“The Better Angels”, directed by A. J. Edwards (under the supervision
of co-producer Terrence Malick) dramatizes the boyhood of Abraham Lincoln
(Braydon Denney) in the primitive frontier conditions in southern Indiana
around 1817. Dad, Thomas Lincoln (Jason
Clarke) has no option but to be a taskmaster in this environment, and the
mother Nancy (Brit Marling) dies of undulant fever. Some well-acted minor
incidents show how Abe learned the trait of honesty, to the point that near the
end of the film his dad says he will do great things. And he did.
The custom of the time was that the father was entitled to
the son’s earnings until age 21. Abe
gradually took over as he grew older, and became a champion wrestler.
The film opens with a shot of the US Capitol, and it takes a
moment before we realize that the film will be in black and white, with
cinemascope. The effect is almost that
of the Twilight Zone, almost like we were color blind living in another culture
on another planet. The details of daily life, like how women made clothes on
looms, is interesting.
The film is largely told in narration by young Abe, with
minimal dialogue. The classical music in
the background is captivating. It
includes excerpts from the slow movements of Bruckner’s 7th and 8th
symphonies (see Drama-Music blog Oct. 26), excerpts from both Kalinnikov symphonies. Let me digress a moment and recommend
listening to the Kalinnikov Symphony #1 as played by the Ukraine Symphony,
appropriate given conflict in that part of the world, here. There is also some music from the Dvorak
New World Symphony and some Vaughn Williams.
It struck me that almost all the late romantic and modern music in the
background had been composed after the time period of this movie, even after
Lincoln’s death (and a final scene of the film shows the aftermath back in his
boyhood era in 1865). Lincoln and his
family members could never have known this music.
The official site has a lot of effective black and white rural
video to watch. The distributors are Amplify and Variance.
I saw the film at Landmark E Street in Washington, before a
fair weekday audience.
Picture: I think that's near Vincennes Indiana, in the 1940s, photo in my mother's estate.
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