In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Lincoln's Body:The President in Popular Films of the Sesquicentennial
  • Craig A. Warren (bio)

The sesquicentennial of the American Civil War has made Abraham Lincoln a cinematic phenomenon. As Americans contemplate the 150th anniversary of the conflict, filmmakers have turned to Lincoln—perhaps the central figure of those years—as a means of commemorating and interpreting the war. Of late, he has emerged as the subject of several television movies and at least one straight-to-rental zombie picture. More notably, the president's life and legacy inspired three major motion pictures early this decade: the 2010 courtroom drama The Conspirator, followed in 2012 by the action-fantasy film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the political drama Lincoln. As expected, scholars have critiqued the historical accuracy and social vision of each film. Yet, few have compared how these works represent the president's physicality, body language, and attire. What values are signaled by different portrayals of Lincoln's face and body? And how do casting, posture, and wardrobe convey messages about the sixteenth presidency and its achievements? By examining Lincoln's embodiment across the three major films, we can better understand how filmmakers wish to interpret Union and Emancipation for early twenty-first century audiences.1

Nearly a century and a half after his death, the image of Abraham Lincoln permeates American society in both obvious and unexpected ways. Stamped on U.S. currency, Lincoln's likeness can be found in billfolds and piggy banks from Alaska to Florida. If few Americans pause to study the president's profile on the humble penny, far grander representations draw widespread appreciation. At the Lincoln Memorial, arguably the most revered of all monuments in Washington, D.C., a marble rendition of the Great Emancipator ponders the new millennium from his elevated seat. More than fifteen hundred miles away, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Lincoln's granite visage participates in the Mount Rushmore pantheon of American presidents. Complementing his face as it appears on cash and [End Page 146] statuary, photographs of the sixteenth president inundate schools and public spaces, and artists and historians comment at length about the man's "extraordinary" countenance. A recent picture book, Lincoln, Life-Size (2009), features enlarged photographs of the politician's lined and poignant face. These blown-up images, the publisher intones, grant readers an "unprecedented window into Lincoln's soul." For those wishing to see Lincoln impersonators, opportunities exist at battlefield reenactments, museums, and historical society events. Nationwide, the Association of Lincoln Presenters promotes 150 "living Lincolns," gaunt and bearded men who don the iconic stovepipe hat to "educate, entertain, and inspire" their fellow citizens. The face of George Washington may be immediately familiar to most Americans, but few have a sense of the first president's physique. By contrast, Lincoln's body is as famous as his head. Long, lean, angular, and often awkward, it is an essential part of his popular image. Indeed, the most famous monuments to Lincoln portray his form from head to toe.2

The ubiquity of Lincoln's image in the popular imagination poses a challenge to filmmakers wishing to represent him on the screen. Viewers have deep-seated expectations for how Honest Abe should look, and how his body should occupy the space around him. Moreover, most audiences are accustomed to seeing Lincoln frozen in photographs, drawings, bronze, and stone. No matter what choices a director makes, a moving, breathing, speaking Lincoln will upset standard ways of engaging the president—and perhaps lead viewers to resist the presentation. In many respects, director Robert Redford eludes the problem in The Conspirator, a film about the trial and execution of Mary Surratt, the woman who owned the boarding house where those plotting against Lincoln often met. The movie poster for the film features the marble face of the Lincoln Memorial, but Lincoln himself is almost entirely absent from the screen. In an early sequence that portrays John Wilkes Booth's attack on the president and the immediate aftermath, Redford shows Lincoln only from a distance or in momentary glimpses. The late Gerald Bestrom, a longtime Lincoln impersonator, assumed the role of the wounded president for these limited shots...

pdf