Tag Archives: Abraham Lincoln

Thaddeus Stevens: The Great Commoner comics review

Thaddeus Stevens: The Great Commoner. writer Ross Hetrick. artist Noah Van Sciver. editor Paul Buhle. Thaddeus Stevens Society of Pennsylvania. 18 pp. $5.

Thaddeus Stevens is an American historical figure who is brought to life in this remarkable mini-comic. You may not recall or recognize the name, and that is part of the reason this little book has come into existence. Stevens is one of the most significant players in the fight for human rights outside of Abraham Lincoln and, some may argue, there is no Lincoln without Stevens. These are the kind of issues dealt with in this pamphlet-sized comic.

Fans of the work of Noah Van Sciver will appreciate the distinctive style and masterful use of the comics medium. If you haven’t gotten a chance, you’ll want to check out Noah’s landmark book from last year, Joseph Smith and the Mormons. You can read our review here. That same intense level of scrutiny, combined with brevity, is on display for this tribute to Thaddeus Stevens. At a brisk and steady clip, each page here packs a punch. We see how pivotal Stevens was in securing freedom and rights for America’s former slaves. Yes, it’s safe to argue that we needed to have Stevens in order to have Lincoln. In other words, we all know and honor Lincoln but credit must be given to the man at the forefront for the fight for freedom and human dignity.

Paper copies are $5 and if you’d like one, send an email requesting one to info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com and one will be sent to you with a self-addressed envelope to send back payment.

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4th of July Review: THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS: A GRAPHIC ADAPTATION By Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnell

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“The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation” makes for compelling reading, whatever your prior knowledge of American history. It is a a wildly inspiring presentation in all its power to convey detailed facts, insights, and nuanced concepts. Is the 4th of July a good day to read this book? Of course! You could, for instance, read it on your Kindle with plenty of time to spare before the fireworks display. Are you one of those persons who just enjoys the fireworks and doesn’t know, or believe they care, about why today is a good day for fireworks? Well, even you would likely enjoy this book. Rachel Maddow calls it, “the coolest thing since Schoolhouse Rock.” And who doesn’t love Schoolhouse Rock? We love to learn and sometimes we want it to come at us from a more accessible venue. This would be the book to do just that.

Sure, the 4th of July and the Battle of Gettysburg appear to be strange bedfellows. However, in a ghoulish twist of fate,it was on a 4th of July, 150 years ago today, that the carnage from the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War rested on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It had been a three-day fight and the results so ghastly that it sent shockwaves through both camps and led the President of the United States to create and deliver a masterwork of argument in defense of a unified nation. It was a way of communicating to his fellow Americans, then and in the future, on what was at stake. What this book does is run with that desire to communicate. It does a most remarkable thing. It breaks down Lincoln’s famous speech, a relatively brief and easy to follow piece of work, and examines in depth what was really being said. In doing so, we explore the inner workings of that great ongoing experiment in democracy known as the United States of America.

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And there’s more to that 4th of July connection. In this book we explore the origins of the Civl War in a variety of ways not the least of which is the tension between the two founding documents, The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States. In law, if there’s any chance to take an inch, a mile will be taken every time. That’s what happened with what we commonly celebrate as the founding document on the 4th of July. The Declaration of Independence, of 1776, is a rallying cry for freedom and, left open enough to interpretation, a murky blueprint for states to do as they please, even secede from the nation. Once such a notion takes root, well, not even ratification of The Constitution, in 1788, can put a stop to it.

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If you want answers to all your questions about how America found itself at war with itself and where we’ve come since then, you’ll want to get this book. It is by writer Jonathan Hennessey and artist Aaron McConnell, the team that created 2008’s “The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation.” Apparently, these guys really love explaining American history and they’re very good at it too. Both of them relish completing a thought in an intelligent extended manner while also keeping pace with a dramatic narrative. In a steady conversational tone, we come to appreciate the deep-seated conflict between a desire for limited government, as supported by Thomas Jefferson, and a robust government, as supported by Alexander Hamilton. We see how Americans allowed slavery to take hold in the first place and then, once it did, found it nearly impossible to abandon it.

