“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” That Abraham Lincoln quote sums up the quiet, thoughtful dignity that actors have tried to portray on film for several generations now. And on screen, the 16th president has done everything from meeting Shirley Temple to fighting vampires. In honor of President’s Day, here are some of the actors who have played Honest Abe over the years.
Joseph Henabery – “The Birth of a Nation” (1915)
The racism in “The Birth of a Nation” aside, D.W. Griffith stages the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as a true national tragedy, and he does so in ravishing display, staging a scene everyone already knows but hadn’t yet visualized on film, using never before seen intercutting and sweeping wide shots as John Wilkes Booth dives from the balcony to provide ravishing tension and action.
Walter Huston – “Abraham Lincoln” (1930)
D.
Joseph Henabery – “The Birth of a Nation” (1915)
The racism in “The Birth of a Nation” aside, D.W. Griffith stages the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as a true national tragedy, and he does so in ravishing display, staging a scene everyone already knows but hadn’t yet visualized on film, using never before seen intercutting and sweeping wide shots as John Wilkes Booth dives from the balcony to provide ravishing tension and action.
Walter Huston – “Abraham Lincoln” (1930)
D.
- 2/21/2022
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
It’s a CineSavant guest reviewer debut for journalist Sergio Alejandro Mims. In its first ever 2-disc set Twilight Time makes a bold statement with a domestic release of an important U.K. restoration. It’s without question extremely influential as filmmaking — techniques used in The Avengers: Infinity War can be traced back to D.W. Griffith’s classic. But this controversial picture is also one of the most vile, racist movies ever made. It has a lot of answer for, yet still makes an impact today. What other film released over a century ago can make that statement?
The Birth of a Nation
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1915 / Color tinted / 1:33 flat full frame / 191 min. / Street Date May 22, 2018 /Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store /
Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Ralph Lewis, George Siegman Walter Long, Joseph Henabery Jennie Lee, Mary Alden.
Cinematography: G.W. Bitzer
Film Editors: D.W.
The Birth of a Nation
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1915 / Color tinted / 1:33 flat full frame / 191 min. / Street Date May 22, 2018 /Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store /
Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Ralph Lewis, George Siegman Walter Long, Joseph Henabery Jennie Lee, Mary Alden.
Cinematography: G.W. Bitzer
Film Editors: D.W.
- 6/9/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Films by Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, and Buster Keaton are among the “hundreds of thousands” of books, musical scores, and motion pictures that will enter the public domain on January 1, according to The Atlantic. All of the works were first made available to audiences in 1923, four years before the introduction of talkies. Due to changed copyright laws, this will be the largest collection of material to lose its copyright protections since 1998.
Artists looking to incorporate black-and-white era throwbacks into their modern creations will have lots of new options. The Atlantic consulted unpublished research from Duke University School of Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which shared with IndieWire a list of 35 films that will soon become available to all.
“Our list is therefore only a partial one; many more works are entering the public domain as well, but the relevant information to confirm this may...
Artists looking to incorporate black-and-white era throwbacks into their modern creations will have lots of new options. The Atlantic consulted unpublished research from Duke University School of Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which shared with IndieWire a list of 35 films that will soon become available to all.
“Our list is therefore only a partial one; many more works are entering the public domain as well, but the relevant information to confirm this may...
- 4/9/2018
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” That Abraham Lincoln quote sums up the quiet, thoughtful dignity that actors have tried to portray on film for several generations now. And on screen, he’s done everything from meeting Shirley Temple to fighting vampires. In honor of his birthday today, here are some of the actors who have played Honest Abe over the years. Joseph Henabery – “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) The controversy and racism of “The Birth of a Nation” aside, D.W. Griffith stages the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as...
- 2/19/2018
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Vivien Leigh ca. late 1940s. Vivien Leigh movies: now controversial 'Gone with the Wind,' little-seen '21 Days Together' on TCM Vivien Leigh is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 18, '15, as TCM's “Summer Under the Stars” series continues. Mostly a stage actress, Leigh was seen in only 19 films – in about 15 of which as a leading lady or star – in a movie career spanning three decades. Good for the relatively few who saw her on stage; bad for all those who have access to only a few performances of one of the most remarkable acting talents of the 20th century. This evening, TCM is showing three Vivien Leigh movies: Gone with the Wind (1939), 21 Days Together (1940), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Leigh won Best Actress Academy Awards for the first and the third title. The little-remembered film in-between is a TCM premiere. 'Gone with the Wind' Seemingly all...
