Lincoln

It has been an interesting year in film for our sixteenth president.  Over the summer, he was portrayed as an ax wielding vampire hunter, which was just as entertaining as it was fictitious.  Now, Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis have brought Honest Abe to the big screen in a drama at the height of the Civil War to portray him as a great president truly working for the best interests of his entire country.

The film does an excellent  job of showing the audience everything that rests on Lincoln’s shoulders.  As president, his main agenda is to end the Civil War, but he realizes that passing the thirteenth amendment (which would abolish slavery) would bring a better end to the war and leave the country less divided afterward.  However, securing enough votes in the house of representatives is not an easy task, some minds cannot be changed.  The longer this debate goes on, so goes the war, with countless lives lost.

At home, Lincoln’s family life is in turmoil as well.  His wife, Mary (Sally Field) falls into deep despair often over the death of their younger sons.  She seems close to her husband, able to break down and tell him her true feelings, but seems to resent his power and responsibilities.  The strong smiling face she puts on in public is a heavy mask to bear.  Their older son, Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) wants to join the army, though his parents disapprove fearing for his life while Robert fears for his honor.  And their younger son, Tad (Gulliver McGrath) is asking many hard questions about the war, slavery and how slaves are treated.  Lincoln cannot fix the past for his wife, he’s trying to save Robert from being another loss to the war and he wants to make the future brighter for Tad.

Daniel Day-Lewis portrays Lincoln beautifully.  Physically, we get an aging, tired man who stands slowly, often leans on things and will wrap his shoulders in an old blanket.  His power is in his wits, his oddly humorous personality and his ability to connect with his people.  From the very first scene of the film, I was engrossed in and looked forward to Lincoln’s small stories to make his points.  These come in handy and carry the same tone whether he is talking to a few soldiers, his cabinet or an entire crowd.  And that voice Day-Lewis uses for Lincoln, a bit soft spoken, but never weak makes his Lincoln more easy to connect with.  His Oscar nomination is well deserved, another win, is nearly in the bag.

As well done as this film is, I got a little bored and didn’t find it very enjoyable.  In fact, it feels very preachy and drawn out.  Much of the film focuses on changing minds in the house of representatives in order to secure enough votes to pass the thirteenth amendment.  Spielberg tries to get us more connected to each of these key politicians, and a few do stick, especially Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Thaddeus Stevens.  However, there are just too many, their bickering and voting seems to go on forever and I know enough history that there is not much suspense.  Spoiler alert US history dropouts, the amendment will pass.

This is an excellent film that addresses Lincoln as a man, a president and a tactical politician.  Though it’s rated PG-13, many kids might be bored by the film, unless they’re really into history.  At some points I felt I needed to brush up on history and government knowledge, but the film never really held me back.

“I wish He had chosen an instrument more wieldy than the House of Representatives.”

Places in the Heart

In the middle of the depression, Edna (Sally Field) and her family seem to be one of the few lucky people in a small Texas town still living comfortably on a steady income, until her husband is accidentally killed by a drunk black man.  Suddenly, after years of only doing housework and raising kids, Edna must find a way to provide for her two small children and keep the bank from buying the house.  When a wandering black man, Moze (Danny Glover), who can do nothing but beg for work and food in the racist south, suggests that he help Edna turn her land into a cotton farm.  Seeing no other option that can keep her and the kids together, she becomes the face and Moze the know-how to running a cotton farm.  Along the way, Mr. Denby (Lane Smith) from the bank does, what he calls the Christian thing, and gives her his blind brother-in-law, Will (John Malkovich), as a paying tenant in her house.  Edna, Moze and Will become like family through hardships and tragedies to make the cotton farm a success.

One of the first obstacles that Edna and her gang face is a destructive tornado.  These scenes can be heart pounding and suspenseful for even the most seasoned storm chaser in tornado alley.  Between the daughter, Possum (Gennie James) playing alone in an upstairs room where a tree blows the wall in, and the son, Frank (Yankton Hatten), running from school across town with the tornado quickly approaching, we’re scared to think of the fate of Edna’s family.  Thankfully, both Will and Moze have formed an attachment to the kids enough to help ensure their safety, even by putting their own in danger.  The images of the aftermath of the storm are haunting and devastating, for me, they only echo the recent events in Alabama in Missouri.

Basically, the film is a sum of all my worst fears.  Becoming a widow with young kids and no work experience outside the home to make an income off of sounds like one of the worst predicaments I can imagine.  Of course, the time period set in the midst of the depression is just a double whammy.  And then the tornadoes seems like extra icing on the already decked out cake.

Even with all these fears helping me sympathize and identify with Edna and her lovable outcast gang, I didn’t find Places in the Heart to be anything of extra special significance.  I have no real complaints about the film, the acting was great all around and the story kept me intrigued from beginning to end.  Yet, there was just some spark of greatness that I’ve come to expect from most of these Best Picture nominees.  It’s always a little disappointing when just that one last element is missing.

“Peace of God.”

