Sunday, February 17, 2013

A Man who belongs to the ages



Steven Spielberg's Lincoln is set in one of the most interesting turning points in history. In this film based on a Lincoln biography, Spielberg captures the drama that takes place in Washington during the turbulent period of the Civil War. The Yankees of the north pitted themselves against the Southern Confederacy, as Lincoln presided over the bloody war that will decide not just the fate of the African Americans, but of the Union itself. The casting is perfect, the pace of the narrative keeps viewers engaged and the dialogues leave you re-running lines in your mind over and over again.

The War is still raging on, Lincoln has just been re-elected to a second term as President and is fighting  get the Thirteenth Amendment passed - the amendment to the American constitution that would abolish slavery in all forms. The Conservative Republicans are in support of inviting the peace-seeking delegation of Confederates to Washington to bring an end to the war, while the Radicals would drop support if that were to pass. Meanwhile, the only hope of garnering the required two-thirds majority for the Amendment in the Congress lay in persuading "lame duck Democrats" (those who had lost their seats in the elections) to switch support. The movie is about how Lincoln sets his men the task of procuring twenty Democrat votes; the final  leg of which task Lincoln takes on himself. To some, he appeals to the heart, to some with the soundness of reason, to others with his eloquence and still others, when all else was lost, with the iron fist of one "clothed in immense power".

In that fateful month of January (1865), the United States faces its true test of its professed sense of equality and freedom, the ideals that the founding fathers of the Union had given to the fledgling country less than a century earlier. And no one is as conscious of the significance of this test, of the urgency to show to the world the States would rise to the defence of their lofty founding ideals, as Lincoln is.

It seems almost as if Lincoln's struggle to get the Amendment passed was a lone one: even those on his team seem to be fighting for other ends: the Secretary of War intent on defeating the Confederate rebels; the Secretary of State keen to play to the gallery, worried that Lincoln's stature would be reduced on failure to pass the Amendment;  the First Lady keen to end the war that had already taken one of her sons, and fearful of losing another who had just then enlisted; the Radical faction seeking to go all out for an emancipation plan for the Blacks, unmindful of the fact that such a revolutionary plan would  frighten away even  the Conservative supporters.  In this melee, when the trials of the war had left the leaders disillusioned, all that seemed to matter was to seek to end the war. Lincoln, on the other hand, was acutely aware that the original aim of ending slavery would come to naught were the war to be ended before the passage of the Amendment. In this, he was not being cruel; he was evidently carrying on with a heavy heart.  His horror of the war is only too clear, but it was a cross he realized he had to bear, so that the States could regain moral standing in the then-prevailing world, and for ages to come. He saw, with a clarity that eludes all but those with keen foresight, that the position of the States as the upholder of natural laws was under threat by the scourge of slavery.

Spielberg has done a class act of unveiling this drama, of multiple factions pushing multiple agendas, even as Lincoln keeps his cards close to his chest, revealing only as much as was necessary to nudge the game forward in the intended direction.  Lincoln stands tall in  this motley cast of characters, firstly because he is a man ahead of his times. His support for abolition arises from a startlingly fierce drive to establish justice and freedom. He was a man with a powerful vision, who was able to see beyond the narrow lens of his contemporaries, beyond the parochial nature of prevailing customs, and tap into the heart of humanity and reason.  He fashions even a dry mathematical axiom from a millennia-old geometry book (that things that are equal to the same thing must be equal to each another) into a passionate argument for equality of all mankind. What truly sets him apart, is that his passion is not  the blind, destructive passion of obsession: his passion is tempered by steady wisdom, a sense of balance, and a consciousness of the nature of his antagonists and the means to win them over.
One of the finest moments in the movie (and there are many of them) is one where the radical Republican Stevens accuses Lincoln of not abiding by his 'inner compass'. To which, Lincoln succinctly brings to the fore the difference between marching due north as shown by the compass and superimposing one's knowledge of the lay of the land with the direction shown by the compass.

Many may find fault with Lincoln's approach as one where ends justify the means. Even his wife said of him, "no one knows the art of treading  treacherous paths better than you do,"  encouraging him to personally take on the task of garnering support votes for the Amendment. His delaying tactics in keeping the peace-seeking Confederates away from Washington till the Amendment had been passed, his denial of the existence of a negotiated peace plan to his Secretary of State and his skill in managing the many factions in his party, all  belong in the world of political intrigues, I concede. His Democratic opponents even went so far as to accuse him of being a dictator, a tyrant who wanted only to enforce his will. To all these detractors, I would say only this: The ability of a man whose vision transcends his own times is limited only by his dexterity in steering the actors of his times. Lincoln could, and did. All that matters is that his goal was the greater good for his country, the world and of the people in the times to come. He belonged not just to his time, but as was aptly said in the penultimate scene ,  "he now belongs to the ages".

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