Mr. Lincoln Goes to Hollywood (Smithsonian Magazine)
Much more than a review, this piece in Smithsonian uses the new movie to look at the extraordinary political challenges of the time, Lincoln's political process in maneuvering staunch opponents to a common goal - preserve the Union.
Interesting side note - Lincoln never felt his Emancipation Proclamation was enough. It only pertained to the slave states and could be overturned by another president. A stop gap step of sorts. He chose to support and stated he would sign the 13th Amendment. It would apply to the nation as a whole and be a much more broad reaching, lasting document.
The anecdotal story of his defense of a 70 year old woman charged with murder is a gem. Real good read. ~ pinto
Photo: David James, SMPSP © 2012 DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
All Rights Reserved
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Mr-Lincoln-Goes-to-Hollywood-174944931.html#ixzz2BqxvGrAZ
Mr. Lincoln Goes to Hollywood
Steven Spielberg, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Tony Kushner talk about what it takes to wrestle an epic presidency into a feature film
In Lincoln, the Steven Spielberg movie opening this month, President Abraham Lincoln has a talk with U.S. Representative Thaddeus Stevens that should be studied in civics classes today. The scene goes down easy, thanks to the moviemakers’ art, but the point Lincoln makes is tough.
Stevens, as Tommy Lee Jones plays him, is the meanest man in Congress, but also that body’s fiercest opponent of slavery. Because Lincoln’s primary purpose has been to hold the Union together, and he has been approaching abolition in a roundabout, politic way, Stevens by 1865 has come to regard him as “the capitulating compromiser, the dawdler.”
<snip>
Lincoln’s wit was indirect, friendly—Doris Kearns Goodwin quotes him as describing laughter as “the joyous, universal evergreen of life” in her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, on which the movie is partly based. But it was also purposeful. Stevens was a man of unmitigated principle. Lincoln got some great things done. What Lincoln, played most convincingly by Daniel Day-Lewis, says to Stevens in the movie, in effect, is this: A compass will point you true north. But it won’t show you the swamps between you and there. If you don’t avoid the swamps, what’s the use of knowing true north?
That’s a key moment in the movie. It is also something that I wish more people would take to heart—people I talk with about politics, especially people I agree with. Today, as in 1865, people tend to be sure they are right, and maybe they are—Stevens was, courageously. What people don’t always want to take on board is that people who disagree with them may be just as resolutely sure they are right. That’s one reason the road to progress, or regression, in a democracy is seldom straight, entirely open or, strictly speaking, democratic. If Lincoln’s truth is marching on, it should inspire people to acknowledge that doing right is a tricky proposition. “I did not want to make a movie about a monument,” Spielberg told me. “I wanted the audience to get into the working process of the president.”
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Mr-Lincoln-Goes-to-Hollywood-174944931.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
and I'll spend three hours sharpening the stake 
desired, unless you ran it on ff, then it was hysterical. 
