Remembered because the Savior of the Union, Abraham Lincoln is one in every of America's such a lot respected presidents. there were tens of hundreds of thousands of books released approximately him given that his dying, yet he has proved to be an incredibly daunting topic for filmmakers. regardless of a wealth of biographical fabric, particularly few full-length films have taken the fellow and his existence as a first-rate topic. during this specific research, Brian J. Snee presents a sweeping assessment of the cinematic representations of the 16th president from the silent period as much as Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012) -- a movie which, he argues, marks a seismic shift within the means Hollywood provides the nice Emancipator on-screen.

Snee specializes in six of the most well-liked and influential videos and television miniseries of the 20th century to handle the lifetime of Abraham Lincoln -- The delivery of a Nation (1915), Abraham Lincoln (1930), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Sandburg's Lincoln (1974--1976), and Gore Vidal's Lincoln (1988). Snee examines how every one paintings has contributed to public reminiscence of the president, addressing problems with creation, textual building, and viewers reception, in addition to their modern ancient contexts and underlying cultural theory.

The absence of video and different recording expertise in the course of Lincoln's lifetime eternally shrouds his mannerisms, suggestion approaches, and interactions along with his friends and advisers. That guy, Snee argues, is misplaced to heritage. This interesting ebook bargains a revealing and groundbreaking overview of the way Hollywood has imagined and reimagined America's maximum president on-screen, contributing to the preferred photo and fable of the mythical man.