Tony Kushner responds.

The votes are in and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln has been nominated for no less than twelve Academy awards. I have never thought too much about such things–don’t get me started on the less than useless Grammies, which are too irrelevant to get worked up about anyway. Still, to the extent that these things matter it seems right that Lincoln should sweep the nominations. One of the nominees is Tony Kushner, for Best Adapted Screenplay. Kushner is deserving; whatever else one might say about him, he is a fine playwright and screenwriter. Those following closely know that the book Kushner is credited with adapting into film is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. I never understood this because the film focuses upon the tiniest fraction of Goodwin’s 800+ page monograph. I say this not as criticism. She certainly advised Kushner here-and-there along the way as he prepared the manuscript. The film is better for this. It just seemed that the relationship between the film and book was tenuous. The New Republic’s Timothy Noah informs us that the book most directly responsible for Spielberg & Kushner’s Lincoln is in all likelihood Michael Vorenberg’s Final Freedom: The Civil War, The Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Noah’s article is a reminder that politics, including passage of the 13th Amendment, is a messier process than even can ever be depicted  on celluloid. And yes, if you have not seen Lincoln you should do so before it leaves the big screen.

The votes are in and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln has been nominated for no less than twelve Academy awards. I have never thought too much about such things–don’t get me started on the less than useless Grammies, which are too irrelevant to get worked up about anyway. Still, to the extent that these things matter it seems right that Lincoln should sweep the nominations. One of the nominees is Tony Kushner, for Best Adapted Screenplay. Kushner is deserving; whatever else one might say about him, he is a fine playwright and screenwriter. Those following closely know that the book Kushner is credited with adapting into film is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. I never understood this because the film focuses upon the tiniest fraction of Goodwin’s 800+ page monograph. I say this not as criticism. She certainly advised Kushner here-and-there along the way as he prepared the manuscript. The film is better for this. It just seemed that the relationship between the film and book was tenuous. The New Republic’s Timothy Noah informs us that the book most directly responsible for Spielberg & Kushner’s Lincoln is in all likelihood Michael Vorenberg’s Final Freedom: The Civil War, The Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Noah’s article is a reminder that politics, including passage of the 13th Amendment, is a messier process than even can ever be depicted  on celluloid. And yes, if you have not seen Lincoln you should do so before it leaves the big screen.

How did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

The Hayfoot and I are having a cup of coffee in front of our tree. We just got back from a showing of A Civil War Christmas at the New York Theatre Workshop in the East Village. The lateness of the hour prevents me from giving a full review here and now, but suffice it to say that we enjoyed it very much. The musical focuses on events in and around Washington, DC on Christmas Eve 1864. It covers multiple perspectives, including Lee, Grant, the Lincolns, Elizabeth Keckley, John Wilkes Booth, Walt Whitman, and many otherwise regular folk who were observing their fourth Christmas of war. The production has been around for several years and is something one should keep an eye out for in future holiday seasons. I read about it coming to New York way back in June and marked it on the calendar thinking how far into the future December would be. We got a kick out of seeing a high school contingent of approximately fifty students there to see the play. At first we thought they might make noise and disrupt the action, but when the curtain went up they watched and listened attentively. I like to think it will be one of those sesquicentennial events at least some of them will look back on years, even decades, from now. As a cohort, today’s high schoolers will be around for the bicentennial. The play captivated the entire audience for its entire 2 1/2 hours. Try to catch this one if you can.

General James A. Garfield

You may or may not have been following the recent story regarding the auctioning of a photograph thought to be the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. (Did you get all that?) The sale is apparently still ongoing, but does end today. Here are the details.

As it turns out the same auction house, RR Auction, is also selling a cache of Civil War photographs and documents. This collection of American Civil War iconography is rare enough to be be making news across the pond. Lee, Grant, McClellan, Jeff Davis, Sumter’s Robert Anderson, and James Garfield are just a few of the notables on the block.It is indeed a stunning trove that you can check out for yourself. Yours truly will not be bidding, but it is fun to window-shop. Enjoy.

(image courtesy RR Auction)

I am sorry about the lack of posts this week. This week I got caught up putting the final on a few projects, which left little time for anything else. A friend came to my office earlier today and asked if I wanted to see Lincoln again tomorrow, to which I gave a big yes. The Hayfoot and I had actually planned on going to the big screen this week, but things got away from us. I think she wants to see Daniel Day-Lewis again in December.

The Civil War on film is a topic in and of itself. There is no doubt in my mind that Spielberg’s Lincoln join D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind in our canon of popular culture. It is certainly the event so far of the sesquicentennial, and I don’t see anything supplanting it between now and 2015.

People have been asking me how true to events the Lincoln film is, to which I always answer “Don’t worry about it.” It is a feature film, not a documentary. Asking or expecting a movie to be true to life is asking too much. Just go see it and enjoy. Then, if you are interested, delve into subject. The film gives a lot to think about, but it’s not spinach. Artistically and creatively it is fully realized and should be experienced in a theater surrounded by others. See it while you can.

The Hayfoot and I just got back a few minutes ago from seeing Spielberg’s Lincoln, followed by a quick bite in Greenwich Village. It is too late in the day for a more thoughtful response, which I will post in due time. The show answer is that you must see it. I am sitting here in the dark checking my email before bed when, lo and behold, I find this little tidbit in my inbox. Modern day threats of secession are nothing new; we saw them during and after the presidential elections of 2004 and 2008 for one thing. What is new, as far as I can tell, is that the Texas secession petition passed today requires a presidential response because it reached the required 25,000 signatures. Have I said it has been a long day?

Photographer Annie Leibovitz was in Gettysburg yesterday for the opening of her exhibit at the GNMP Visitors Center. She even got to spend the previous night at the Sherfy House on the battlefield. Her latest show is called Pilgrimage, and is based on a book of the same name. The last several years have been difficult for Leibovitz, with the death of partner Susan Sontag and financial reversals that cost her a great deal of money and aggravation. In something of a rut, she assessed what if most important to her and how she wants to move ahead by looking back; from that came this exhibit. For Leibovitz taking stock meant visiting places of historical and natural significance here in the United States and abroad that meant something to her personally. One of the drawbacks to being a commercial photographer, even a gifted one, is that too often the emphasis is on the adjective at the expense of the noun. Subjects in Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage include Graceland and Monticello, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Val-Kill, Old Faithful, Thoreau’s Walden Pond, and Niagara Falls to name a few. Walking the Peach Orchard and Devil’s Den must have been something for someone as knowledgable about the history of photography as Leibovitz. Certainly she knows her Gardner and Brady. Ansel Adams’s studio had been another stop on her pilgrimage.

It is good to see her getting back to work like this. Her talents had stagnated over the past decade. The celebrity photo shoots had become exponentially less relevant while the spreads themselves had grown increasingly outlandish and gratuitous. Seemingly gone were the simple images such as those of John Lennon and Yoko One taken in December 1980 with which she had made her reputation. Pilgrimage is a return to simplicity for the photographer, who turned sixty-three earlier this month. The exhibit will be on display in Gettysburg through January 20, 2013 before moving to other cities.

(image/Robert Scoble)