News & Analysis
Comment
george.leopold
Lincoln viewed America as "the last best hope on Earth...." He preserved that ...
C VanDorne
I was raised in the North and, like you, I never knew that there was even a ...
Lincoln, Euclid and mechanical law
George Leopold
11/15/2012 9:22 PM EST
WASHINGTON – The other “Indispensible Man,” Abraham Lincoln, is of course coming to a theater near you this weekend.
Among many other things, the Rail Splitter was a tinkerer and a patent holder. Having in his youth navigated the Sangamon River in Illinois and plied the Mighty Mississippi to New Orleans, where he saw firsthand the Crescent City’s slave auctions, Honest Abe invented and patented a method for lifting boats over shoals and other river obstructions.
During the Civil War, Lincoln took great interest in the machinery of warfare as he struggled to defeat the Confederacy and find ways to hold the Union together.
It is no exaggeration to declare that this nation has yet to produce a more resourceful and beloved statesman.
Steven Spielberg’s film, “Lincoln,” benefits incalculably from the performance of the award-winning Anglo-Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis. It is as if Day-Lewis was born to play the role.
One scene in particular should be of interest to the engineer. In it, Day-Lewis’ Lincoln is again at the Telegraph Office, the chief executive’s refuge from the unrelenting pressures of the White House, the place where news from the front is received, unfiltered.
Lincoln regales the office clerks with a parable about the mathematician Euclid, mechanical law and its universality in the struggle to end slavery. This scene alone makes it worth seeing “Lincoln.”
|
|
|
|
|
Navigate to related information
Duane Benson
11/16/2012 11:15 AM EST
Funny how the world works. I've heard about the movie "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" all over the place, but until your article, I hadn't heard about this movie. I'd much rather see something real about Lincoln (I hope this one has a decent amount of accuracy) than fiction about him hunting vampires.
It might have something to do with the fact that I have teenagers around the house and, while I think they'd like to see this one, vampires and zombies are much funner to talk about at their age.
Sign in to Reply
nicolas.mokhoff
11/16/2012 11:52 AM EST
This one is by Steven Spielberg of Schindler's List fame and other great movies, both fiction and non-fiction; he tends to stay on the hisorical accurate side of the line. See interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPoLT0oYv6I
Sign in to Reply
george.leopold
11/16/2012 12:03 PM EST
Duane, Spielberg's "Lincoln" focuses specifically on Abe's efforts to push through the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that ended slavery. Hence, the film relies on great writing, acting and substance rather than special effects. Your teenagers should see both films.
Sign in to Reply
Redandgearhead
11/19/2012 11:50 AM EST
I find conspiracy theories entertaining, but don't believe most of them. I know some guys who have lots of answers for questions you didn't know you were supposed to ask, who could talk for a long time about the theory of how entertainment like the Lincoln vampire movie are supposed to diminish and cut down great people. I thought the vampire movie was a funny idea. Bizare, but funny. I'm waiting for it to hit cable. But will go pay to see the current one.
The current movie has to be making some people's blood boil. A friend recently posted a comment on-line about the exceptionalism of Lincoln and someone else just came unglued about it. The second commentator went on and on about how Lincoln wasn't exceptional. I didn't know there was a body of thought like that. One man's hero is another man's evil.
Sign in to Reply
C VanDorne
11/19/2012 3:21 PM EST
I was raised in the North and, like you, I never knew that there was even a question about Lincoln's greatness. Then I moved south of the Mason-Dixon line nd learned that there was, in fact, quite a lot of it. Their arguments are compelling.
Lincoln remains a divisive character in our history and the debate rages on.
Sign in to Reply
george.leopold
11/20/2012 9:57 AM EST
Lincoln viewed America as "the last best hope on Earth...." He preserved that idea, then set in motion the actions and events that ended human slavery. Those two accomplishments speak for themselves.
Sign in to Reply