Norma Rae

In 1974,  union organizer Eli Zivkovich came to Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, met Crystal Lee Sutton and together they got the local overworked and underpaid textile workers to join the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.  The film Norma Rae tells their story, borrowing some harrowing true events and adding the Hollywood touch.

Right away, we’re shown that the factory is a horrible and monotonous place to work.  Unfortunately, it is the town’s main source of employment that the people cannot do without.  The machines are so loud, they’re causing Norma Rae’s mother to go deaf.  The older and less healthy people must stand for hours, no rest no matter how bad they feel.  They break their backs just to keep the only job around, but the pay is terrible and the whole town seems to have financial struggles.

Though Norma Rae (Sally Field) has many faults, we clearly see that she is too smart to be stuck in chump job like this.  She moves her way up in ranks by complaining to the management about needing longer breaks and a feminine products dispenser in the ladies room.  They know she’s got a big mouth and they want her to shut it.  But her new, higher paid position is to critique and make sure the workers are keeping up to speed, and that doesn’t make her a popular person to be around.  Norma Rae is a single mother with two children, but she doesn’t need a wedge coming between her and a town of workers, including her own parents.

When Reuben (Ron Leibman) comes to town trying to urge the under appreciated factory workers to push for unionizing the factory, he’s not exactly welcome.  In this little Southern Baptist town Union seems to just mean Trouble and they think they don’t need some New York city boy barging in trying to fix their lives.  But Reuben’s concern is sincere and it’s only Norma Rae who listens to him and realizes how much better off the whole town would be with a union.  She and Reuben start leading a fierce campaign to unionize the factory with Norma Rae slowly recruiting more and more people as they realize how much the factory takes advantage of them.

Sally Field won Best Actress for her title role as Norma Rae.  She portrays Norma Rae as a bluntly honest, passionate and hard working woman who sticks out in a town where she could have easily disappeared into the woodwork.  I love how refreshingly honest Norma Rae is with the mistakes in her life, when she runs into her youngest child’s father in front of Reuben, she doesn’t sugar coat or dismiss the story.  Instead, she seems to embrace the moment of shame and it becomes a moment to share and bond.  Later, in the iconic scene where Norma Rae holds up the cardboard sign, Field seems to fully transform her from a little redneck woman to a strong, defiant fighter able to lead he fellow workers.  And when she trying to break away from the men trying to put her in the police car, Field accidentally broke one of the men’s ribs during filming.

The film has a great mix of drama, inspiration and boundary breaking to appeal to a wide audience.  Those who enjoy films with a strong female role will love Norma Rae.  If you’re like my sister and have a love for strong Southern women, this is like Christmas.

“Forget it! I’m stayin’ right where I am. It’s gonna take you and the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to get me outta here!”

Forrest Gump

From the moment we see Forrest sitting on a bus bench with muddy Nikes, a half eaten box of chocolates and placing the feather at his feet between the pages of his Curious George book, we see he’s a unique person.  Most could quickly write him off as “special” and tell their kids not to stare or talk to him.  His southern drawl mixed with his slightly jarring speech is unusual, but the way he’s able to recollect his story with such a modest kind of innocent passion and gusto proves that there is much more than meets the eye.

Forrest (Tom Hanks) tells the story of his life, beginning from his childhood with braces on his legs.  We see the lengths his mama (Sally Field) goes through for Forrest to feel like a normal child and we meet his first and only friend, Jenny (Robin Wright as an adult).  They go together “like peas and carrots” and grow up.  Forrest is able to go to the University of Alabama on a football scholarship since he “can run like the wind blows.”  After he graduates he joins the army and is sent to fight in Vietnam.  Forrest’s life intersects many important events of the 1960s and ’70s, including integration, Vietnam and Watergate.

Like Forrest, we will all have good times in our lives, bad times, accomplishments and times where all we can do is run.  These are all just chapters in our lives.

One of my favorite parts of the film, is when Jenny asks Forrest about being scared in Vietnam.  When he answers he doesn’t really talk about those fears, instead he tells her about some of the most beautiful things he’s seen in his time.  It’s not that he avoids the question, but perhaps his perspective in life is coming from complete optimism, without even realizing it.  If only we could all have that sort of focus on life and everything around us.

I’ve seen this movie, about as many times as Forrest has had a Dr. Pepper, but it still tugs at my heart and brings a few tears to my eyes.  A good friend of mine and I once had a great conversation about this movie (he said he enjoys this blog and for that I can’t be more grateful).  Anyway, we talked about how Forrest shows us a great way to live.  We talked about how great it would be to just get up and run for three years and have great things just sort of fall in our laps.  We remembered his struggles as well as his triumphs, laughed at how he felt a little annoyed at meeting four presidents and just took the film as a way to approach life.

Today, Forrest just made me feel alright that I’m in a running chapter of my life.  I don’t know where I’m headed, but my feet are moving somewhere and that’s just fine by me.

“Why are you doing this?  I just felt like running.”