Theodore Yuan

6 October 2019

CAP Blue Group

Lincoln ​Cinematic Analysis

Part A: ​At the beginning of ​Lincoln​, President Abraham Lincoln is keen on passing the 13th Amendment

in the House of Representatives. The setting is established as January 1865 in Washington, D.C. It becomes clear

that the 13th Amendment will not have enough support to pass once the war is over. Therefore, it can only be passed

before the end of the war. The rising action begins when Lincoln works to acquire more votes for the amendment.

He allies with Preston Blair in order to acquire more votes, but in exchange Blair demands that they hold peace

negotiations with Confederates. Despite the consequences if the negotiations are revealed, he accepts Blair’s notion.

Lincoln makes sure that the negotiators stay outside of Washington, so that he may be able to deny their presence.

During the House’s debate over the amendment, Thaddeus Stevens, a radical abolitionist that has long been

an advocate for racial equality scales back his stance and claims that the amendment only gives blacks legal

equality. This explanation is seen as a pivotal moment in the debate because his moderated position wins over many

Democrats and conservative Republicans. This begins to develop the theme that sometimes in order to accomplish

something, one must make incremental steps. The climax occurs during the vote on the 13th Amendment, when the

rumor that Lincoln is peace-negotiating with Confederates is mentioned, and there is a motion to postpone the vote.

When Lincoln is notified, he sends a message that clearly states that there are no Confederate representatives inside

the city. This message satisfies enough representatives to table the motion. The amendment passes.

The falling action occurs when Confederate General Robert E. Lee later surrenders to the Union Army at

Appomattox Courthouse. The denouement occurs when Lincoln’s son Tad learns of his father’s death, and there is a

flashback to Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Throughout the film, the politicians working in favor of passing

the 13th Amendment, are constantly fine-tuning the way that they present their ideas. In order to not offend anyone,

and to acquire support from many different people, they must often moderate their true views. Although many

wanted full equality for blacks, such an idea would have not been accepted. This develops one of the film’s central

themes, that sometimes in order to accomplish something, one must make incremental steps instead of trying to

accomplish everything at once.

 Part B: ​The film ​Lincoln ​is set mostly in January 1865, although it continues until Lincoln’s death in April

1865. It is set at the end of the Civil War, and around the beginning of Lincoln’s second term. This film is

historically significant because it centers around the passing of the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution. The

Amendment was the first of many pieces of legislation that granted blacks rights.

The film also focuses on the struggle to get enough votes to pass the amendment in the House. Although

passing the amendment in the Senate was relatively easy, passing it in the House was harder because at the time, the

Democrats, who valued states’ rights over a strong federal government, held more power than in the Senate, and

because of the presence of conservative Republicans who prioritized the end of the war over the freedom of slaves

(Klein). This historic amendment led the way for two more, which granted citizenship to all people born in the US in

the 14th and the right to vote for black men in the 15th. This amendment laid the foundations for a drastically

different political landscape in 1872, when 1,510 black men held political positions in Southern states (“Impact and

Legacy”).

According to an NPR interview with historian Ronald White, the film, for the most part, is historically

accurate (“We Ask A Historian”). White states that the portrayal of Lincoln is accurate, and while some dramatic

details of the film are fabricated, the bulk of the events in the film portray history accurately, and thus it creates a

“delicate balance or blend between history and dramatic art” (“We Ask A Historian”). The film ​Lincoln p​ ortrays an

important part of American history, one that had an undeniable impact on the nation, and the film also portrays it

impressively accurately.

Part C: Analyze the use of metaphor and imagery in the film, citing several examples. ​An ongoing

metaphor in the film ​Lincoln ​is the instability of the Lincoln family, which can be linked to the instability of

Lincoln’s plan to pass the 13th Amendment in the House, and the overall instability of the nation as a whole.

Lincoln, his wife, Mary, and their youngest son Tad are all shown to be distraught over the loss of Willie, another

one of the Lincolns’ sons. Family tensions increase when the eldest Lincoln son, Robert, returns from university and

he forcefully enlists in the army, against the wishes of his parents. This action results in an argument between

Lincoln and his wife about their son’s safety. Not until the end of the war and the passage of the 13th Amendment

through the House do Lincoln and his wife finally relax a bit. This tension in Lincoln’s family is representative of
the tension experienced in Lincoln’s cabinet while trying to get enough votes and of the Confederates and the Union

army trying to negotiate an uneasy peace.

Another image that is representative of the work that is being done throughout the film is the frantic

running of men from the Capitol building to the White House to deliver a message to the President and then back to

the Capitol. This image creates an air of urgency, which is present throughout the film as Lincoln and his cabinet

attempt to muster a two-thirds majority in the House to pass the amendment.

A third use of imagery in the film occurs when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to General

Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army at Appomattox Courthouse. The scene is filled with tension as there are no

words spoken, and the only greetings take the form of curt nods. Lee rides up in front of the courthouse, and Grant

and some soldiers emerge. Grant walks down the steps and walks up to Lee, where he removes his hat. The soldiers

on the porch follow. Lee carefully removes his hat, barely taking it off his head as his horse begins moving

backwards. He then rides off with his men. The tension in this scene represents the tension between the two parties,

the Confederates and the Union. The physical imagery of the scene is also representative of the history that the film

portrays. The two generals briefly converge, before parting in their separate ways. This is representative of the brief

cooperation between the North and the South following the Civil War, followed by the long period of time in which

the South reverted back to the racist and oppressive ways of its past.
 Works Cited

Klein, Christopher. "Congress Passes 13th Amendment, 150 Years Ago." ​History​, A&E Television Networks, 31

Aug. 2018, www.history.com/news/congress-passes-13th-amendment-150-years-ago. Accessed 7 Oct.

2019.

National Museum of American History. "The Impact and Legacy of the Emancipation Proclamation." ​National

Museum of American History,​ Smithsonian,

americanhistory.si.edu/changing-america-emancipation-proclamation-1863-and-march-washington-1963/1

863/impact-and-legacy. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019.

"We Ask A Historian: Just How Accurate Is 'Lincoln'?" ​NPR​, 22 Nov. 2012,

www.npr.org/2012/11/22/165671751/we-ask-a-historian-just-how-accurate-is-lincoln. Accessed 7 Oct.

2019.