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  • Cinematic Analysis 1

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    Spielberg's film Lincoln highlights the challenges President Lincoln faced in passing the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery while also trying to end the Civil War. The opening scene depicts the harsh realities of the war. Lincoln had to balance the goals of ending slavery with ending the war, as focusing too much on one risked damaging the other. He gained support from both conservative and radical Republicans who disagreed on the issues. Lincoln achieved the seemingly impossible by passing the amendment and ending the war, though he was assassinated soon after. Spielberg uses cinematography like darkness and shadow to convey the uncertainty and pressure Lincoln felt from all sides during this difficult period.

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    I watched the 2012 film Lincoln, and then wrote a cinematic analysis on the film.

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    Spielberg's film Lincoln highlights the challenges President Lincoln faced in passing the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery while also trying to end the Civil War. The opening scene depicts the harsh realities of the war. Lincoln had to balance the goals of ending slavery with ending the war, as focusing too much on one risked damaging the other. He gained support from both conservative and radical Republicans who disagreed on the issues. Lincoln achieved the seemingly impossible by passing the amendment and ending the war, though he was assassinated soon after. Spielberg uses cinematography like darkness and shadow to convey the uncertainty and pressure Lincoln felt from all sides during this difficult period.

    Copyright:

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    320 views4 pages

    Cinematic Analysis 1

    Uploaded by

    elizabethcove
    Spielberg's film Lincoln highlights the challenges President Lincoln faced in passing the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery while also trying to end the Civil War. The opening scene depicts the harsh realities of the war. Lincoln had to balance the goals of ending slavery with ending the war, as focusing too much on one risked damaging the other. He gained support from both conservative and radical Republicans who disagreed on the issues. Lincoln achieved the seemingly impossible by passing the amendment and ending the war, though he was assassinated soon after. Spielberg uses cinematography like darkness and shadow to convey the uncertainty and pressure Lincoln felt from all sides during this difficult period.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 4

    Elizabeth Cove Green 10/15/13

    Cinematic Analysis; Part A


    In Lincoln, a 2012 film about Lincolns last months in office, Spielberg highlights the manner in which Lincoln stays focused on the important goals of the country, despite many challenges from various perspectives. The opening scene in the film immediately emphasizes the tough situations facing the United States of America. The film begins on a Civil War battlefield two years after Gettysburg, with President Lincoln talking to African American and white soldiers. Lincoln is faced with the difficult process of ending the Civil War and passing the 13th Amendment. Lincoln felt an immense amount of pressure to end the war and also to end slavery. The film displays the conflicts Lincoln encountered because he truly believed in passing the 13th Amendment, but he knew that he needed to balance passing the amendment and ending the war. He knew that he could not simply focus on one of these goals, because if one got passed, the other one would be in tremendous danger. Lincolns political skills and personal determination helped him handle the pressure in order to do what was best for the country. As President, Lincoln engaged with the conservative and radical Republicans, groups that held extremely different views. Thaddeus Stevens, a radical, was in favor of complete equality for African Americans, while Preston Blair, a conservative, was in favor of an end to war. Lincoln was again challenged because he had to respect the views of both of his colleagues. Lincoln had to carefully gain support for the amendment, because if he campaigned too much, the war would most likely not end. Eventually, the vote barely passed, and the Confederates surrendered. Soon after the civil war ended, Lincoln was

    assassinated. Lincoln achieved something that many believed was impossible, and even when faced with the worst situations, Lincoln never lost his focus.

    Cinematic Analysis; Part B


    The film takes place in the midst of the Civil War. Many American people were upset with the war, and their only focus was to end the war. Other people were totally in support of passing the 13th Amendment, and were less worried about the war. Mostly conservative Republicans were in support of ending the war, while radicals wanted the 13th Amendment to be passed. In addition, Democrats strongly opposed the amendment. During this period in American culture, slavery was coming to an end, and more and more people were in favor of abolishing it. Slavery was the main source of economy in the Southern United States; so many people were confused about their feelings towards slavery. At the same time, many people desperately wanted to end the war regardless of slavery, because the war negatively affected the whole country. Overall, Spielberg does a good job keeping the film historically accurate, although he exaggerates a few scenes. In the scene in which the House was voting on the 13th Amendment, a vast number of African Americans are present in galleries, and although free blacks were allowed in the galleries and some number of them did come out for the vote, historians dont think that they came out in quite the extraordinary force that they seem to in the movie. (Wickman, slate.com) Spielberg presents a slight bias towards Lincoln when always portraying him as the righteous man. When Lincoln and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens interact while negotiating for peace, the lighting is depicted so that Stephens looks like a one-eyed monster, while Lincoln is displayed as someone who always told a clever story, and impressed the audience (Blankschaen, patheos.com).

    Cinematic Analysis; Part C-1


    Spielberg uses several cinematographic techniques to increase the viewers awareness of the setting, and characters. In the scene where Lincoln visits the hospital, and Lincolns oldest son follows the hospital worker, Spielberg uses realism to show the terrible conditions of war. He chooses to show the bloody and gory scenes in order to enhance the realism that Lincoln discovers. As the hospital worker throws the pieces of legs, Lincolns son realizes the harsh reality of the war. The war is real, and so are the consequences that come with it. Also, throughout the film, the scenes are mostly dark. The darkness expresses the confusion and uncertainty of the country, and the current situation with the negotiations over the 13th Amendment and the war. During specific scenes, Lincolns face is displayed half in shadows, and that represents that he is conflicted. Lincoln has a tremendous amount of pressure on him, and he is truly conflicted, not only with the politics, but also with his own wife and son. Spielberg often represents how a character is feeling by the amount and placement of light on him/her.

    Works Cited
    Wickmam, Forrest. "How Accurate Is Lincoln?" Slate. The Slate Group, 9 Nov. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/11/09/ lincoln_historical_accuracy_sorting_fact_from_fiction_in_the_steven_spielberg.htm l>. Blankschaen, Bill. "Movie Review: Spielbergs Lincoln Portrays Politics Behind 13th Amendment." Patheos. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithwalkers/2012/11/ review-spielbergs-lincoln-portrays-politics-behind-13th-amendment/>.

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