Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

About That Thirteenth Amendment

So Spielberg's movie Lincoln shows the House voting for the 13th Amendment on 31 January 1865. Remarkably, Illinois was the first state to ratify on February 1st. Rhode Island on the 2nd. Michigan, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia on the 3rd. Virginia (!) was the twelfth state on the 9th. Though it took until December 6th, when Georgia became the 27th of 36 states to complete ratification, I had no idea that half the total states (18 of 36) ratified within the first month. (The 35-star flag above was in use at the end of the Civil War, until 4 July 1865 when the 36th star was added for Nevada's entry in 31 October 1864.)

I really think there should've been some comment about this in the film.

The Death of Lincoln

Ken Burns tells the story of editing The Civil War. They had the script for Our American Cousin, actors reading the parts, a recording of a gunshot. They were editing and came up to the moment... and had to stop for a few minutes. Lincoln still lived, his second term still lay before him. Eventually they continued, because they had to. They knew they couldn't quit for the day and come back to it -- that would've been more painful. But for a brief moment of quiet, they reflected on what might have been, while holding off the awful truth.

[SPOILER]

In Lincoln, we see Lincoln going out for the evening. The film is nearly two hours long, it's April 1865, we know what's coming. Except...

We are about to be punched in the gut. The scene on the stage involves a sword fight. In Our American Cousin? Huh? We cut to the balcony and see not Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, but their young son with a handler. Oh no. When a manager bursts onto the stage to announce that the President has been shot over at Ford's Theater, we are properly horrified. It is as in Apollo 13 when we watched Jim Lovell's older son in class at military school when the reentry blackout exceeded four minutes.

Manipulative? Sure. But it is a way to take the known and make it unknown again.

And I was impressed.

Dr. Phil

A Long Holiday Week

The Fourth of July is on a Wednesday this year, so those Americans who have any meager vacation time available are likely to front load, back load or take the whole damn week off. Mrs. Dr. Phil is taking Monday and Tuesday off, so when she got off work Friday, it was the start of a long weekend.

Mrs. Dr. Phil decided we needed to see a holiday blockbuster movie and what were the showtimes for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter? Turned out that the last 3D showing at the Holland 7 was at 7:20pm. It was 5:46pm, and we'd need to leave at around 6:20pm. Fortunately our dinner plans were not complex, as we'd planned on a light supper using this season's first local tomato (DW) to make tomato sandwiches (DW).

Having declared that we could have popcorn for dessert, as surely this would be a popcorn movie, Mrs. Dr. Phil showed up with both popcorn and a box of SnoCaps. Interesting experiment -- there's just enough residual heat in brand new fresh popcorn to do a number on the SnoCaps, which are small enough to slip between the kernels and make a yummy gooey chocolate popcorn treat. Not sure we'll do that again, or if we do, very often, but it was fun.

Also we had a private screening. The Holland 7 was swamped with people, and even more crowded when we got out, but they were all going to see Ted or Brave or something. The comfortable widebody seat for two in Theatre 5 is perfectly dead center, and is next to a regular seat which has a cup holder. Win. (grin)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter 3D [R]

Holland 7 Theatre 5, 7:20pm, 2×$11.25

Writer Charles Coleman Finlay had posted on Facebook that he liked this movie a lot more than he'd thought, adding that it provided the "only explanation for Pickett's Charge that has ever made any sense." That was enough to pique our interest.

When we first meet the young adult Lincoln, he doesn't seem to be the iconic Lincoln we know. Of course, Lincoln himself wasn't that vision until quite late in his career. Is this actor tall enough? Skinny enough? Too handsome? Perhaps. But then we're talking about an origin vampire hunter movie and not a biopic, so really, find something else to worry about -- the man does a good job as this particular Lincoln. And that's good, because Stephen Douglas gets only a brief outing in this film and Mary Todd Lincoln does not strike me as the MTL of history.

The 3D work is mostly reasonable, although early in the movie there is an out of focus head closer than the main subject which makes the 3D look fake. Otherwise there are spectacular costumes and amusing, if impossible, fight choreography. The Matrix may have invented Bullet Time, Lincoln gives us Swirling Airborne Blood Time. And everything with a blade sings through the air. (grin) Who knew that an axe could be a sexy weapon? Or so versatile and convertible? (double-edged-grin)

There are surely great gaping holes in the "history" being shown here, but if you check your brain at the door, then those little bits of history which have been integrated into the story will tease and delight, rather than leave a sour taste in your mouth. The latter will be reserved for the one true flaw in the movie -- making the slave trade a cover for the vampires' food supply, while a nice trick, has the unfortunate effect of letting the real issues of slavery off the hook. Not only does it dilute what should be an important discussion, hell, it was already done by Anne Rice in Interview With The Vampire.

