There has always been an undercurrent of melancholy to Superman.  He's always lamented the outsider feeling and longed for connection to his Kryptonian roots.  Anytime the Bottle City of Kandor is mentioned, that melancholy is palpable.

*cracks knuckles*

1)  The film makes a point of saying (as in, Daniel Day Lewis actually says on camera) that Lincoln was always against slavery.

On the Senate floor in 1858, Abraham Lincoln says "I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

In his 1860 campaign, he calls John Brown's plan to free and arm slaves, "absurd," and vows to leave slavery as is.

And most damning, up until 1862, Abraham Lincoln had a plan to colonize freed black slaves in Africa and Mexico, because up until the end of his presidency, Lincoln clearly stated that he did not believe freed blacks could live as equals in the US.  By the end of his Presidency, Frederick Douglass did say that Lincoln "had the wisdom to be instructed" in matters of race and after the war ended he called him, "the black man's President."  But while the film insinuates that Lincoln always had this wisdom, in reality he had a very slow evolution.  Frederick Douglass himself just three years prior to his death called him "a genuine representative of American prejudice and Negro hatred." The omission of Lincoln's evolution is a problem for me.  Not because I think Lincoln needed to be bloodied up in the film, but because I actually think it lends strength to his character by showing the capacity to change and evolve a viewpoint, as his did.

2)  The "race against time," was neither a race nor time sensitive.  Lincoln had already pledged prior to the vote on the 13th amendment, that if it didn't pass, he would call congress into a special session in March to vote again, AFTER the Republican majority had expanded, which would have easily given him the votes needed.

3)  The vote tally's of congress were not done by delegates based on state representatives.  This is the House, mind you.  There are districts and states were by no means uniform.

4)  Mary Todd Lincoln was not at the vote

5) The Confederate delegate never made it to DC.

6)  Prior to the events of Lincoln's opening shot, Louisiana, Tennesse, and Virginia, had already dismantled and reformed their state constitution and ABOLISHED slavery on their own.  This is important to note because it reiterates the fact that the 13th amendment was a foregone conclusion.  Lincoln VERY BADLY wanted it passed in his first term, but he didnt need to in order for the future of Black America. 

7) Speaking of Black America, where were the Black Americans?  I understand the movie wasn't named Douglass or Tubman but it would have bee nice to ACKNOWLEDGE that emancipation would not have happened without leadership from Black Americans.

Lincoln absolutely gets MUCH right.   In fact, it is simply amazing they didn't even attempt any of the "Brother against brother," or "tragedy," bullshit.  But let's not pretend it's perfect.

To it's credit, it does not repeat many of the other mistakes of Civil War cinema, but it doesn't get it purely right either.

I dug the new Delta Rae video as well.

But um....new movie from Shane Carruthers guys.  No idea what the fuck I'm looking at, but I'm in.

If you want me to look at any cuts, I'd be happy to.

Dorkman edit: no more. We're moving on.

The James Gunn thing recently reminded me of something that happened with someone else in the public eye, and what was in my opinion, the pitch perfect way of handling it. 

About a year and a half ago, a Professional Wrestler (cue Kyle) by the name of CM Punk was in Australia doing a show.  As a bad guy, or "Heel," part of his job is to antagonize the crowd so that the good guy, or "baby face" can then kick the crap out of him to everyone's applause.  Punk was in the middle of having a sortie with one fan, when the following happened.

It went viral and roughly .8 seconds later, TMZ had it up on it's page, and GLAAD was wheeling the trebuchet's towards WWE's direction.  But less than an hour after TMZ went live with the statement, Punk (who is a self described feminist and has a Rosie the Riveter tattoo on one of his sleeves) issued the following statement:

“I'm glad TMZ posted that video because everybody needs to be held accountable for their bullshit, me included. What I said was bullshit. I'm embarrassed. I own up to being a total douche in this situation and I offer a sincere apology to anybody I hurt with careless words.”

This, I think is the gold standard for handling these scenarios.  No denial, no weaseling.  Just one big, "Yep.  I was an idiot."  I feel like this should be taught on day one of human school.

Clearly he does not go into a screening of the Matrix and see, literally, The Matrix scroll down in 1's and 0's.  But by his own words, all they are are ideas, and to him, ideas should not have a monetary value attached.  They should be free to all. 

I promised myself I wouldn't get sucked back into this.  I woke up this morning and looked at this thread, and it was the same feeling as waking up in a hotel room with my hands covered in blood and no memory of how I got here.  So this is going to be my final word on it.  I don't think he's trolling per se.  But I do suspect he's the type of guy to use a laser pointer to torment his cat in hour long sessions of "catch the floating red dot."

The fact that you see movies, music, and literature as nothing more than ideas and information says far worse about yourself than any of us ever could.  You are entitled to your opinion, but man do I pity you.

There does seem to be a borderline generational sea change to how art is viewed and consumed.   And make no mistake, when you watch a film, listen to a song, or read a book, you ARE consuming it.  The way I was raised, if you consume something, you owe something.  You either believe this, or you don't.