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Lincoln movie review

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This past Saturday night, I went with a few friends to see Lincoln. You know me. If a historical movie comes to Atlantic Station here in Atlanta, I’m there opening weekend. Lincoln is the father of historical movies this year, so of course I went. I bundled up in my new Michael Kors sweater-cape and ventured out into the cold where Atlantic Station is beautifully decorated with lights on every street for Christmas. As I made my way to the theater, I realized it was Remembrance Day in Gettysburg and the people had done the illumination ceremony at the Gettysburg National Cemetery earlier that evening. It was quite fitting and serendipitous to see the movie that night.

I had high expectations for Lincoln and I was not disappointed. Some might attend the movie expecting to see a biography of Abe, but I found the movie to be more of a biography of the 13th amendment with Abe as supporting cast. The film covers the last four months of his life in which he was trying to push the 13th amendment through the House of Representatives, much to the dismay, fear, anger, and opposition of nearly everyone around him. The 13th amendment, for those who may not know, outlawed slavery in America altogether. There was an article in The New York Times criticizing the way Spielberg portrayed the black characters in the movie, however, and I’m inclined to agree that it was lacking in that area. The movie opens with Abe talking to black soldiers about the unfair treatment in the army and how they’re pushing him to change it, but the rest of the black characters seem to sit passively by and wait for the white men to decide to free them. Historically, we know there was nothing passive about the black struggle for freedom. Yet, a movie about passing the 13th amendment shows black characters as nothing more than in service for white characters and happily or passively so. So in that manner, Spielberg fell short of the mark. To quote directly from the article:

The nation’s capital was transformed by the migration of fugitive slaves from the South during the war, but you’d never know it from this film. By 1865 — Mr. Spielberg’s film takes place from January to April — these fugitives had transformed Washington’s streets, markets and neighborhoods. Had the filmmakers cared to portray African-Americans as meaningful actors in the drama of emancipation, they might have shown Lincoln interacting with black passers-by in the District of Columbia.

Black oral tradition held that Lincoln visited at least one of the capital’s government-run “contraband camps,” where many of the fugitives lived, and was moved by the singing and prayer he witnessed there. One of the president’s assistants, William O. Stoddard, remembered Lincoln stopping to shake hands with a black woman he encountered on the street near the White House.

In fact, the capital was also home to an organized and highly politicized community of free African-Americans, in which the White House servants Elizabeth Keckley and William Slade were leaders. Keckley, who published a memoir in 1868, organized other black women to raise money and donations of clothing and food for the fugitives who’d sought refuge in Washington. Slade was a leader in the Social, Civil and Statistical Association, a black organization that tried to advance arguments for freedom and civil rights by collecting data on black economic and social successes.

This is not to say I disapprove of Lincoln altogether. Not in the slightest. I disapproved of the way black people were portrayed in it.

If we overlook some of the historical liberties Spielberg took in the name of storytelling (as a storyteller, I understand why it’s necessary sometimes), the way Daniel Day-Lewis portrayed Abe was truly an astonishing thing to watch. He is infamous for total Method acting and it paid off for him in this movie. He was Abe. I’ve seen quite a few Daniel Day-Lewis movies but only in this movie could I watch him in character and not recognize “Daniel” at all. Not by appearance, not by mannerisms, and not by voice. The voice, by the way, has been panned by some critics as weak and shrill, but clearly said critics never actually read descriptions of Abe’s voice from his contemporaries. Daniel’s interpretation of those descriptions was, in my opinion, as true to what was the real thing as we could get without a recording of the real voice to copy. The way he walked and carried himself in the simple brown suit made me physically feel the weight of the country on his shoulders. I imagine it must be extremely difficult for any actor to feel what his character felt but Daniel manages it with skill.

This Abe actually presented a bit of his humor and fondness for storytelling to the audience, which are aspects of his personality that usually go ignored. He was also depicted dealing with a less than stable wife, fighting with her, trying to appease her, etc., and those were things that swept under the rug in his time. Abe’s human side and, at times, inability to deal with the stress in his own family let alone the stress in the country brought him down from the ivory tower a little more.

The supporting cast was equally matched with Daniel Day-Lewis and sometimes even stole the show. Tommy Lee Jones, in particular, brought charm to Thaddeus Stevens, who was ordinarily viewed as a rather prickly, nearly villainous fellow in Reconstruction legislature. Jones managed to give his witty sarcasm an effortless air and you end up liking him by the end of the movie. Sally Field had possibly the most difficult role in the film as Mary Todd Lincoln. As soon as I heard Field was cast, I knew they intended to bring out some of Mary’s crazy since Field has an uncanny ability to switch instability on and off in her performances, and I was right. I was pleased to see that the instability in Mary did not make her look like a caricature though. It was done carefully, leaving you to wonder if she was really just caught up in grief or truly suffering from mental illness. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as her son, Robert Todd Lincoln, did quite well considering I had only previously seen him in Third Rock From The Sun. I have nothing bad to say about the supporting cast, which is a feat in itself, because the movie could have easily been Daniel Day-Lewis dragging everybody through the film by the scruffs of their necks.

Lincoln is not a biography of the sixteenth president. It’s a larger discussion about what it took to pass the 13th amendment, including Abe and his cabinet fighting each other and making back room deals for votes. I think some people not so educated about it will be surprised to see Abe’s handlers engaging in back room deals to get what they wanted with his approval. His hypocrisy in keeping Robert out of the war while sending thousands of other sons to die is shown in blinding light through Robert’s perspective. One of the most intense and moving scenes of the movie involved no dialogue whatsoever as Robert witnesses hundreds of amputated limbs being thrown into a pit. He fights his parents for the entire movie to join the army. Finally, he accuses his father of being afraid of his mother and impulsively Abe slaps him. These scenes are so important in showing the humanity and sometimes bad decisions this family made, that they were entirely fallible and not at all godlike. It is the stripping away of immortality that makes the story even more extraordinary. Lincoln is quite relevant today given our current deeply divided political climate and blind hatred of our alleged dictator, socialist president. The difference is we have the benefit of hindsight and the ability not to repeat the old mistakes if we have the courage to stand by our convictions.

The fracturing of the soul

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There is one type of spirit phenomena that isn’t so readily discussed. The fracturing of the soul is a phenomena that some mediums have experienced in their dealings with spirits of people who were either severely mentally ill at the time of death, or in rarer cases, endured some kind of severe trauma at the time of death. Sometimes mental illness can cause a soul fracture long before death and the fractured piece will remain in that moment. The mental illness or trauma creates its own energy from that moment of the person’s life that splinters off from the rest of the soul that goes on to the afterlife and is then recycled into the reincarnation process. So while a person may go on to reincarnate, sometimes darker parts of themselves can linger behind.

I’m not too certain how well-known this is in general terms but I know of several mediums, including myself, who have witnessed such things. In truth, I think it’s possible that most people have a few splintered pieces of themselves still out there, reminders of previous lives and the things that went wrong in them. I am an example of a fractured soul, in fact. Once upon a time, my name was Amy and my life ended very suddenly at the bottom of a twisting stairwell. You can read about my time as Amy here to understand why and how the fracture happened, but the point is, apparitions of Amy are still seen in Oxfordshire, England, from what I have been told. Obviously I cannot be in two places simultaneously, so therefore, I suspect part of myself that simply couldn’t believe or accept the way that life went splintered off and got stuck there. I know a few other people who have encountered somewhat muddled or messed up versions of who they were in past lives as well, just like seeing any other ghost. One case leaps to mind of Jeffrey Keene (get his book here), who saw an apparition of himself as John B. Gordon before he knew he was that man.

Another “famous” fractured soul is Lizzy Borden. We all know her story. A life that took such a direction would be ripe for the fracturing of the soul. Several years ago, I visited the Borden house but did not go inside because it was rather cramped for a wheelchair. However, I noticed a peculiar feeling about the “Lizzie” entity there that I hadn’t felt before. It was not an aware, intelligent sensation, but there was indication that frightening or malicious prankster interaction with the living guests and employees of the bed and breakfast. I felt confusion, foreboding, fear, and many other things that I typically associate with angry, intelligent entities; however, that entity did not feel complete or totally aware. It was something I couldn’t articulate with language, so I went away from that place somewhat relieved that I did not go in for a tour. Years later, I watched an episode of The Dead Files in which Amy Allen, another medium, described all of the things I felt at the Borden house, including things I did not mention to others, such as the perverse sexual practices that took place in the house. She described a piece of an entity in the house stuck in the moment of something terrible in her mental condition but it wasn’t the whole entity. It was just the mentally damaged part of Lizzy. She called it a fractured spirit or soul (her exact words escape me at the moment) and everything suddenly made sense.