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We come to better appreciate the task at hand for the founding fathers and the inevitability of passing on one generation’s burden onto the next. Would the founding fathers have put an end to slavery if they had all the time in the world, if they could have seen into the future? Would Lincoln have acted any faster in his own actions? In his case, he certainly appears to have acted as quickly as anyone for his time could have. What is clear is that, once he was gone, America took a number of steps back for each step forward. That would not have been lost on Lincoln one bit. If anyone came close to having a crystal ball to foresee the future, it was Lincoln. All you have to do is read The Gettysburg Address.

“The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation” is published by Harper Collins. It is a 222-page trade paperback, priced at $15.99 U.S. and you can find it in print or digital here.

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FIRST INSIDE LOOK AT STEVEN SPIELBERG’S “LINCOLN” ONLINE TODAY

Lincoln Spielberg Day Lewis 2013

“Lincoln: An American Journey,” a behind-the-scenes special debuts on Apple iTunes today. You can view it here.

“Lincoln,” at its core, is a thrilling and inspiring story about a man doing what he must do. In this behind-the-scenes feature, you see what is involved in getting it right when telling the story of the 16th President of the United States.

Press release follows:

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Movie Review: LINCOLN

Tad Lincoln
It was on a bright day in January in 1865 that the United States, despite feverish opposition, passed the 13th Amendment and abolished slavery in the land. The fight to outlaw slavery, once and for all, is the focus of Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” Even if the final outcome is already known to the audience, the full story will likely be new. Remarkably, this film, with its familiar director and familiar subject, feels new too. This is a 21st Century Lincoln led by Daniel Day-Lewis’s brilliant interpretation of a man of his time with a keen sense for the timeless.

Mr. Spielberg uses his Lincoln capital wisely as we begin this film. After some scenes of bloody fighting, we cut to a close-up of two African American infantrymen. They are being interviewed about the Civil War. One man seems content. The other lists the injustices suffered by his people. The interviewer is Pres. Lincoln. We then float up to a dreamworld and there’s the tall and lonely figure in a stovepipe hat standing on the bow of a vast ship. Restraint. Elegant restraint. “Lincoln” proves to have the elegant restraint to make such a movie.

After all the hype, and there’s more to come, “Lincoln,” proves to be a very engaging film. It is not a Frank Capra treatment of our 16th president and that is an understandable concern. As we now know, Daniel Day-Lewis turned down more than one screenplay for this film. The one that finally won him over is based on the book, “Team of Rivals,” by Doris Kearns Goodwin and adapted for the screen by Tony Kushner. It provided a way to maintain that elegant restraint that Mr. Day-Lewis knew was essential.

With the sense of urgency clearly stated, we see a president determined to use all his political capital to steer the country in the right direction. In short order, he means to legitimize his Emancipation Proclamation. The only way to end slavery in the United States is to pass a Constitutional Amendment and the only way to do that is to act immediately. For political junkies, the ensuing dramatization is nirvana. You can almost hear Doris Kearns Goodwin reciting from her popular book in the background. However, this film does offer much more. There is a special urgency you feel in the filmmaking. When Lincoln speaks, everyone listens. We see a jaw drop a bit when the president exercises his distinctive skill to make a point. We feel history being made in a refreshing way as all the players are allowed to live and breathe.

At one point in the film, we see Mr. Day-Lewis in an scene where he ponders over Euclid, the ancient Greek mathematician. It is during a pivotal moment in the war that Lincoln thinks out loud with a couple of young staffers. One of them says he’s an engineer by profession. This sparks Lincoln to quote some Euclidean geometry, “Any two sides that are equal to the whole are equal to each other. Euclid, three thousand years before, stated that this was self-evident.” It is a delightfully low-key moment, one of many, that Mr. Day-Lewis plays masterfully.

