Sous l'aile des anges

I was excited to see this movie after watching the mysterious-looking trailer, but I must say I wasn't very impressed and have a lot of mixed emotions in regard to it. The first 20-30 minutes of the film reminded me somewhat of a horror movie. The style of the production was super dark-toned and the music sounded like what you hear before something super terrible is about to happen. To make the vibe so creepy made it very uncomfortable and difficult to watch. On top of that, there isn't much dialogue. So, if you aren't familiar with Lincoln's life, you'd be lost throughout the entire film considering there are no explanations whatsoever. Abraham barely spoke, nor did he even seem to have much of a personality through the whole film, which was disappointing to watch. One thing I did enjoy and believe to be very clever was the scene of the field of cows, where one is lying dead. I thought it was a very good foreshadow for what was to come a few scenes afterwards. Also, regardless of the lack of dialogue, it is easy to tell that Abraham loved both his mothers and step-mother. That was a beautiful thing to watch unfold. The first couple of scenes feature a narrative voice which I assumed to be Abraham's. I'm still not clear on if it was his voice or his cousin's voice who we meet later on, but regardless, the voice was very inaccurate to me. It was very southern, and Abraham Lincoln's voice has never been described as southern. It is more high-pitched and Midwestern, like Daniel Day-Lewis's voice for him in Spielberg's Lincoln (2012). The word "pappy" was used to describe Thomas Lincoln a few times, and I really can't imagine Abraham calling his father that. Pappy is too endearing, and it is far too southern sounding. They did a somewhat decent job on historical accuracy. Lincoln's relationship with his dad is accurate seeing as they were never close, but it seems unhealthier than what's been depicted in other Lincoln films, like John Cromwell's Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), where there's one scene of his father making a comment about Abraham reading. In this one, there's a scene where Thomas grabs Abraham by the collar and sort of drags him. I've also never heard anything about the Lincoln family taking in a boy to live with them, so that was odd as well. I had hopes for it seeing this considering there aren't any other films depicting Abraham Lincoln as a child the whole way through. But overall, I would not recommend someone to watch this. There are plenty of other movies on Lincoln that are much more enjoyable to watch, and a lot more can be learned from them.

Not really, especially if you watched this without having a clue who the young boy is supposed to be. It could be just any story about any young boy growing up. But it's not. It's young Abe Lincoln, something you could completely miss, like I did. Which happens because I do watch movies without reading up on them. So while it was obvious this was going to be a black and white film, I didn't know what it was about. It played at the Festival in Berlin, which does not always says a lot about the quality of the movie itself, but I tried.

And I wasn't disappointed by the story of this boy. A story that is interesting in itself, but would not allow any conclusions about where this boy would go. Something people obviously did ask the director too, who was present at the screening. A very interesting stylised form, of a story of a man/boy you might not have heard/read yet ...

The love Abraham Lincoln has for his mother and his step mother is ever-present throughout this film and stands at the forefront of his struggle in childhood. The opening quote of the movie is "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." This is very apparent for the rest of the film; his struggle living in Indiana and dealing with the death of his mother whom he very much loved. This movie is extremely dreamlike and poetic, however, its effectiveness as a full length film seems unnecessary. This film is a unique artistic look at Abraham's childhood and his relationships with important women in his life, but its obvious low-budget nature and minimalistic dialogue calls for a disappointment to all Lincoln fans. The film is set over a three-year period starting from when his family moves from Kentucky to Indiana. There is a philosophical nature to the movie that seems more relevant to the artistic audience than to the historical accuracy of the time. The movie is a visual work of art and for fans of Lincoln's biography and life, it is merely that. It is not to say that The Better Angels is not a beautifully clever visual to an artistic crowd wanting a glimpse into Lincoln's life, it just does not have the substance most Lincoln fans look for. The black and white film does a lot to give the feeling of the time of Abraham Lincoln's childhood and misfortunes, but does not provide complete accuracy and overview on Lincoln. Even though it wonderfully shows his father's hatred of his scholarly endeavors and his mother's influence, the minimalism of its dialogue prevents a full understanding of the historical context surrounding the time. His childhood is what drove his entire career and the inspiring political changes he enacted and these inspirations stemmed from his definite sense of education and his relationships with women.