- 8/19/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Loretta Young films as TCM celebrates her 102nd birthday (photo: Loretta Young ca. 1935) Loretta Young would have turned 102 years old today. Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the birthday of the Salt Lake City-born, Academy Award-winning actress today, January 6, 2015, with no less than ten Loretta Young films, most of them released by Warner Bros. in the early '30s. Young, who began her film career in a bit part in the 1927 Colleen Moore star vehicle Her Wild Oat, remained a Warners contract player from the late '20s up until 1933. (See also: "Loretta Young Movies.") Now, ten Loretta Young films on one day may sound like a lot, but one should remember that most Warner Bros. -- in fact, most Hollywood -- releases of the late '20s and early '30s were either B Movies or programmers. The latter were relatively short (usually 60 to 75 minutes) feature films starring A (or B+) performers,...
- 1/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
SAG Awards 2013: Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence [See previous post: "SAG Awards: Ben Affleck Argo to Win Best Picture Oscar?"] Daniel Day-Lewis was the Best Actor SAG Award winner for Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed historical drama Lincoln. In his acceptance speech, Day-Lewis acknowledged not only his fellow Best Actor nominees, but also non-nominee Joaquin Phoenix, whose performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master was bypassed by SAG Award voters. (Photo: Daniel Day-Lewis SAG Awards 2013.) Additionally, Day-Lewis thanked "my friends" Leonardo DiCaprio and Liam Neeson, and joked that perhaps because Abraham Lincoln was killed by an actor, John Wilkes Booth, actors have frequently tried to bring Lincoln back to life. Before Daniel Day-Lewis, the movies’ Abraham Lincolns include those of Joseph Henabery, Walter Huston, John Carradine, Henry Fonda, Raymond Massey (a Best Actor Oscar nominee for Abe Lincoln in Illinois), and, most recently, Benjamin Walker. Of note: Lincoln marked Daniel Day-Lewis’ third Best Actor SAG Award victory. His previous two wins were for...
- 1/28/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The actor's Honest Abe is brilliant, says John Patterson, but others have made Lincoln their own, too
Although Steven Spielberg's new movie Lincoln barely shows the event, Abraham Lincoln was murdered by an actor – in a theatre, no less – so it seems especially appropriate that, a century and a half later, his resurrection should be conducted by a member of the same profession. Daniel Day-Lewis's embodiment of the Great Emancipator, which transcends mere acting and becomes something more like live sculpting, will take every Best Actor statuette and bauble of the spring awards season, without a doubt, and is now the Lincoln to beat; an Elder Lincoln to bookend Henry Fonda's coltish and knock-kneed Young Mr Lincoln in John Ford's exquisite slice of Americana from 1939.
Lincoln has been portrayed on film and television over 270 times since the dawn of celluloid. That's predictable enough, given his overarching prominence in American history,...
Although Steven Spielberg's new movie Lincoln barely shows the event, Abraham Lincoln was murdered by an actor – in a theatre, no less – so it seems especially appropriate that, a century and a half later, his resurrection should be conducted by a member of the same profession. Daniel Day-Lewis's embodiment of the Great Emancipator, which transcends mere acting and becomes something more like live sculpting, will take every Best Actor statuette and bauble of the spring awards season, without a doubt, and is now the Lincoln to beat; an Elder Lincoln to bookend Henry Fonda's coltish and knock-kneed Young Mr Lincoln in John Ford's exquisite slice of Americana from 1939.
Lincoln has been portrayed on film and television over 270 times since the dawn of celluloid. That's predictable enough, given his overarching prominence in American history,...
- 1/21/2013
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
It's nominations time again. Our experts give their verdicts on the list, the likely victors, the nominees who should win but won't – and the fantastic films that were ignored entirely
Best Picture
Nominated: Beasts of the Southern Wild; Zero Dark Thirty; Amour; Argo; Life of Pi; Les Misérables; Lincoln; Silver Linings Playbook; Django Unchained
Philip French, Observer film critic
Will win: Lincoln
Should win: Lincoln
This is one of the best ever Oscar lineups, films of every kind from a California-bred spaghetti western to a British musical of a French novel, from death quietly contemplated in a Parisian flat to a killing violently perpetrated in a Pakistani compound. Lincoln, the film I most admire and expect to win, is a work of dignity and seriousness that speaks to Obama's America and the world at large about the great issues of democracy and human rights, how they were fought for by...
Best Picture
Nominated: Beasts of the Southern Wild; Zero Dark Thirty; Amour; Argo; Life of Pi; Les Misérables; Lincoln; Silver Linings Playbook; Django Unchained
Philip French, Observer film critic
Will win: Lincoln
Should win: Lincoln
This is one of the best ever Oscar lineups, films of every kind from a California-bred spaghetti western to a British musical of a French novel, from death quietly contemplated in a Parisian flat to a killing violently perpetrated in a Pakistani compound. Lincoln, the film I most admire and expect to win, is a work of dignity and seriousness that speaks to Obama's America and the world at large about the great issues of democracy and human rights, how they were fought for by...
- 1/13/2013
- by Philip French, Jason Solomons, Mariella Frostrup, Liz Hoggard
- The Guardian - Film News
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