Young Mr. Lincoln
Oct 27 - Oct 30, 2008
(John Ford, USA 1939, 35mm, 100 min)
To mark the political season Northwest Film Forum presents John Ford’s masterpiece, starring Henry Fonda. The French title of the film is Toward His Destiny, an apt description of this fictional chronicle of Abraham Lincoln’s early life and steps toward his iconic place in American history. Ford and Fonda, working together for the first time, brilliantly capture the moments when Lincoln’s greatness emerged and was first tested—as he clerks in a general store, studies law, suffers through the loss of his first love, and successfully defends two brothers accused of murder. The film has inspired generations of Americans with the masterful way it captures the intense combination of compassion, integrity, intellect and ambition that formed the character of America’s most important and revered President.
“...one of John Ford’s most perfectly realized works, an effortless jelling of his bawdy sense of humor, his patriotism, his mythical sense of history and his gorgeous, cinematic poetry…this Lincoln helped bring humanity to a wild, unruly nation, and Ford has done him justice in this beautiful, funny, entertaining film.” – Jeffrey M. Anderson, CombustibleCelluoid.com