Recently my Dad and I were looking for a movie to watch on
demand. We ended up watching the movie Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg,
starring Daniel Day- Lewis as Lincoln himself. It was an account of Lincoln's
presidency leading up to his assassination. In this movie, we get to see
Lincoln's home life, and how his presidency, the period during the civil war in
particular, took a toll on him. It was an extremely well done and well-articulated
film, and the acting was phenomenal. Not only was it enjoyable to watch, but it
felt like you were really there with Lincoln as he made all of the decisions
and went through everything that he did.
We are brought into his world of politics and at the time,
the biggest issue for him was slavery. It is January 1865 and Lincoln is
expecting the Civil war to end in a month. His goal is to get the 13th
amendment passed by the end of the very same month. He wants to pass this
amendment so quickly in order to make sure there is no possibility that slaves
who have already been freed can be re-enslaved. Eventually, the amendment is
passed, but only by two votes.
We are then brought to April 14th, Lincoln's assassination
day. In the middle of a play at Ford's Theatre, the president is shot. The next
morning Lincoln is pronounced dead at the Petersen House. We are left with a
flashback to his second Inauguration, and the film concludes.
When watching this, all I could think of was the initial
start of slave trade we learned about in class due to the Colombian Exchange.
Because slavery originated then, and Lincoln is trying to end the Civil war
which is over slavery, all I could think of was our lessons from class.
During the Colombian Exchange, slavery came about because
the explorers and settlers needed people to clear and work on their newly
claimed land. Since the explorers accidentally wiped out an extreme amount of
Native Americans through their unintentional spread of disease, they didn't
have enough Native American slaves, so they imported African slaves instead.
Now, in Lincoln's time, the government is just starting to
make significant changes in Slavery. Starting with the Emancipation
Proclamation in 1863, leading up to the death of Lincoln in the movie, in 1865,
and then to the end of the Civil War also in 1865.
I believe that the movie is an accurate, descriptive and
enticing account of Lincoln’s presidency and his work with trying to end slavery
and the Civil war. It is crazy to think that something that started in the
early 1500’s only started to make progress in the process for it to be ended in
the 1800’s.
I enjoyed this movie very much, and found it very significant to everything we've been studying about slavery in class. I think many would enjoy this movie, especially people interested in President Lincoln, slavery, or just history in general!
Here is a trailer for the Lincoln:
Source Citation:
Youtube.com. Video, "Lincoln Trailer" Trailer for the movie Lincoln. Date accessed: 12/4/13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiSAbAuLhqs
I thought this was a fantastic article and link between our class and a great movie. I have seen this movie and i can see why this person chose it to relate to the things we are learning today in history. You could really tell the author was interested in the movie because the blog was so well written and informative. It was also very easy to read. It was not just one block of text, it was split up into easy to read sections. She also told us about the movie itself and what happened during that time. But most of all I liked how she put a link to the video. Because it works so much better than a picture and as you can see just from the trailer it is a great film.
ReplyDeleteGreat Job! This article clearly shows the connection between the movie and class. I agree that this movie has a great connection to our study of slavery in class. I also found this statement interesting: " It is crazy to think that something that started in the early 1500’s only started to make progress in the process for it to be ended in the 1800’s." I also believe that it is crazy that it took such a long just to begin to do something about this awful practice of slavery. Lastly, I really enjoyed how you put the trailer to the movie in your article because I can actually see what you are talking about. Just from a short clip I could see that this movie is a great, real life, connection to our history class.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this blog post! Your word choices were clearly very well thought-out and well chosen. I liked the description of the movie itself, and the connections to class were very clear. I liked the use of the trailer. However, I think if the trailer or another picture had been somewhere in the middle of the post, that would have broken it up more. It looks a lot longer than it really is. Overall, though, this is a great post with wonderful insights and connections.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog post for many reasons. When I first started reading it I began to wonder how could the movie Lincoln relate to what we learn in class? But you showed very well just how much connection there is between the two topics, Lincoln and the slave trade we learned about in class. I think your post was really well set up I liked how it was split up in two different chunks and I really loved how you put the trailer in. Your facts were so on point and you're wording was great. The only thing I could suggest is maybe a couple pictures that goes along with what you're saying in the paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic blog post! I really enjoyed reading this and learning about this movie. I think I will definitely have to watch it soon. I liked how you included the trailer at the end to have the reader leave on a good note. I also enjoyed how well thought out your word choice was and how it gave a back round on the events that were going on during Lincolns term in office. Overall I really enjoyed reading this post and watching the trailer.
ReplyDelete