In keeping with the restrained vibe in this film, we follow the journey of radical Republican, Thaddeus Stevens, played by Tommy Lee Jones. At first, we don’t seem to know which side he’s on or whether he can be relied upon to check his ego at the door when he needs to. It’s a great performance. One particularly good scene is when he’s confronted by the First Lady, played by Sally Field. She is greeting visitors at a reception and seizes the opportunity to put Stevens in his place. Coming across as a Hillary Clinton complaining over Whitewater investigations, she chides Stevens for his investigating her overseeing renovation of The White House. We see that Stevens can take a good chiding and take it to heart.

The Spielbergian touch is most evident in what we see from a child’s point of view in this film. There was a little boy who lived in the White House, the President’s son, Tad Lincoln. He’s there so often in the film as to be its anchor, conscience, and sense of innocence. When Lincoln and his men gather for a war meeting, the war map is found to have suffered a burn at one corner. Tad Lincoln was there. When Lincoln is patiently awaiting the final vote of the 13th Amendment, he is entertained by Tad Lincoln building a monument from various books and legal briefs. When Lincoln needs to keep up his sense of purpose, all he needs to do is observe the photographs of slaves that Tad Lincoln has been observing. And, when the President is shot, it is Tad Lincoln’s sorrow we focus upon. This is not Doris Kearns Goodwin’s or Daniel Day-Lewis’s doing. This is Steven Spielberg’s.

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E.T. GOES TO THE CIVIL WAR: SPIELBERG’S LINCOLN

UPDATE: Comics Grinder review is here.

Steven Spielberg is a really nice guy who likes to make big movies that make bold statements. That is an oversimplication but, more or less, true. So, now he’s taken on America’s biggest legend, Abraham Lincoln. And why is that? It’s always a good question to ask about a creator regarding his or her work: “Why are you doing this?” Well, back to the idea that Mr. Spielberg enjoys big things that go, “Boom!” It is, after all, the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War that has unfolded upon us.

“Lincoln” will feel like the greatest, maybe even the ultimate tribute, that can be bestowed upon the 16th President of the United States of America. It’s based on a wonderful biography by Doris Kearns Goodwin and the final screenplay was written by Tony Kushner, for crying out loud. And, yes, it’s got a stellar cast including, of course, the greatest actor that ever lived, Daniel Day-Lewis. The problem with having a “greatest actor of all time” sort of actor playing the role of such a colossal hisorical figure, known by everyone residing on planet Earth, is that it has nowhere to go but down!

It will be fascinating. It will be great. But it will mostly be a spectacle much in the way that Meryl Streep playing Margaret Thatcher in, “The Iron Lady,” was good solid entertainment but not exactly soul enriching. Okay, maybe it was great but you can find other Streep performances that go deeper, that’s what I’m saying.

Or consider Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States of America. In “Frost/Nixon,” the movie version of the highly successful play, both written by Peter Morgan, you get a finely studied, wonderfully acted, interpretation of what it is was like for the beleaguered former leader of the free world as he tried to set the record straight on his involvement in a very stupid political scandal, at the mercy of an entertainer/journalist. This is a fascinating story and, because of its quality, you are able to let go of any distractions about whether or not you’re viewing an event or a movie. I mean, Frank Langella doesn’t really look like Nixon but we don’t care. We accept his interpretation. So, in this case, everything comes out feeling meant to be.

And this bring me to one of the most authentic performances of Abraham Lincoln you’re ever going to find, John Ford’s, “Young Mr. Lincoln.” In this case, we have a director who is deeply in love with, and well versed in, the American landscape, particularly the development of the American frontier. John Ford was around at a time when he could literally reach back to America’s early history. He was able, for instance, to get recollections, or inspiring tall tales, from Wyatt Earp about the famous last gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which was the basis for Ford’s mesmerizing “My Darling Clementine.” Mr. Ford lived and breathed the Wild West and American folklore. He was a tough guy who knew what he wanted to do. In that respect, not to mention a beautiful performance by Henry Fonda, and a magical feel for storytelling, makes “Young Mr. Lincoln” a film that you won’t mistake for anything but an excellent cinematic experience.

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