There are two very impressive bits of CGI work. One is shown in the trailer, in which a flying shot of Washington DC circling the Washington Monument, dissolves to its 1854-77 construction hiatus. The other briefly shows the intense riverboat traffic around New Orleans. This one amuses me, because Saturday night's Midnight Special on WFMT was playing the first disk of the CD Mark Twain: Words & Music, which talks about the traffic on the Mississippi.

A third elaborate CGI scene involving a burning railway trestle bridge lasts for far too long -- it must be the longest bridge in the world -- and suffers from some dreadful Physics.

The movie suffers from some problems, of course. For one thing, there is hardly anyone living or working in the White House, except for the extended family. Allan Pinkerton, whose security for Lincoln later developed into the Secret Service, seems to be absent. Wikipedia mentions that the legislation for the Secret Service was on Lincoln's desk when he went out to the play.

And then there's the canonical vampire issues, such as whether or not silver is going to do you a damned bit of good against a vampire. They throw in some faux lore to make it so, and I have to say that silver cannonballs are rather pretty. (grin)

We hadn't read the book, only heard a bit about it, so other than the obvious and the trailer, didn't go into this movie knowing the story. It's an interesting and amusing summer film. Some of the Civil War set pieces are nicely done -- I'm sure the reenactment crowd contributed. And the vampires confound and confuse, so there's that.

Recommended for Popcorn Fun.

TRAILERS: With Tim Burton involved in Lincoln, it seems like half the movie trailers were also Tim Burton productions. Other than that, the trailers didn't make an impression on me. Or I'd seen them before.

Dr. Phil

First Fire

On April 12th 1861, the U.S. Civil War formally began. As in the first shots fired at Fort Sumter. One can argue technicalities. Washington tried to resupply the fort on 9 January 1861, and the unarmed merchant ship was fired upon by South Carolina shore batteries. And even earlier "[o]n December 26, 1860, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surreptitiously moved his small command from the indefensible Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island to Fort Sumter" (Geeked from Wikipedia), so things were already in motion.

Some argue that the Civil War began with the election of Abraham Lincoln. Maybe. Or perhaps it was James Buchanan's failure to do anything. Personally, I think it goes deeper and earlier.

Watch 1776 -- you can see the seeds of conflict embedded in Philadelphia in July 1776. Take a look at the text, and look to see what's in it -- and what isn't.

And I'm not talking just about slavery. Some people say the Civil War was all about slavery. Some argue it was about state's rights. Some say it's about the union, and whether once assembled, it could be dissolved or seceded from. I suppose it's about all of these things. And what was important in 1861, changed and evolved over the years to 1865.

And as I mentioned the other day, we watched a number of episodes of the recent PBS rerun of Ken Burn's definitive The Civil War. After the series aired the first time, we went to two talks that Ken Burns gave locally. I was always struck by something he said then, and was also featured in his documentary. That before 1861 people said "The United States are..." And after 1865, people said "The United States is..."

Mention "The Civil War" to an American and they immediately link to 1861-1865.

This has happened with other events. Before 15 April 1912, it was "RMS Titanic" and after... "The Titanic".

One could argue that the Civil War was necessary to anneal and forge America. Alas, it did not rid us of the scourge of slavery. It only redistributed things, especially as an impatient nation threw itself into the work of rebuilding and expanding and blasting their way towards the 20th century.

There are some who would like to throw away much of what we've built since 1776 and 1865. Even some talk of a new round of secession. Sigh. We've been down that road, it wasn't pretty, and the people talking this talk are a majority only in their own minds. We don't need the Second Civil War, CW II, Civil War - The Sequel. We've moved our wars offshore. We don't want modern warfare inside these borders. Anyone who does is a fool. I'm pretty sure that North and South didn't know what they were getting into in 1860-1861.

Growing up in the North, upstate New York, the Civil War was more of historical interest. It took on a different meaning when we moved to North Carolina. As fascinating as it is intellectually, it was a traumatic event for those involved. A chunk of a generation killed. And to some, the adventure of a lifetime.

It is ironic that April 11th includes "the most boring day in the 20th century". And April 12th includes this event, albeit in the 19th century, and the anniversaries noted previously. Arbitrary to be sure, but that's history.

Dr. Phil