Daily Dialogue — April 20, 2020

“I can’t listen to this anymore. I can’t accomplish a goddamn thing of any worth until we cure ourselves of slavery and end this pestilential war! I wonder if any of you or anyone else knows it. I know! I need this! This amendment is that cure! We’ve stepped out upon the world stage now. Now! With the fate of human dignity in our hands. Blood’s been spilled to afford us this moment now! Now! Now! And you grouse so and heckle and dodge about like pettifogging Tammany Hall hucksters!”

— Lincoln (2012), screenplay by Tony Kushner, book by Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Politician.

Trivia: During the three and a half months of filming, Steven Spielberg addressed his actors in character: he called Daniel Day-Lewis “Mr. President” (i.e. Abraham Lincoln) and Sally Field “Mrs. Lincoln,” or “Molly” (i.e. Mary Todd Lincoln). Additionally, he wore a suit every day on set: “I think I wanted to get into the role, more than anything else, of being part of that experience — because we were recreating a piece of history. And so I didn’t want to look like the schlubby, baseball cap wearing 21st century guy; I wanted to be like the cast.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: Daniel Day Lewis’ performance is one for the ages. I wish we had politicians with this type of righteous conviction nowadays.