Oops

THE MOVIE "LINCLON", and its popularity is a refreshing reminder that we the american people still care about history, a proposition which had lately become questionable, and that we still care about historical accuracy.

It now seems inevitable that someone would have recognized that glaring mistake the movie made when it depected members of the connecticut congressional delegation as having voted against the thirteenth amendment, abolishing slavery.

What seems strange is that it took so long for anybody to notice it, or to point out the mistake. What, after the movie had been released for weeks, and millions of people had seen it? Really, this sort of glaring error should have been noticed in the editing room, before release, or during script writing.

Early in his life, Linclon was staunchly anti slavery. Then as he got into big time and bigger time politics, he wisely tended to keep his anti slave thoughts to himself. Then, as the union began to win the war, the abolitionist lincoln once more came to the for. Great politician, that lincoln.

The folks in connecticut tended to be pro abolitionist as well, but there was strong sentiment for all viewpoints, as there was all over the united states. Lincoln spent much time during the last few weeks of his life promoting abolition, with a lot of backrrom deal making and politickin'.

The movie, however, depicts the connecticut representatives incorrectly, and this did no go unnoticed by a coupld of current connecticut lawmakers, followed soon thereafter by a whole horde of other people, including professional historians, who verified the movie's inaccuracy.

Its really strange that this happened; accurate history of the events is available, and presumably spielberg and his team used history books in their planning, but for some reaon, missed this part. Their intent was doubtless to show the strength of the opposition to lincoln's abolition amendment.

Demands are now being made to change the movie, which presumably measn rewriting the offending portions and refilming them, and teh demanders want it done before the academy awards. Couple of problems with this.

First, of course, is the fact that nowadays the oscar swards are held sometime in late februrary or early march, correct? Backin the day they wre held in late march or early april, but got moved up some years ago.

Not much time to do a movie remake. Also, of course, and more obviously, are the enormous logistical problems associated with the undertaking. Would the whole movie, basically, have to be torn apart and redone? Or at least a good portion of it?

And what about the millions of people who have already seen it? Would they be given a free ticket to see the new and improved version, or would they have to pay again to get it right? These are just some of the difficulties involved. Best bet is that it will never be done, can't be done, and the good...

people of connecticut will have to live with it. Oh well, we all know what really happened, or should know. Connecticut did the right thing, but people everywhere were divided on the issues of slavery, state's rights, the war, and the Union, and the truth is, most people then, like today, didn't care very much about the whole mess, one way or another.