THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
06/17/22 -- Vol. 40, No. 51, Whole Number 2228

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Juneteenth and LINCOLN (film comments by Mark R. Leeper
and Evelyn C. Leeper)
12 YEARS A SLAVE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE GALAXY, AND THE GROUND WITHIN by Becky Chambers
(audio book review by Joe Karpierz)
BLADE RUNNER (letters of comment by John Purcell
and Keith F. Lynch)
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (letter of comment by John Purcell)
BY FORCE ALONE (letters of comment by John Purcell,
Keith F. Lynch, and Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (MAKING HISTORY) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: LINCOLN (a film retrospective by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn
C. Leeper)

Juneteenth (officially Juneteenth National Independence Day) is our
newest Federal holiday. It commemorates the emancipation of
enslaved African-Americans.

President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January
1, 1863, but that freed only slaves in states still in rebellion.
On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston
to enforce that Proclamation, and this is seen as the end of
slavery. However, until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was
ratified by the required twenty-seven states on December 6, 1865
(Georgia being the last of these), slavery was still legal in
Delaware and Kentucky.

(The last states to ratify the amendment were Delaware (1901),
Kentucky (1976), and Mississippi (ratified 1995, but not until 2013
was the US Archivist officially notified).)

In celebration of Juneteenth, here are some observations about the
film LINCOLN, which focuses on the passing of the 13th Amendment by
Congress.

Capsule: In LINCOLN, with very interesting release timing and with
considerable historical accuracy, Stephen Spielberg tells the
history of the two great conflicting goals Abraham Lincoln had
toward the end of the Civil War. He wanted both to free the slaves
and to end the fighting. Spielberg does not simplify the issues.
Much of the film is talk. He respects his audience's intelligence
enough to tell the complex story and maintain a great deal of
historical accuracy. The film even looks very authentic to the
period. The viewer may have to work hard to catch all that is
happening, but the task is worth the effort. This is a film for an
intelligent audience.

It is impressive to see so many art house actors playing even in
small roles in this film.

At the beginning, there is an implication is that soldiers--black
and white--had memorized the Gettysburg Address. This is probably
not likely.

Lincoln easily slips into the middle of a joke, making it his joke,
and then returning to the topic. These jokes and Lincoln's
humorous analogies are a distraction and a slyly used tool.
However, not all of Lincoln's humor strikes the modern viewer as
hilarious. But there is no lack of modern humor as the
abolitionist's President's agents search out Congressmen who would
vote against Lincoln and try to change their minds.

Mary Todd Lincoln's self-promotions of her own interests make her
seem more of a liability to her husband than an asset. She might
be interesting enough if she had her own film, but in this film she
seems merely to interrupt the main story. (On the other hand,
maybe the idea is that Lincoln has more than just the 13th
Amendment to deal with.)

This is Daniel Day-Lewis's second-to-final film and a role for
which he will probably be remembered well. His voice, however, is
not as high-pitched as Lincoln's was reported to be.

The military use of the telegraph and its use in general is the
highlight of the civil war rarely discussed in film.

Even though Spielberg and his audience know the political result of
these issues, Spielberg manages to create real suspense as to the
outcome. Spielberg's talent covers many types of films, and many
styles. Here he colors his photography with a darkness of film
noir.

The scenes of the aftermath of the war are drawn out. They may be
historically correct, but they do little to advance the story of
the film. (There is, however, a slight trick placed on the viewer
in them.) Perhaps it would have been better for the film to have
ended either with Lincoln walking away from the camera and out the
door of the White House, or with the announcement of the
Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston (although Lincoln makes it
quite clear early in the film why the Emancipation Proclamation is
of questionable legality, and uncertain to stay in effect after the
end of the war, and hence *why* the 13th Amendment is needed).

Rating: high +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443272/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lincoln_2011>

[-mrl/ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: 12 YEARS A SLAVE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)

[In honor of Juneteenth, our newest Federal holiday, we are
re-running Mark's review of 12 YEARS A SLAVE, which originally
appeared 12/06/13. Note that an earlier version of Northup's
story, SOLOMON NORTHUP'S ODYSSEY (1984), will be running on TCM
on July 14, 2022 at 7:00AM. This starred Avery Brooks [Captain
Sisko in "Star Trek:Deep Space Nine"] in his first television
role.]

CAPSULE: This is the truly horrifying true story of Solomon
Northup, a free-born black man who in 1841 was kidnapped and sold
into slavery. 12 YEARS A SLAVE is based on his eyewitness account
of his years of slavery, what he saw, and what he experienced. As
one character puts it, "the story is amazing and in no good way."
It is a powerful and important film, an unflinching look at some of
(what we would hope is) the worst cruelty of human slavery in the
Antebellum South. Rating: +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10

[Spoiler warning: I discuss one shocking sequence in the film that
really needs to be commented on. I do not think that it diminishes
the viewing experience.]

Over the years we have seen films about crimes against humanity
committed in history. There are many very good films about the
European Holocaust. There simply have not been very many films to
depict the nightmarish cruelty of slavery in the United States. No
doubt part of the reason is financial. Selling the idea that the
country allowed the horrendous crimes that occurred under slavery
would not sell well to the American public. The narrative film
that came the closest was probably the television mini-series
ROOTS, made under the eyes of the network censors. That film
handled the subject considerably more gently than the subject
really deserved in order not to offend the television-watching
public. This may be the first narrative film to show slavery this
realistically. Not all slaves were treated so cruelly under
American slavery as we see in the film, and some no doubt had it
considerably worse, though how that could be strains the
imagination. What we see in this film is credible and damning
enough.

Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) was a well-educated,
free-born black man living in Saratoga, New York in 1841 when he
was offered a supposed job with a circus. He accompanied two men
to Washington, DC, where instead they drugged him and sold him as a
slave. He was forced to hide his education and take a name he was
given, Platt. Periodic beatings were part of his treatment from
the beginning. He was treated hellishly and so were the other
slaves around him.

In truth, not everybody in the South's slave system is portrayed as
being sadistic and cruel. Northup's first "master," William Ford
(Benedict Cumberbatch) seems to be a decent man of conscience who
appreciates Northup's intelligence and talents. However, the
racial system is stacked against blacks and abhors even the
mutually beneficial relationship Northup and Ford enjoy. Ford's
carpenter (Paul Dano), white and jealous of Northup's position, is
able to destroy the relationship. Northup has to work for a new
and less scrupled master, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). For the
slaves working for Epps is a constant parade of beatings, rape, and
torture, physical and mental. All of this is sanctioned by
Scripture, as Epps tells his slaves.

On 6/19/22 10:13 AM, eleeper@optonline.net wrote:
> President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January
> 1, 1863, but that freed only slaves in states still in rebellion.
> On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston
> to enforce that Proclamation, and this is seen as the end of
> slavery. However, until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was
> ratified by the required twenty-seven states on December 6, 1865
> (Georgia being the last of these), slavery was still legal in
> Delaware and Kentucky.

It's surprising, at least to me, that Delaware was one of the "border
states" that had slavery until the ratification of the 13th but didn't
secede. I normally think of it as a northern state.

The Delaware Constitution of 1776 prohibited the importation of slaves
but didn't, in spite of what some sources claim, outlaw slavery. It was
replaced by the 1792 Constitution, which didn't have that prohibition.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com