Abraham Lincoln
Directed by Malcolm Venville
Produced by The History Channel
Executive Producer Doris Kearns Goodwin
Historians Edna Greene Medford, Dr. Caroline Janney
Other narrators: Barack Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal
Starring
Graham Sibley as Abraham Lincoln
Justin Salinger as Ulysses S. Grant
Colin Moss as William H. Seward
Jenny Stead as Mary Todd Lincoln
Wayne Harrison as Edwin Stanton
Stefan Adegbola as Frederick Douglass
Composer Kurt Farquhar
Country of origin United States
Original language English
No. of episodes 3 Total run-time 4 hours 45 minutes.
Anyone who has watched the “documentaries” that air on the packaged cable channels knows they can be pretty dire. Breathlessly overwrought and written to be comprehensible to eight year olds, they feature such stunning special effects as slapping the side of the camera to simulate the 9.0 “big one” that is surely coming. Accuracy, when it’s there at all, is usually pretty dodgy. And when they decide to shoehorn religious myths in, the results can often be grotesque. “What this the fishing boat that Jesus rode on the Sea of Galilee?” Answer: no. Carbon dating showed the wood for the boat was cut down some 300 years later. “Was this ornate tomb the site of Jesus’ brother John?” Answer: no. Such tombs were for very rich, very Roman families.
So when I realized that the documentary featuring Abraham Lincoln was from the History Channel, I nearly shut it off. There’s already a movie where Lincoln is either a space vampire or is fighting space vampires, I forget which, and my quotient for inanity for the month has already been surpassed by the Gym Jordan hearings.
But then I spotted the name of the executive producer: Doris Kearns Goodwin. She’s a historian of no small repute, and a mainstay as one of the explicative voices in Ken Burns’ magnificent collection of documentaries. Just seeing her name in the credits added considerable gravitas. Other participating historians of note include Edna Greene Medford and Dr. Caroline Janney, and narrators: Barack Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It’s hard to think of a former president better suited to discuss the sorts of problems Lincoln faced, and Obama has been a rising star as narrator in a wide variety of documentaries.
This IS a History Channel ‘docudrama’ so it is prey to some of the tropes of that particular genre. The scripted conversations and events tend to be a bit overwrought, although they manage to stay within the parameters of historical accuracy. While the nearly five hours of run-time gives a rich and detailed look at Lincoln’s life and presidency, some major factors are elided, such as his tempestuous relations with Congress or his worst mistake, Andrew Johnson. Mary Todd Lincoln is portrayed as being more stable and supportive than history generally allocates to her, and the role of Frederick Douglass is enlarged beyond what I’ve seen before, although I suspect this new interpretation may be more historically accurate.
They do a good job of showing why Lincoln was both loved and hated as intensely as he was, and his slow moral metamorphosis from containing slavery to the role of Great Emancipator. His often rocky relationship with his generals is well portrayed, as well as his relationships with those near to him.
While none of the actors were familiar to me, they did a generally outstanding job. Graham Sibley, who played Lincoln, had previously been best known for something called Zombie Honeymoon. Not quite the same as space vampires, I suppose, but within waving distance. Sibley, I believe, captured Lincoln.
So yes, this is a series well worth watching, especially in these fraught times when historically illiterate types are running around calling for a new Civil War. (I would make William Gear’s “This Scorched Earth” mandatory reading for those types, at least the ones who can read to begin with.) Venville and Goodwin have done an outstanding job.
I have a personal experience in describing the life of Lincoln. In high school, my favorite history teacher, one Bard Salcido, assigned a term paper describing the life of Lincoln and the problems he faced. Still new to American history, I found myself inspired by this oddest of all American presidents, and threw myself into the project.
I was startled when I got it back, and found that Salcido had only given me a “C+” on it. I approached him after class.
“Look, sir,” I said, “I covered all the problems he faced; the problems with his generals, the possible traitors in his cabinet, his indecisiveness about slavery, his wife, the death of his two children, and a bunch more.” Which was true. Some 5,000 words worth.
Salcido nodded. “You did, and you did a fine job on it. But there was one problem you didn’t mention, and I thought it was kind of a defining one.”
I looked at my paper with the big red C+ on it, puzzled. “Oh, what was that?”
Salcido grinned from ear to ear. “You forgot to mention the Civil War itself.”
Oh.
Can be seen at history.com