ABE

I have not been to a movie theater in more than ten years. I'm not a big movie buff. But now and then, a subject will peak my interest. If that happens, I usually just wait a few months and the movie will eventually be on TV.

However, when I heard about the newly released move about Abe Lincoln, I knew I had to see it.

Sunday afternoon my friend Ann and I went to Chillicothe to see LINCOLN. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens, and others.

It is a very good movie. It portrays the president during the Civil War era and his fight with the House of Representatives to pass legislation (already passed in the Senate) for the abolition of slavery in this country, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Three men played the parts of lobbyists who promised favors to legislators for votes on the Bill in the House. (Sounds like the tradition has continued from 1865 to today!)

I saw Sally Field on the Jay Leno Show recently and she told how she had to fight to get the part of Mary by steadily lobbying Steven Spielberg, the director. She portrayed the part well.

David Strathairn played Secretary of State William Seward, once a Lincoln rival who later became Lincoln's friend and advisor.

Jared Harris was Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant who was shown meeting with Lincoln right before accepting the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.

The story was well presented, from the war, through the House vote on the abolition Bill, to the end of the war. It is a movie worth watching. Lincoln was a wise man who knew how to get things done for the times.