of the scenes leaned toward. Spielberg, especially combined with John Williams -- it used to be magical when I was a kid, but now the heavy-handed emotional cues and tugging is just predictable and eyeroll-inducing. Nevertheless, I was moved. Obviously, since this movie is taking over this LJ post and my day.
Some, possibly nit-picky, problems I had were... okay, there's a scene - there's this one shot - where I just kept thinking: If we zoom in past S. Epatha Merkerson to focus all our attention on Tommy Lee Jones' reaction right now, it will seriously detract from this otherwise moving scene for me. And then that was EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED ARRRGH.
lol But, yeah, that's... not really... I mean, it may be indicative of an overall flaw with the movie, but it's mostly pretty well-done. I mean, it's about the people it's about, and it doesn't pretend otherwise.
It does sort of try to give some voice to different perspectives. And it does sort of show the limitations of the main cast's perspectives. It deals much more fairly with Mary Lincoln than it might have, I think (I cringed when Lincoln told Mary he should have had her locked up in an insane asylum -- historically accurate, I guess, but ouch). And there was a scene where Lincoln asks a black woman if she's worried about what will happen to her people if slavery is abolished, and what she thinks will become of them, who they will become. And she basically tells him -- shyly and deferentially, (he's the president and her employer) but clearly -- that that's a really weird question, a weirdly utilitarian way to frame the issue. And she says that, for her personally, who she is in the country is a grieving mother who lost her son on the battlefield. She asks Lincoln if she is supposed to be more, and leaves him with that thought. Idk, a small scene, and an awkward one even, but I thought it was an interesting and important one to include.
Because in most of the scenes, Lincoln comes off as wise beyond reproach. But it's hard to really mind that -- not just because of the occasional scene like the one I just mentioned where we can question him a little -- mostly because he simultaneously feels very human and quirky and loveable. I had no idea he was such a weird, folksy storyteller (but accounts in Team of Rivals confirm this). Often starting into seemingly unrelated anecdotes and long, irreverent jokes, entertaining a whole room with a twinkle in his eye. He's... my god, he might be Dumbledore.
Okay, I'm getting weird. I'll leave the computer for a bit now.
Btw, doesn't come anywhere close to passing the Bechtel test. (But neither did "X-Men: First Class," so. (I rewatched that recently and got pretty irritated by a few things.) The difference is that, for some reason I expect that of the latter, but didn't actually expect it of this?) Anyway. When is somebody going to make a really fucking fantastic film about women's suffrage?
One last note. The nature of the comments on the movie's trailers on youtube are interesting. There are a lot of confederacy-apologists who are annoyed about the movie (and by "apologists," I mean people don't really think the South has all that much to apologize for). The whole thing reminded me what a weird, unlikely country this is. All the insanity and ugliness of the civil war and slavery - it's what the country is built on. And sometimes it feels like it's still two countries stuck together uncomfortably.
Okay, silliness aside: Here we go -- this article "Lincoln Against The Radicals" is fantastic and digs deep into the issues that were bothering me about this film and its focus, that I couldn't quite pull apart. I really don't know enough of the history involved. The article also includes links to other good, provocative articles on the subject.
Silliness back: I don't know how long this sudden fascination will stay with me, but I feel right now that I am straddling a bizarre divide of possibilities; do I go on to devour works by scholarly historians and transform into a casual Civil War and Reconstruction era buff? Or do I surrender my brain to more fannish rot and go the way of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer."
I think though, that I caught something from one of the kiddos, or from my brother possibly, because now I am feeling crumby. I stayed home from work today and have been sitting around reading Team of Rivals. I have been making pretty quick progress.
