Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" is a huge frontrunner for this year's Academy Awards. However, with the extra attention, one of the details in the movie has caused a stir. ABC News reported on Feb. 6 that one "Lincoln" factual flaw concerns the voting by Connecticut congressmen to abolish slavery.
The flaw was one that many people won't recognize, but Rep. Joe Courtney quickly thought was a mistake. In the movie, there is a scene where two Connecticut congressmen voted against the 13th amendment in the Constitution. This didn't seem right to Courtney based on his memory of state history and he looked into it.
Sure enough, Courtney was right. All four Connecticut congressmen at the time voted to side with Lincoln and abolish slavery in the 1865 vote.
Courtney praised the movie itself, specifically the acting and cinematography, but that doesn't excuse this factual flaw. He believes that this moment puts Connecticut, a state that supported Lincoln through his fights, on the wrong side of the issues of slavery. He said he hoped that, when the movie hits home video, the "Lincoln" factual flaw could be fixed.
"How could congressmen from Connecticut — a state that supported President Lincoln and lost thousands of her sons fighting against slavery on the Union side of the Civil War — have been on the wrong side of history?" Courtney said in a letter sent to director Steven Spielberg.
For e-mail updates whenever a new article is posted, please click here and then click the subscribe button. Also feel free to follow me on: Twitter @starvingdogs, GooglePlus or join my group on Facebook.
Shawn S. Lealos is a member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle, the professional film critics’ organization of Oklahoma. He is also working on a book about the Stephen King dollar babies called “Dollar Deal.” To read more of his writing, visit shawnlealos.net.
Comments