What 'Lincoln' misses and another Civil War film gets right

[redstar826]

- He used the N-word and told racist jokes. He once said African-Americans were inferior to whites. He proposed ending slavery by shipping willing slaves back to Africa

Comments

[roseofjuly]

That is why I had no interest in seeing this movie. As soon as I heard the premise, I knew that the goal (or effect) would be to try to attempt to cast Lincoln as this great noble abolitionist who rose from the ashes to honorably end slavery, along with the support of other white people. It's notable enough that a movie that is primarily about the efforts of an American president to push through the Thirteenth Amendment does NOT star any black actors or actresses.

My husband and I were saying the other day that there's been a succession of historical films on pretty much anything from white American history. However, there are so many interesting stories in American people of color's history and nobody's making those movies. Red Tails is a prime example, but we were talking about how a feature film centered on Harriet Tubman's life and her activities in freeing enslaved African Americans would be really exciting and moving if done right. Olaudah Equiano's story would also provide a really interesting movie. The rise of black

[nesmith]

I would SO go to a movie about Harriet Tubman. She's been a hero of mine since I first encountered her in school back in second grade. Such an amazing woman.

[roseofjuly]

And see when I was in school, we only ever learned about her working as an abductor on the Underground Railroad. I didn't even know about her Union Army service until later. You could conceivably make a good movie about either period in her life.

[betray802]

History is written by the victors... It was amusing at the time -- because we were 16 and collectively stupid -- but I had a classmate in 11th grade American History who was Lakota and Crow. This was in northwestern New England, where most of us believed we didn't have native peoples anymore. Witness the Abenaki struggle to get even state-level recognition. We treated it as a carnival sideshow curiosity

[jenny_jenkins]

I have migraine, but I'm staying up to watch it on PBS! It'll be one in 44 minutes and I hope it's as awesome as this review says - and the preview promised!

[hinoema]

No. 2: It's the economy, stupid

Want to know why slavery lasted so long?

As in 'until the present day'? Only now it's called outsourcing...

And yeah, Spielberg and his candyflossing of history; he's almost as bad as Disney in that respect.

[maynardsong]

Disney never pretends that it's not taking massive liberties though. Disney KNOWS that we KNOW that it's taking liberties to sell a colorful story that will appeal to all ages.

[othellia]

Aww... shoot, missed today's one, I'll have to see if they upload it to their website.

I'm very curious to see the parts on the racism from within the Abolitionists' circle since I used to do a bunch of reports on them and that time period in middle school and high school, and never came across that too much. It seems that high school level research books like to leave those parts out.

Also, re: seeing Lincoln as the noble man who freed the slaves above all else, almost everyone I've met who's not into history didn't know the Underground Railroad wasn't underground and wasn't a railroad, so that really doesn't surprise me.

[jenny_jenkins]

I'm 15 minutes in.

So far: Angelina Grimké Weld (win!), William Lloyd Garrison (winner!), Frederick Douglass (winningest!)

Oh - even as I'm typing! Nat Turner rebellion.

It's awesome - don't miss it!

[othellia]

Yeah, I assumed from someone's earlier comment up thread that it'd already passed, and by the time I noticed your that one had passed as well. PBS did upload it to their website though, so I finally got some time to watch it today and it was totally worth it

[jenny_jenkins]

WLG and Douglass and Weld - it was their life's work. Their whole lives

[kitschaster]

I've been telling people about Lincoln for years, including many of those listed points. What's really sad? I've had more southerners confess it to be true than I ever got when I lived in Los Angeles. That has always been quite...unnerving. I'd think it would be the other way around.

[encircleme]

We're incredibly racist and live with massive blinders on here in LA.

[kitschaster]

Truly. I used to think my fellow Los Angelians were great. But not so much anymore.

[intrikate88]

Idk, I think Southerners are more aware because we never stop having that history brought up to us. We have to deal with it, we have to live with it, and we have to try to learn from it. People from other regions hear about it more abstractly, and I don't think it's quite as real. Doesn't mean we don't have a shitload of racism problems, but I don't think we're ever allowed to be blind to history.