COMM 150 Lecture 26: Lincoln and Dreamworks History
Document Summary
Opening scene of the movie: icon and visual frame. Tying to things that make us care about the past: personalized, battle scene, symbolism. Want to give black people a voice: filmmaker uses creative imagination to recover what has been forgotten. Goes to impossible places that history must avoid. Lincoln is more bold than usually portrayed. Normative mode is to make it look historical in terms of the visual tableaux. Characters sound more modern: except lincoln. Shies away from historical differences that he thinks will turn audience off. Injects narrative with broader context of morality: wouldn"t have actually happened in the white house. If they are, can lincoln take them away: race against time to pass amendment. Not called the 13th amendment at the time. Cabinet was a team of loyalists: instead of rivals to avoid bickering. Election of obama in 2008 was on his mind during the making of the film.
