Kushner's screenplay for Lincoln is one of the best ever. Elegant prose, brilliantly plotted, lots of vivid characterization and commendably close to history. Very nice to see him talking about his work. Thanks for your interview.
Hilarious how people were attacking the guy who wrote "Argo" and insisting that this should have won bc it was "true." Despite the dramatic license taken with that film, I can assure you that it was much more accurate than "Lincoln" simply bc the writer had thousands and thousands of film archives to watch (and included them in the film). Even the cover of Lincoln looks like he was expecting "Best Picture" under Lewis's photo.And flying in Clinton for the GG? God, it was great to see him lose!
I keep watching this movie/reading the screen play and trying to "like" it and just cannot do it. Am I alone in this? I don't like to be spoon fed by anyone:"HERE is what you should think." At least "Argo" was morally relativistic in a lot of ways and let the viewer draw his own conclusions. This film was ridiculously...Spielberg again telling us what is "moral." At least in "Munich," I felt like there were (small) parts where you could say "well, he understands the Pal viewpoint." Am I alone?
unfortunately friend, while I admit that the fictional and dramatized nature of this retelling of the Lincoln story is contrived, it is also a reflection of American attitudes about dramatic storytelling. The situations may not seem historically plausible to you, and there is in fact what separates it from documentary filmmaking. Kushner's responibility was to his audience and his story, not the nonfictional narrative from which it is derived. Also while you make the point of feelin spoon fed the morality of this film I just really dont see how sympathizing with slave owners and the racism of the Confederate South was ever an option. And if that was what you were, in fact, looking for, then I'm afraid that as far as I'm concerned you were most certainly alone.
The opening of this film was outright theater of the absurd. The Gettysburg Address didn't become popular for decades after Lincoln's death. The idea that 2 Northern enlisted soldiers would know most of it is laughable enough; the idea that a black soldier would know the whole thing- when at the time 96% were illiterate- is outright laughable. I suspect Speilberg insisted on such tripe. Such as going through "Amistad" & never telling us that the noble "Senke" became a slave trader later on.
Kushner's screenplay for Lincoln is one of the best ever. Elegant prose, brilliantly plotted, lots of vivid characterization and commendably close to history. Very nice to see him talking about his work. Thanks for your interview.
Love this stuff
Hi there, any prospect of interviewing Steven Spielberg or John Logan (re: Skyfall). Keep up the great work!
Very good interviews, I agree. Probably better than Barry Norman!
Hilarious how people were attacking the guy who wrote "Argo" and insisting that this should have won bc it was "true." Despite the dramatic license taken with that film, I can assure you that it was much more accurate than "Lincoln" simply bc the writer had thousands and thousands of film archives to watch (and included them in the film). Even the cover of Lincoln looks like he was expecting "Best Picture" under Lewis's photo.And flying in Clinton for the GG? God, it was great to see him lose!
I keep watching this movie/reading the screen play and trying to "like" it and just cannot do it. Am I alone in this? I don't like to be spoon fed by anyone:"HERE is what you should think." At least "Argo" was morally relativistic in a lot of ways and let the viewer draw his own conclusions. This film was ridiculously...Spielberg again telling us what is "moral." At least in "Munich," I felt like there were (small) parts where you could say "well, he understands the Pal viewpoint." Am I alone?
unfortunately friend, while I admit that the fictional and dramatized nature of this retelling of the Lincoln story is contrived, it is also a reflection of American attitudes about dramatic storytelling. The situations may not seem historically plausible to you, and there is in fact what separates it from documentary filmmaking. Kushner's responibility was to his audience and his story, not the nonfictional narrative from which it is derived. Also while you make the point of feelin spoon fed the morality of this film I just really dont see how sympathizing with slave owners and the racism of the Confederate South was ever an option. And if that was what you were, in fact, looking for, then I'm afraid that as far as I'm concerned you were most certainly alone.
The opening of this film was outright theater of the absurd. The Gettysburg Address didn't become popular for decades after Lincoln's death. The idea that 2 Northern enlisted soldiers would know most of it is laughable enough; the idea that a black soldier would know the whole thing- when at the time 96% were illiterate- is outright laughable. I suspect Speilberg insisted on such tripe. Such as going through "Amistad" & never telling us that the noble "Senke" became a slave trader later on.