Lincoln - DVD

I was glad I read the brief biography Abraham Lincoln by Senator George S. McGovern before watching Steven Spielberg's Lincoln on DVD. It helped to identify the players and also sort out some of the political shenanigans in 1865 that surrounded passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that Lincoln fought so hard to get passed. 

That is the amendment that abolished slavery in America.

The movie draws from Doris Kearns Goodwins' A Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. I have not read it. (Good Grief! It runs to 944 pages in paperback.) Basically it looks at the choices that Lincoln made to fill his cabinet and his relationship with those men. (And of course they were all men...)

Although I am not a reviewer, I will give you some of my impressions of the movie. It was long -- two-and-a-half hours. It was dark, and dusty, and full of whiskers. All the men had lots of facial hair - long, gray beards, bushy mustaches, or Elvis-worthy sideburns.

Daniel Day-Lewis portrays Lincoln as a stooped, reedy-voiced, complicated, troubled, weary, melancholy man. Sally Field plays his always-on-the-verge-of-hysteria wife, Mary. She wears the same ugly necklace throughout the entire movie. Tommy Lee Jones (one of my favorite actors) is the radical abolitionist Thaddeus Stephens who has to wear a horrible brown wig that made my head itch even to look at it. 

You can see that my reviewing skills are quite shallow. But what I did take away from the movie was the understanding of the many challenges (not nearly a strong enough term) that the president, man, father, husband, friend, and leader of the military had to face. Stuff was coming at him from all sides. One son is dead and another wants to join the Union Army and go off to war. His wife can't see beyond her own grief. The ineffectual Union military commanders have prolonged the war and now, after four years of fighting, six hundred thousand men are dead. His cabinet is divided. The House of Representatives is divided. The country is divided. 

All Lincoln wants to do is end slavery, end the war, and save the Union. Quite a heavy to-do list, wouldn't you say?

It is helpful to know a bit about Lincoln's early life as some of that is referenced in the movie (which takes place over the four or five months before his assassination on April 14, 1865) and it was good to know that background.

This movie certainly gave me a different look at The Man Who Saved the Union than the portrait of a fence-mending, backwoods lawyer that was taught to us in school. And it is one well worth watching.

Abraham Lincoln by Senator George S. McGovern

I rented Steven Spielberg's movie Lincoln and in preparation for watching it I thought I would read the biography of our sixteenth president written by Senator George McGovern for the American Presidents Series.

You can read how I came to have an autographed copy of the biography, Abraham Lincoln, here. 

It is an overview of the life and times of this most admired and respected president all presented in 155 pages. (This suits me as I don't need to know Lincoln's shoe size or what he ate for breakfast or how many whiskers were on his chin.) I spent the morning reading about his early life, his rise in political circles, and am just now getting to his presidency and the Civil War. 

The book is quite well written and although I know a little of this and a little of that about Mr. Lincoln, I am enjoying reading this thoughtful record of his life.

On Meeting Senator George McGovern

Senator George McGovern
holding his book about Abraham Lincoln
2009
Photo source: Jake Ross/Associated Press

I was saddened to read of the recent death of former South Dakota Senator George McGovern. In my younger years, when I actually had the energy and the stomach for politics, I was quite a fan of his. It still astounds me that Richard Nixon won the 1972 election and sent us into the nightmare that was Watergate. 

But I am not here to talk about politics. What I want to tell you is that I met and have a book autographed by Senator McGovern. He was here a year of so ago in conjunction with our state historical society, The Filson Club.

There were so many who registered for the free event, that it had to be moved to a church to accommodate all the attendees.

Senator McGovern looked quite frail at the time, but his voice, his sense of humor, and his opinions were strong. He mostly spoke about his book, Abraham Lincoln, which he wrote as one of the American Presidents Series published by Henry Holt and Company.

The book was on sale in the lobby (supplied by an independent bookstore, thank you) and I bought a copy on my way in. I am glad I did. After his talk, I got directly in line to have the senator autograph my copy. 

Here is what happened:

As I approached the table where he was sitting with an assistant, I spotted a pad of orange Post-It notes. I grabbed one and printed my first name on it which I knew would speed the process along when it came to signing the book. When it was my turn, I handed him the book open to the correct page for his signature with the orange note  stuck to the top of the page. 

He looked up at me. He was confused. He asked if I wanted him to personalize the inscription. I replied, "Yes, sir. And thank you so much."

Oh dear. His assistant was not happy. Apparently he was only supposed to sign the books. No personal inscriptions. 

Oh well. I may be the only person there that actually had that intimate moment with Senator McGovern. I have the book, his autograph with its inscription, and the orange Post-It note. 

And that is my tale of meeting Senator George McGovern. 

Rest in Peace.