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Amazon.com essential video: Even though he was the subject of some 158 films, this movie perhaps defines Lincoln on screen--despite the fact that Young Mr. Lincoln was released in what was perhaps film's finest year, 1939. It certainly endured stiff competition: Destry Rides Again, Gone with the Wind, Gunga Din, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Mice and Men, and Wizard of Oz. Young Mr. Lincoln explores Lincoln's budding interest in politics (he accepts a law book as payment at his grocery store), a bittersweet relationship with a girl to whom he shares his dreams, his first law office, and as he meets Mary Todd. The film's highlight is the court trial. Even in his earliest performances, Fonda easily switched between comedic and dramatic. It's remarkable this was actually one of his earlier films--what an onus of responsibility to play the country's most revered president! Fonda succeeds, and performs valiantly and credibly. His portrayal is kindly, respectful, admirable, and brilliant. No president could ask for more. --N.F. Mendoza
Customer Reviews:
- John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln: Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1N81Y1TDI9HRR
- Good condition. Lousy delivery time, it took over 12 days to recieve it! : The DVD was in good condition, packaging was good, but delivery was lousy! It took this seller more than 14 days to get this product to me and that is not fair considering what you get charged for delivery! For me, timeliness in delivery counts! Otherwise, I take my money elsewhere!
Franck Strongbow - Fonda's Unerring Performance Dominates a Modest Look at Lincoln's Early Years: Long on mythology and short on actual historical facts, John Ford's seminal 1939 film about Abraham Lincoln's early days is made singularly memorable by Henry Fonda's sterling performance in the eponymous role. With a prosthetic nose, lanky build, and his voice in measured tones, the actor manages to capture with palpable sincerity and conviction the future President's endless curiosity had as a young man about life and the law in 1830's Illinois. He evokes a folksy, self-deprecating persona befitting of Lincoln, and screenwriter Lamar Trotti's anecdotal portrait humanizes the man behind the performance by emphasizing the life-size qualities that served him later - his deep humility and self-effacing manner; his conviction in helping those who could not help themselves, and more broadly, his gift for reconciling warring factions despite the odds.
The film is deceptively modest in scope, as the story only covers Lincoln from the time he begins to consider studying law to his first major court case. Where the film feels somewhat less than a masterpiece is in its pacing, which fluctuates between elegiac and lethargic. I'm sure it was intentional on Ford's part to take his time in establishing the rural atmosphere and tracking Lincoln's growth toward iconic status. Sometimes, the approach works wonderfully well as in the early scene when an obviously smitten Lincoln tentatively chats with Ann Rutledge, an unrealized romance due to her early unexpected death. Ford has the actors express their mutual yearning beautifully in the scene and then follows it seamlessly with a sad wintry scene when Lincoln speaks to her grave. On the other hand, other scenes go on far too long such as the Independence Day celebration sequence and the courtship with Mary Todd. The overall effect can get wearing.
However, the momentum picks up with the court case, which has Lincoln defending two brothers charged with murder leading to a strong jailhouse speech from Lincoln and a courtroom climax that portends the whodunit cases of future TV series. Aside from Fonda's stellar work, Alice Brady impressively switches gears from her usual gadabout roles and plays the frontier mother Abigail Clay with poignancy. Others like Ward Bond and Donald Meek play their archetypical Ford roles with customary ease. The two-disc 2006 Criterion Collection DVD is rich with extras as is standard with their packages. The first disc offers an excellent print transfer of the film, but unfortunately no commentary track from a film scholar. Two archival video pieces are included on the second disc. Directed and hosted by filmmaker Lindsay Anderson, the first is an illuminating 1992 BBC portrait of Ford, "Omnibus: John Ford, Part One", which covers the filmmaker's career until WWII.
The second video is a 1975 interview that longtime British talk show host Michael Parkinson conducted with a seventy-year old Fonda. The actor talks candidly about his career, including his fortuitous casting in "Young Mr. Lincoln", as well as a traumatic childhood experience where he witnessed a lynching. Perhaps most surprising and touching is what seems to be his genuine pride over the accomplishments of his children Jane and Peter. There are a few audio-only extras - a thirty-minute condensed radio broadcast of the movie that was originally broadcast in 1946 with Fonda and Bond repeating their roles, as well as two brief interviews with Ford and Fonda conducted by Ford's grandson Dan. Lastly, there is a handsome booklet included with the package that included pieces from film critic Geoffrey O'Brien and filmmaker Sergei Eisentein. - Favorite John Ford Film: This is the best movie about a historical character that I have ever seen.
It may not be accurate, but it's close enough for me. Anyways, it's the integrity of Abe Lincoln that it be portrayed in the movie that's important. And it was. This is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, old movie.
I greatly love the music in it too. I have been trying to find out if they have a soundtrack out yet, but I don't think they do. They need to though! It's great music. If anyone knows where I can find some of the music from the movie, I would be very happy to know. Especially the song that plays while Abe is at Anne's grave. You guys know the song!
- Elegiac version of young Abe Lincoln's life: Quite an enjoyable movie. Directed by John Ford (one of three fine movies from him that year--along with "Stagecoach" and "Drums along the Mohawk"), starring Henry Fonda as Young Mr. Lincoln (and a young Milburn Stone as Stephen Douglas), and Darryl Zanuck producing. The movie starts with "The Battle Cry of Freedom."
This is a slow paced elegiac movie, a montage of scenes, not particularly well organized and not laid out in a linear fashion. But that makes little difference. The venue for the movie is Sangamon County, Illinois (with Springfield as the center within that venue). This is not really a linear movie; as noted, it is a set of scenes that define Ford's vision of young Lincoln. A booklet coming with the DVD is especially interesting. There is a brief essay by Sergei Eisenstein, the great Russian director, who comments on this movie. He notes that this is a movie that "I wish I had made." His essay concludes: "My love for this film has neither cooled nor been forgotten. It grows stronger and the film itself grows more dear to me."
Among the vignettes depicted in this movie: Lincoln's poignant relationship with Ann Rutledge and his response to her passing; his move to a legal career; his ride along the river; his meeting Mary Todd. Above all, that wonderful trial episode, one of my all-time favorite movie scenes. Especially moving is his final cross-examination of Jack Cass (the pun generates great mirth among the characters of the movie), played by the redoubtable Ward Bond.
Again, what a year for John Ford! Three fine movies, each, in its own way, a classic. While there can surely be questions about the historical accuracy of this movie, the feel is right in creating a characterization of young Lincoln. Well worth watching. . . .
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