Young Mr. Lincoln

To celebrate Independence Day (also, just because we wanted to) Jeff and I watched Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) last night.

Directed by John Ford, the film tells the story of the early law career of Abraham Lincoln.  It borders on sympathetic character-worship (Ford was admittedly a big fan of Lincoln) but never quite crosses that line.  Lincoln is shown cheating, intimidating others, and doing what’s necessary to resolve conflicts, so Ford doesn’t present him as a complete angel.  He is ambitious, but humble; shrewd, but honest; tough, but merciful.  Plus, Henry Fonda is simply the spitting image of our sixteenth president:

There were a couple of interesting thoughts spurred by this film.  In the middle of the movie, Lincoln and other residents of Springfield are at a July 4 parade.  Veterans of the War of 1812 pass by, and then veterans of the Revolutionary War of 1776.  It makes sense, but it’s still strange to think that by the time of young Lincoln (1830s) the country was really only one or two generations removed from revolution.  Stranger still was the point Jeff made – that when this film was being made (in the 1930s), there were people still living who had been around in Lincoln’s time.  It made me feel more connected to these parts of our country’s history that I so often think of as ‘ancient.’

The shot compositions in this film are simple but powerful, and can in a single frame tell you everything you need to know about the scene.  For example, there’s a scene where Abe is dealing with two men squabbling over petty damages:

Lincoln totally dominates our view, and everything from his expression to the hat sticking out of the frame to the shrinking silhouette of one of the clients lets us know that Abe is in total control of this situation.  Or take this shot from the courtroom sequence:

Again, Abe dominates.  He looks relaxed, and he’s hunched down as if the frame cannot contain his larger-than-life character.  He’s the darkest part of the shot, the negative-space center of our attention.  Or how about this one from the end of the film:

I’m pretty sure only Batman has a more recognizable silhouette.

As Jeff said, it’s no Bicycle Thieves, but Young Mr. Lincoln is pretty darn good and really funny to boot – Abe is a witty guy, and he has no shortage of one-liners to diffuse the tension in a situation.  It’s a great John Ford film, a great Old Hollywood film, a great Lincoln film, a great Independence Day film…just a great film, well worth watching.