I have trouble articulating exactly what a fractured soul is in terms of apparition categories. We all know the big categories are intelligent spirits and residual energies, but fractured souls don’t seem to fit in either category because they have behavioral characteristics of both types. In visual terms, they often look distorted or behave in unnatural ways, sometimes meant to frighten the living or sometimes because it’s just what they’ve become in that splintered state. Amy Allen described one as crawling around the walls. That sounds insane to outsiders, I’m certain, and it would have sounded insane to me if I hadn’t seen it myself as well. Several years ago, I went to South Carolina for New Year’s Eve and my friend took me to see Columbia during my time there. We went to the old lunatic asylum on Bull Street, which was opened in 1828, but I wouldn’t even get out of the car. I had no idea there was such a think as a fractured soul at that time, so it frightened me to see distorted faces in a few windows, as well as a body hanging upside down and then crawling out of a window like some cheap horror movie. Truthfully, I thought I was either going insane or my friend was playing a sick joke on me. Nobody else saw what I did though. I was either insane or I saw some kind of phenomena that I couldn’t explain. Years later, with the benefit of hindsight, I know now that those things I saw were not the complete people, not their complete souls, but fractured pieces of their mental illnesses left behind.

I don’t find this rule to be true in every case of severe trauma or mental illness though. For example, John Wilkes Booth is a soul entirely in tact, at least from his time as “Booth”, but he lived with enormous mental illness. Obviously. Look what he did with his life. So what rules define which souls get splintered and which do not? I don’t know. I’m just barely beginning to understand this phenomena in the most broad terms.

What’s in my makeup case?

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I’m kind of a beauty junkie. I get excited about things like nail polish, perfume, lipstick and liquid eyeliner. There seems to be this idea out there that women who get excited about those things are somehow vapid or lacking any depth or intellect though, which is absolutely untrue. My grandmother played a huge role in my upbringing and even had custody of me for a time when I was little, so I was taught things like writing proper letters, thank you notes, housekeeping, cooking, baking, etc. The biggest thing she taught me from her generation of the 1940s and 1950s was that a lady should always make an effort to be put together no matter how bad she feels inside. I never saw her go outside without lipstick and mascara. Even now, she has dementia and she’ll be 82 in February, but she’s still adamant that she will not go out or receive guests in her home without looking properly put together. Being brought up by that example left a mark on me and even though I am a ponytail and No Pants Friday kind of lady at home (pants are repugnant so I prefer skirts or nothing at all), I much prefer to be put together when I’m around other people. That’s my grandmother’s influence on me. If nothing else, a bit of mascara and lipstick sets a lady apart. A necklace or earrings can even show a bit of ladylike effort. It doesn’t take much.

So I decided to follow the trend I see with other makeup nerds out there in which they give a tour through their makeup cases. I see this kind of thing a lot on YouTube but I didn’t film a video because I haven’t yet figured out how to hold my iPhone and talk at the same time. Two hands are really useful for that kind of thing. I can, however, put on a full face of makeup without hands. I do that by finding a large book like an encyclopedia or one of my heavy Civil War books and I stick brush handles in them to anchor them. I watch in the mirror as I move my head accordingly instead of moving my hand to draw on the eyeliner or whatever is being used at the time. For liquid makeup, I squirt a little on a makeup sponge and rub it on my face from there. The one thing I struggle with is liquid liner but I have been trying out different products with longer handles. Most of the time, my difficulties come from oddly shaped packaging that may look cool but are really a hindrance to people with dexterity issues like me.

My makeup case is actually a crafting storage bin purchased with my mother’s handy Michaels employee discount. That’s my first tip. You don’t need to spend silly piles of money on makeup specific storage bins when there are cheaper things out there, such as crafting bins or even fishing tackle boxes. My makeup case has four internal boxes that pull out like drawers and there is also a large built-in spot at the top for bigger odds and ends. We’re only going to look at one pull-out box today because these are the things I use most often (brushes and tools are kept in other pull-out boxes, as are other products not used much, and there is a nail polish box too).

