Abraham Lincoln: Twentieth Century Popular Portrayals (review)

Book Reviews | Regular Feature opments of the cinematic thaw was the emergence oftwo generations of directors . The older group was born in the early 1920s and fought in the Second World War; the others were only five to ten years younger but lacked combat service. Their careers blossomed as a result of the expansion in film production , which represented a dramatic change from the late Stalin period, when enormous resources were channeled into producing a few "classics" each year that turned out to be duds. Some of the newer directors started working for smaller studios in the outlying republics rather than the mammoth complexes in Moscow or Leningrad. Indeed, by the late 1960s, the Soviet motion picture industry was no longer a strictly Russian affair. Younger filmmakers also enjoyed the guidance and sponsorship of seasoned veterans in resisting the reactionary forces, especially Mosfilm chieftain, Ivan Pyrev. While the films of the Khrushchev era were not all cut from the same cloth, fhematically they represented a definite break with the past. The Party—along with its inflated heroes and blowhard ideologists—began taking a back seat to individuals whose problems were personal rather than political. Emotions replaced slogans, and black-and-white yielded to gray, even in the case of villains. Early in the thaw, filmmakers took a realistic approach to selected parts of the Soviet past, especially the Civil War and World War II, dwelling on civilians rather than soldiers and even suggesting that initial defeats had resulted from mistakes at the top. As the years went by, directors and their audiences sought increasingly to engage contemporary life and problems officially deemed nonexistent, such as generation conflict, class friction, and gender struggles. By the late 1960s— as the Brezhnev regime began to impose controls on artistic freedom —some screenplays dared to portray antiheroes who actually rejected the core values and basic beliefs of Soviet society. Unlike the situation in today's Russia, moviegoing in the Khrushchev era was a popular pastime, and audiences responded deeply (and by no means always positively) to motion pictures. Some of them are familiar to Western cinéastes, especially warbased photoplays such as Mikhail Kalatozov's The Cranes Are Flying (1957), which WoIl calls the "first indisputable masterpiece of post-Stalin cinema," Grigorii Chukrai's Ballad ofa Soldier (1959), Sergei Bondarchuk's Fate ofaMan (1959), andAndrei Tarkovskii's first feature film Ivan's Childhood (1962). All of themreceive theirdue here, butequally interesting are many titles little known to U.S. audiences—for example, Nine Days ofOne Year (1962), with its modern science portrayal, and Ilich's Gate (1961/1965), a tale of disaffected youth, whose problems with authorities (Khrushchev included) delayed its release for several years. These and many othertitles make vividimpressions thanks to Woll's thoughtful analysis of the pictures themselves and her behind-the-scenes discussions among industry and government figures. One can only hope that more of these movies eventually appear on video, with English subtitles, for classroom use. Real Images deserves the attention of all who are interested in film, Soviet history, or the inevitably close interaction of the two. The scholarship is sound and, for the most part, the prose has grace and even wit. In sum, Woll's book ranks with the works ofDeniseYoungblood, Peter Kenez, andAnnaLawton: all of them breathe life into noteworthy chapters from the story of Soviet cinema. Lawrence Crider Uscriders@earthlink.net Frank Thompson. Abraham Lincoln: Twentieth Century Popular Portrayals. Taylor Publishing Company, 1999. 304 pages; $26.95. Variety of Perspectives The title oíAbraham Lincoln: Twentieth Century Popular Portrayals is something ofa misnomer as the book covers much more material than it suggests. Veteran author FrankThompson encompasses not only the popular portrayals ofLincoln, but also every presentation dating all the way back to the 1861 play,Ahab Lincoln. By including interesting tidbits about the stars, the directors , the bit players, and the history of these presentations, Thompson provides a variety of perspectives of what the "real" Lincoln might have been like. The book is 290 pages long and comprises an introduction , eight chapters, three appendices, and an index. In the introduction the author acquaints us with the three major themes which pervade most of...