A Look at Hollywood’s Abraham Lincoln By Corine Gatti, Movies, Steven Spielberg, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Presidents, History

A Look at Hollywood's Abraham Lincoln

By Corine Gatti

Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed movie “Lincoln” is creating a buzz in Hollywood with even whispers of Oscar nominations. Based in part on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s biography, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, the movie has renewed surging interest of the 16th President of the United States. This is nothing new. Books, movies and documentaries on Lincoln, have been weaved into popular culture for decades. His political life, motives on the Civil War and his assassination have hit the screen, some controversial as in writer Gore Vidal's Lincoln, later made into a mini-series for NBC in 1988. Let’s look back on some of the cinematic and television presentations of Lincoln. We will wind back time with director D.W. Griffith’s 1930 film, “Lincoln”. Interestingly, Griffith was an ex-Confederate Army colonel and hero in the Civil War. Then we will look at John Ford’s adaptation starring the dashing Henry Fonda in 1939 and much more!

1930

1939

Long before he ran for President, we see Abe Lincoln mourn his first love and defend his first clients.

1930

1939

1940

1988

1998

2012