I am a political junkie. I am fascinated with the romantic Machiavellian machinations of inner government, and nowhere is this more idealised than in Washington. There is a whole subset of the culture industry that survives by decrying the absurdity, hypocrisy and corruption of the city on the hill. From the Twilight zone, to The X-Files, to Homeland – television has been in on it. Hollywood has a whole genre (political thriller) dedicated to the one-man-against-the-machine narrative – and it sells.
In a time of intense
backlash against the government, Steven Spielberg's Lincoln
seems like the film that can appeal to both political teams and give them both hope:
the social-justice loving Democrats, and the industrious Lincoln-loving
Republicans. Obviously ‘Honest Abe’
Lincoln was a Republican so rightwingers are going to love him. Plus, the film is abolitionist so modern-day
Democrats will love the racial egalitarianism they feel that the contemporary
Repubs have lost ground on.
