Saving Lincoln: A Review

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0LqZVIFMYg[/youtube]

In the past year three films on President Lincoln have been released:  the truly odious Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, the superb Lincoln and now the low budget, funded by Kickstarter, Saving Lincoln.  I am pleased to report that I think Saving Lincoln is much closer in quality to Lincoln than Vampire Hunter.  The film has an intriguing take on Mr. Lincoln and I was both amused and moved by it.  My full review is below.  The usual caveat regarding spoilers ahead is given.

In Illinois we have a tradition of plays about Lincoln being presented by local groups.  In a way the film reminded me of those homespun plays.  Earnest, amateurish in spots, but entirely heartfelt, rousing and effective in evoking the Great Emancipator.  The gimmick of the film is that it has the actors acting within CGI Civil War photos.  The effect on me was to give it a play like atmosphere.  Not realistic at all, but evocative still of a long ago time and place.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhf7–v9iDA[/youtube]

The film is told from the perspective of Ward Hill Lamon, a lawyer from Danville, Illinois and a friend of Lincoln.  Appointed by Lincoln as Marshal of the District of Columbia, Lamon often acted as a self-appointed bodyguard for Lincoln during the War.  There are some musical numbers in the film where Lamon takes out a banjo and Lincoln and his friends sing.  This might strike some viewers as ludicrous, but it is entirely historically accurate.  Lamon would often play on the banjo for Lincoln’s amusement and Lincoln and others would sing along, a common type of entertainment in those days before sound recordings.  Lamon is played by Lea Coco, who does not look at all like the historical Lamon, but who gives a forceful performance as the man determined to protect Lincoln from the constant death threats that were a continual feature of his presidency.

Tom Amandes is Lincoln.  I thought he looked young in the role but I see he is 54.  Amandes portrays Lincoln as a man haunted by death.  The deaths of his sons Edward and Willie hit him very hard and he mourns the loss in battle of such friends as Colonel Elmer Ellsworth and Colonel Ned Baker, an old friend of Lincoln and the only US Senator who ever died in battle.  Most of all the deaths of the soldiers in the Civil War eat away at him.  We see this clearly in a sequence where he is at the military telegraph office in the War Department receiving endless casualty reports during the 1864 Overland Campaign in Virginia, which resulted in 50,000 Union casualties in one month.  The film is very much a study of Lincoln and the Grim Reaper with the audience knowing that ultimately Mr. Lincoln’s own life will be claimed.

In a scene that brought me to tears due to my own recent loss of a son, Lincoln talks to his wife’s seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley, rivetingly portrayed by Saidah Ekulona, about his despair and that of Mrs. Lincoln over the death of Willie.  Mrs. Keckley tells Lincoln that God has a plan and that Willie lives in paradise.  Lincoln initially rejects this, saying that he has lost many loved ones and that unlike most people he derives no comfort from stories of Heaven.  Mrs. Keckley responds that faith is a choice and that her faith has sustained her since the death of her son who fell at Wilson’s Creek in Missouri, one of the earliest battles in the War.  She explains that she bought her freedom and that of her son with thirty years of toil.  Her son was light skinned and could pass for white and joined the army to fight against slavery.  Lincoln tells her that her son was a true patriot, fighting in an army that would have rejected him if his race was known.  Mrs. Keckley responds that her son’s death was part of God’s plan, along with Willie’s death, and Lincoln being elected President to preserve the Union and end slavery.  Lincoln stands in awe of her faith and after she leaves gets down on his knees to pray before crumpling in tears.

Penelope Ann Miller portrays Mrs. Lincoln.  Once again I thought she was too young for the role, but I see she is 49, older than Mrs. Lincoln while she was in the White House.  She gives a more restrained performance than many actresses who have assayed the role.  In her hands Mrs. Lincoln comes across as more of a helpmate and less of a shrew which I think is more historically accurate than many over the top portrayals of Mrs. Lincoln.

The human cost of the War is always at the core of the film, as we see in the delivery of the Gettysburg Address where members of the crowd hearing Lincoln are holding pictures of soldier relatives who have died:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2a-S3rjDBw[/youtube]

Lincoln in the film comes to believe that he will die in office and accepts his fate, hoping that God will spare him until his work is accomplished.  That Lincoln was haunted by thoughts of his own death was noted by the historical Lamon:

According to Lamon, three days before his assassination, Lincoln spoke about a strange dream that he had:

“About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers, ‘The President,’ was his answer; ‘he was killed by an assassin.’ Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since.”
 
It is a striking account if true. However, there are problems with it.  First, there was no contemporary mention of it in the aftermath of the assassination.  Surely Lamon would have mentioned such a prophetic statement by Lincoln at the time.  Second, during the time period in question when the dream purportedly occurred, the latter part of March, Lincoln was not at the White House but with the Army of the Potomac.  Third, the story didn’t appear in print until 1895, two years after Lamon’s death, in a book of reminiscences compiled by Lamon’s daughter.
 
However, I am inclined to believe it based upon this incident involving a Lincoln dream which is well authenticated.  Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, made this notation in his diary regarding the cabinet meeting that occurred at noon on the day of  the assassination of Lincoln:
 
 “Congratulations were interchanged, and earnest inquiry was made whether any information had been received from General Sherman. General Grant, who was invited to remain, said he was expecting hourly to hear from Sherman, and had a good deal of anxiety on the subject. The President remarked that the news would come soon and come favorably, he had no doubt, for he had last night his usual dream which had preceded nearly every important event of the war. I inquired the particulars of this remarkable dream. He said it was in my department — it related to the water; that he seemed to be in a singular and indescribable vessel, but always the same, and that he was moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore; that he had had this singular dream preceding the firing on Sumter, the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Stone River, Vicksburg, Wilmington, etc. General Grant remarked, with some emphasis and asperity, that Stone River was no victory — that a few such victories would have ruined the country, and he knew of no important results from it. The President said that perhaps he should not altogether agree with him, but whatever might be the facts, his singular dream preceded that fight. Victory did not always follow his dream, but the event and results were important. He had no doubt that a battle had taken place or was about being fought, ‘and Johnston will be beaten, for I had this strange dream again last night. It must relate to Sherman; my thoughts are in that direction, and I know of no other very important event which is likely just now to occur.”
 
Lincoln said at Philadelphia on his way to the White House in 1861:
 
It was not the mere matter of the separation  of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence  which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for  all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be  lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of  Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can,  I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it. If it  cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be  saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated  on this spot than surrender it.
 
Saving Lincoln is a great tribute to the man who kept every word of the above paragraph.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pvsgIMfW2o[/youtube]

Picture of Donald R. McClarey

Donald R. McClarey

Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.

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