What is so immediately intoxicating about this film is the cinematography. From the first frame you are pulled into the experience as viscerally as moving image can manage. Albeit this is not, per se, immediate. The film actually begins with an extended introduction to the score or, more specifically, the leitmotif that will accompany you throughout much of the trajectory. This brings me to the main idea: this piece is ahistorical in many ways. Rather than a score befitting the time period, you make your acquaintance with a modern sounding slightly more minimal arc of sounds which speak more to the mood of the film than to anything aimed at a period drama. A fortiori, the decision to begin the film with this extended immersion into music—a medium beautifully unconstrained by the more limited potential of physical form is a titillating foreshadowing of what the director is after here. This movie intends to touch only on themes that span the course of human history (and perhaps transcend it entirely given the religious connotations often present (similar to The Tree of Life in that regard)) through the presentation of mood, love, loss, family, discipline, isolation, friendship, freedom etc. What makes this so successful is not the scope alone. Any film can be ambitious and fall flat but this endeavor found it's successful portrayal of the universal through specific attention to the particular (much as poetry does (and much as The Tree of Life did)). There is great attention to detail in this film and all of the powerful themes conveyed here are tightly woven into the fabric of a very historically particular life and time. This is what is so magical about The Better Angels. It is ambitiously universal in everything it intends to convey and it does so through a radical focus on the absolutely particular. This is a film about Abraham Lincoln's childhood and that is what you see... But!– You never even hear his name. To an outsider, uninitiated into American Culture and History, it would be the same experience. The detail is so zoomed in that only the most fundamental elements of the life and character portrayed here can be seen. The details that one speaks of in a history class are nowhere to be found. This film pulls you to two opposite ends of an essential spectrum of human knowledge. On one end: abstraction to the universal and on the other: absolute particularity. It is the way that the former permeates the latter that makes this film an exceptional work of cinema. Roger Ebert correctly daubed it: "a genuine American art film", and it is indeed that and yet more. This more, on it's own, however is insufficient. Being a genuine American film alone is insufficient. Combining the two such that the universal emerges from the details and routines of an American woodland childhood is what strikes gold. The message and medium chosen were paired together exquisitely and make for an immersive experience of cinematic poetry and thematic meditation. The Better Angels is indeed utterly American, and yet wholly universal all at once. I hope this enhances your experiences of it.

Thanks. -DM

p.s. I wrote this in an inspired frenzy so please excuse any potential iPhone typos and read my roving ramblings charitably. Cheers!

p.p.s. It's quite beautiful that this is a film which defies typical cinematic structure so thoroughly that I am at a loss for how one could even potentially construct a description capable of containing spoilers. I don't think it can be done.

"The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." Abe Lincoln

If writer-director A. J. Edwards wanted to show in his biopic, The Better Angels, the influence of angelic women on young Abe Lincoln, he succeeded. This minimalist, dialogue-spare depiction of Lincoln's early life in the woods of Indiana is rife with beautiful shots of trees and sunlight, not to mention a pristine cabin, but mostly it is filled with the love and direction given by Nancy (Brit Marling) and Sarah Lincoln (Diane Kruger).

Not much to do out there in the frontier but cut wood and think about ways to be a better human being. While the women chat with Abe about life, Tom Lincoln (Jason Clarke), his dad, contributes a considerable amount to Abe's tough mindedness, largely by testing Abe's patience with dad's harsh discipline.

While this less-than-epic activity occurs, it is encased in gorgeous photography, black and white crisp, with light streaming through tall trees, frequently at low angle to emphasize the child's point of view. You could almost say it's a copy of Terrence Malick's work, and you'd be right because the ethereal cinematography of that master (Tree of Life, Badlands, for example) no doubt influenced Edwards, whose film is produced by Malick and with whom he has worked.

On the other hand, the poetic images could be off putting for those who accuse Malick of being pretentious or just interested in painting rather than telling a story. I go where a director wants to take me—in this case, to a lyrical feeling about the early life of an immortalized leader.

Although The Better Angels is mostly impressionism, symbolic shots couched in terse language, be it by actors or voice-over, the picture of young Abe up to his rural schooling seems spot on for the intense, brilliant, iconic president we have come to know. I'm impressed.

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother" Abe Lincoln