In American Civil War history at Dickinson College of course the alma mater of both president buchanan and chief Justice Taney for what thats worth. Matt is the author of a number of books and articles including lincolns sanctuary which is a history of the soldiers home where lincoln would go during the summer and he is the author of a forthcoming book which i think will radically force us to think about lincoln in a new way. Its hard to imagine anything that could force us to think about lincoln in a new way since there is so much on lincoln that what else is there to say . His new book will be called boss lincoln and he is going to look at lincoln as a party and president ial leader. Ill turn the podium over to matt pinsker and also let him talk to us about mr. Spielberg and lincoln goes to hollywood. Well, thank you very much. To paul and don and everyone here, it is an honor to be at a symposium like this and speak about spielbergs lincoln is important for us to do. This is a movie
The u. S. Capital historical society. Its about 45 minutes. Our next speaker is matt pinsker the associate professor of history and holds the chair in American Civil War history at Dickinson College of course the alma mater of both president buchanan and chief Justice Taney for what thats worth. Matt is the author of a number of books and articles including lincolns sanctuary which is a history of the soldiers home where lincoln would go during the summer and he is the author of a forthcoming book which i think will radically force us to think about lincoln in a new way. Its hard to imagine anything that could force us to think about lincoln in a new way since there is so much on lincoln that what else is there to say . His new book will be called boss lincoln and he is going to look at lincoln as a party and president ial leader. Ill turn the podium over to matt pinsker and also let him talk to us about mr. Spielberg and lincoln goes to hollywood. Well, thank you very much. To paul an
Reject the scholar who doesnt give them what they want. It strikes me, in other words they are engaging in some way. Just on their own terms. You know, someone like Steve Mcqueen has an idea and he found this book. He had an idea. His wife found him the book and he put it all together and that is the narrative and the story and he has his ideas and scenes. I was struck powerfully by spielberg having scenes in his mind telling the historians what he saw. Was it possible . Could it be . What was the weather at the gettysburg address . Could the flag have been flying . And the several hundred page screen play gets shrunk down to a few months. So there are ways. Theyre saying can mary lincoln wear this . Can she wear that . Well, she was actually wearing black. She was in mourning. But the larger authenticity of the film was to portray her as a vain shopaholic, someone difficult. So she wasnt accurate. If i had been someone who said, no. She must wear the black, otherwise its inaccurate, y
Theyre really quite intelligent, very intelligent, but are trained in a way that theyve been trained differently from the way we have so that they are interested in, you know, the impact visually and what people hear. And the overarching story or theme or thesis they want to put forward. And so whenever they come to historians, its not as theyre writing the work. It is usually after theyve already worked out in their mind what the opening scene is going to look like and the rest of it. And the story holds together well for them, for what they like to portray in one way. And then on the other side of it is working with the producers to find out whether theyll finance so you have to take into consideration what the producers want to see in this film, too. So they kind of are very collaborative and were only one piece, a small piece of the collaboration because they do come in with this. And its interesting because i want to know whether or not Steve Mcqueen actually shot the opening sequ
My sons came up with the idea a few years ago i should take p n plantation mistress to hollywood and say, real housewives of the old south. You should. But the patriot, at the same time, youre sitting there and these little freshmen come in, and why are you here, whats your interest . And they saw the film. Part of it is to get people excited about the past even if its not our past, even if its nobodys past, some fantasy past. Vampire past. And this brings us a question of what constitutes a film about slavery . Would you think of ride with the devil as a film about slavery or Cold Mountain . No. There are slaves in those films, but theyre very marginal and theyre thereubidleh almost to establish Cold Mountain had no slaves, no black voices. You see a black woman being drugged, being carried. R t hahp hc nod. And i think that was a subconscious Cold Mountain view of the world. We know theyre there, but this is our film. You even see Nicole Kidman taking refreshments out to the slaves b