I keep this box filled with stuff I use the most and I just pull it out and toss it in my suitcase when I travel. No muss. No fuss. The three things used in conjunction with this but not pictured are a folding mirror, a roll-up brush collection, and an 88 eyeshadow palette from Sedona Lace. Here is a picture of the Sedona Lace palette from their website (I forgot to get it from the bathroom last night for the iPhone photoshoot). I use it more in the summer because the colors are bright and cheerful. In the winter, I use colors that I’ll talk about in a little bit. Sedona Lace is good stuff for me. The packaging is easy to access without hands and it traveled a lot without any of the eyeshadow pans popping out, although Carnival cruise line slammed my luggage and shattered the mirror. Even then, none of the colors broke or shattered.

I suppose we’ll go in order of how I put on everything. These are my liquid foundation, pressed powder foundation and concealer stick. The liquid and powder are made by Sephora and I think the concealer stick was made by e.l.f. I try a lot of different foundations because I have oily skin and I prefer to cover everything pretty well. Sephora’s stuff is oil free. Another big reason why I went with these is because they’re easy to open and use without hands. Some liquid bottles require twisting motions and don’t have pumps, so if I knock it over, I waste a bunch of money in a spill. This packaging is pop on, pop off and the pump means I can knock it over all I want and I won’t lose anything. The compact is heavier than other brands and that’s important for me so it stays anchored when I’m rubbing the sponge on it. There may be better quality foundation items out there but these are good for accessibility and they get the job done. I do not, however, like the e.l.f. concealer stick because I almost have to break a tooth to pop it open on my own. I have to get someone to pop it open before I use it. It rolls out just like lipstick in there. Also, the colors are showing up lighter on camera than they are in reality. I’m not that pasty!

So then comes work on the eyes and cheeks. I change that up every time I do it, although I’m moving into a simpler retro phase. You know, neutral colors, liquid liner, accentuated by bold red lips. The eyes have a fleshy base and browns and berries for definition, as you can see in the various products below. The long compact is made by mark., which is the young, hip version of Avon. I used to sell both Avon and mark., so this compact was a freebie from those days. Mainly I use it for the blush (it’s long-lasting and a good color for different occasions) but I’m starting to use those eyeshadows as well. I mix them up with the MAC colors below that and Avon’s version of bareMinerals (Avon’s version was cheaper). I also added another blush that I use for nighttime but I use it rather sparingly because it’s really pigmented. Loose powder can be tricky for me since it goes everywhere but the pigments are usually much better and they last longer.

After I do the eyes and face, I do the toughest part, which is eyeliner and mascara. I generally have to buy mascara based on the shape of the handle because if it’s too round, it’ll flop all over the place like an uncooked hot dog. I discovered that Revlon makes a square shaped mascara that is perfect for stability. Anyone with dexterity issues will probably find the Revlon Photoready 3D Volume Mascara easier to use than other brands that package in odd round shapes. I use three different eyeliners depending on how fast I need to get things done. The pencil eyeliners by Make Up Forever are great but my MAC liner lasted longer (I’m out, otherwise it would have a picture). The third item in the picture is my new gel liner, also by Revlon. I’m hoping it won’t be as messy as the liquid liner, which, as you can see, is an unopened bottle at the moment. I go through this stuff pretty quick. I’m very into eyeliner and mascara and I would choose these things if I had no time for anything else.

The very last thing I do is lips because I touch everything with my mouth, so it would only make sense to do it after I’m done touching everything. My biggest challenge with lipstick is finding something that won’t rub off after five minutes in my life and so far nothing has passed the test. I don’t think anything will ever work except cement since my mouth is my hand. So I just buy colors I like without the pressure of looking (and paying) for long lasting brands. The first picture has my Chanel lipstick and lipgloss. The colors are brighter on camera than in reality. I use my Chanels in daytime either together or separately. The lipstick is easily lightened up by putting the gloss on top of it. The picture below that is my MAC nighttime color. It has a pow to it that I reserve for when I’m out in social settings and I don’t want to blend into the crowd. The last picture is my newest lipstick that I’m dying to try. Dying, I tells ya. Revlon makes excellent red lipsticks that go back to Marilyn Monroe, and since vintage red lips are back in style, I’m jumping on this 1950s train. This color is True Red, although it’s not as orange as the picture shows. With red, you have to really moisturize with lip balm and put on proper lip liner first (completely filled in, not just a line around your mouth), otherwise red lipstick by itself will go everywhere and crack. Don’t do a lot with your eyes if you’re putting attention on your mouth.