Because, see, on Saturday, I went and saw "Lincoln." My reaction has followed a trajectory that is by now pretty familiar to me: first, restrained optimistic curiosity - I go in sort of critical and skeptical but open to getting fully swept up in the story. (The audience burst into applause at the end -- I smiled and thought, "Yeah, it was good.") Then I go home and think over the little things about it that bugged me*. As well as the things that impressed or intrigued me. I find myself preoccupied with it. Keep digesting it and then just... want more of it. (I would be vidding it now, if I could. (I even have a song picked out.)) I watched a History Channel documentary on Abe Lincoln, then started Doris Kearns' book which inspired the movie. This is what it looks like when I discover a new fandom. (But guys, I can't be developing a crush on Lincoln, because, seriously, that's just weird.**)
**However, it is probably perfectly reasonable to have a crush on Daniel Day Lewis. And Daniel Day Lewis totally has a crush on Lincoln, so, you know.
... And now back to reading Team of Rivals.
*First of all, there's just the corniness some of the scenes leaned toward. Spielberg, especially combined with John Williams -- it used to be magical when I was a kid, but now the heavy-handed emotional cues and tugging is just predictable and eyeroll-inducing. Nevertheless, I was moved. Obviously, since this movie is taking over this LJ post and my day.
Some, possibly nit-picky, problems I had were... okay, there's a scene - there's this one shot - where I just kept thinking: If we zoom in past S. Epatha Merkerson to focus all our attention on Tommy Lee Jones' reaction right now, it will seriously detract from this otherwise moving scene for me. And then that was EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED ARRRGH.
lol But, yeah, that's... not really... I mean, it may be indicative of an overall flaw with the movie, but it's mostly pretty well-done. I mean, it's about the people it's about, and it doesn't pretend otherwise.
It does sort of try to give some voice to different perspectives. And it does sort of show the limitations of the main cast's perspectives. It deals much more fairly with Mary Lincoln than it might have, I think (I cringed when Lincoln told Mary he should have had her locked up in an insane asylum -- historically accurate, I guess, but ouch). And there was a scene where Lincoln asks a black woman if she's worried about what will happen to her people if slavery is abolished, and what she thinks will become of them, who they will become. And she basically tells him -- shyly and deferentially, (he's the president and her employer) but clearly -- that that's a really weird question, a weirdly utilitarian way to frame the issue. And she says that, for her personally, who she is in the country is a grieving mother who lost her son on the battlefield. She asks Lincoln if she is supposed to be more, and leaves him with that thought. Idk, a small scene, and an awkward one even, but I thought it was an interesting and important one to include.
Because in most of the scenes, Lincoln comes off as wise beyond reproach. But it's hard to really mind that -- not just because of the occasional scene like the one I just mentioned where we can question him a little -- mostly because he simultaneously feels very human and quirky and loveable. I had no idea he was such a weird, folksy storyteller (but accounts in Team of Rivals confirm this). Often starting into seemingly unrelated anecdotes and long, irreverent jokes, entertaining a whole room with a twinkle in his eye. He's... my god, he might be Dumbledore.
Okay, I'm getting weird. I'll leave the computer for a bit now.
Btw, doesn't come anywhere close to passing the Bechtel test. (But neither did "X-Men: First Class," so. (I rewatched that recently and got pretty irritated by a few things.) The difference is that, for some reason I expect that of the latter, but didn't actually expect it of this?) Anyway. When is somebody going to make a really fucking fantastic film about women's suffrage?
One last note. The nature of the comments on the movie's trailers on youtube are interesting. There are a lot of confederacy-apologists who are annoyed about the movie (and by "apologists," I mean people don't really think the South has all that much to apologize for). The whole thing reminded me what a weird, unlikely country this is. All the insanity and ugliness of the civil war and slavery - it's what the country is built on. And sometimes it feels like it's still two countries stuck together uncomfortably.
Okay, silliness aside: Here we go -- this article "Lincoln Against The Radicals" is fantastic and digs deep into the issues that were bothering me about this film and its focus, that I couldn't quite pull apart. I really don't know enough of the history involved. The article also includes links to other good, provocative articles on the subject.
Silliness back: I don't know how long this sudden fascination will stay with me, but I feel right now that I am straddling a bizarre divide of possibilities; do I go on to devour works by scholarly historians and transform into a casual Civil War and Reconstruction era buff? Or do I surrender my brain to more fannish rot and go the way of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer."