You have to be American

'Lincoln' is a movie about America.  Just returned from seeing it and, apart from an acting clinic put on by the incomparable Daniel Day-Lewis, it's a very, very American piece.... which is why it will win a ton of Academy Awards.  You can't beat apple pie and ice cream.

Tommy Lee Jones will win a supporting award because he is shown in bed with his black mistress, while also playing the character instrumental in getting the required votes to pass the bill.  Personally, I thought he was much better in 'Hope Springs' as Meryl Streep's lost husband in an old marriage.  Nevermind, he'll get one for this. 

The movie revolves around the passing of the 13th amendment to the American Constitution and the back-room machinations that led to its success.  That amendment outlawed slavery, much to the horror of the South.  When I visit our southern friends in Louisianna to this day I see what they wanted to retain.  In fact, the rich have it still, with their black maids and staff all living off the kindness of their employer.

Is it sacrilege to say the movie was boring?  It was one stirring speech after another, but Speilberg could have cut at least half an hour off the final.  Nonetheless the sets and costumes were perfect and the lighting was so authentic you could hardly see anything at times.  You could actually smell the smoke-filled rooms from fireplaces and candles in many scenes. 

Watching the voting tallied in the House of Representatives, I think I finally figured out which side my Missouri forefathers were on.  The South.  My father, Thomas Raymond Griffith, born in Kansas City in 1899, would have had Confederate ancestors.  He never spoke of it.  A devout Catholic, my Dad harboured malice towards none.

How interesting that this most "American" of movies plays to sold-out theatres in Canada.