alr

Young Mr. Lincoln

Introduction by Tom Conley
Screening on Film
Directed by John Ford.
With Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver.
US, 1939, 35mm, black & white, 100 min.
Print source: HFA

Weaving together history and myth, Young Mr. Lincoln has intrigued commentators from Sergei Eisenstein to the Cahiers critics and Andrew Sarris. This biopic presents not the agonized Civil War President but the gangly, even awkward, backwoods lawyer in Illinois whose pursuit of justice hints at greatness to come. The film’s genius and appeal come from this simple device: everything we see and hear gains an extra dimension of poignancy and significance from our knowledge of Lincoln’s future. Many of Henry Fonda’s roles for Ford exemplify this pattern, in which the hero must always move on; driven by fate, he can never settle down, even if he would like to. Nevertheless, far from being a forbidding figure, Ford’s Lincoln is both a man for the ages and a man of the people. As Joseph McBride puts it, “For Ford, Lincoln is the archetypal figure of justice, a man who dispenses legal wisdom with a priestlike humor, charity and tolerance.” 

Part of film series

Read more

Classic Ford.
A John Ford Retrospective, Part I

Other film series with this film

Read more

John Ford:
A Major Retrospective

Read more

Cinema of Resistance

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

Read more
a double-exposed image that includes a 16th century Russian man being fed grapes by another amid decadent decor

Wings of a Serf

Read more
a close-up of a Bissau-Guinean woman wearing a scarf on her head and looking directly at the camera with a slight smile

Le Dépays + Sans soleil

Read more
Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

Carol for Another Christmas

Read more

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy