Pondering life’s complexities

We finally saw the movie Lincoln last night. I feared that the man would receive a royal Spielberging (Lincoln turns as they watch the play and says “Molly, have I led a good life? Am I a good man?”*). There’s some of that right at the beginning and scattered about, but it’s an excellent film. Spielberg has embraced complexity – evil means to achieve good ends. Sometimes that works.

Politics, with all of its duplicity, can be a noble profession when used towards noble ends. It is difficult to get anything done, good or bad, without duplicity. According to the movie, Lincoln did the right thing for the right reasons and by the wrong means. Good for him.

Lincoln also reminded us that greatness requires perseverance against immense odds. All of our current-day goals – health care reform, unions, fair wages, retirement security, ending our military aggression – will be achieved by that means, and not in one lifetime and not without blood, imprisonment and death. There are always snipers laying in wait. More often than not in our history scoundrels have found their way to high office, and the snipers give them a pass. We have one there now, and before him and before and before … but occasionally the right person is in place when needed. It’s interesting that we had JFK (and probably more importantly Khrushchev), during a deadly crisis in 1962, and Lincoln in 1860. Circumstances gave them a choice – to be great, or to be ordinary. Each man paid with his life, and if biographers are correct, each man knew he was going to die for his sins.

By necessity movies oversimplify complex reality. If we want to know the deeper story, we must use books. There was as much racial prejudice in the north as the south in those times (as now). The votes that lined up for the thirteenth amendment were often enough bought, which is why Lincoln is so widely misunderstood. He could write and speak eloquently, but knew how to fight dirty.

But in terms of an exhibition of movie-making skills, Lincoln was second to none. Think of all of the talent that was assembled to create this film. It is a major achievement. Then they went and handed out their little gold statue to Argo, a CIA-sponsored piece of … timely agitprop.

Where did Lincoln miss a mark that Argo hit? I sat through the latter and cringed at the crude green screens, absence of subtlety and cheesy acting. It was obviously staged to use visual spectacle to achieve propaganda ends. The insertion of historical footage, and even a line or two of dialogue tipping its hat to reality, served only to set the stage for an orgy of pornographic Americanism. I cannot think of one aspect of Lincoln that did not tower over Argo.

It was just a silly self-serving and glitzy senior prom award show, but choosing Argo over Lincoln as Hollywood’s best effort was deeply insulting.
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*For reference, this line is not from Lincoln, but from Saving Private Ryan. With all of the movie in place, well-done and magnificently portrayed by acting and visuals, Spielberg found it necessary to bookend it in a scene where an older Private Ryan goes all cheesy on us. It probably cost him a silly gold statue.