Goodwin Doris Kearns - Lincoln: the Screenplay

Steven Spielbergs Lincoln is a work of sufficient richness to instantly invite repeat viewings... Kushners script is more than just elegant in its compression and exposition. It is steeped in the traditions of a political dramaturgy that were familiar to Shakespeare and Schiller but that have not often been practiced in American historical films. GEOFFREY OBRIEN, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS Spielberg and Kushner marched straight down the center of national memory, the moment of glory and anguish, and they got it right... Kushner realized that nineteenth century politics were essentially theatrical. in Kushners version, the range of speech is almost Shakespearean.DAVID DENBY, NEW YORKER Its a hell of a thing, this Lincoln... all forward thrust and hot damn urgency. all forward thrust and hot damn urgency.

Screenwriter Tony Kushner blows the dust off history by investing it with flesh, blood, and churning purpose. PETER TRAVERS, ROLLING STONE A lyrical, ingeniously structured screenplay. Lincoln is one of the most authentic biographical dramas Ive ever seen... grand and immersive. It plugs us into the final months of Lincolns presidency with a purity that makes us feel transported as if by time machine. OWEN GLEIBERMAN, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Catnip for political junkies, Lincoln might be called Our Better Angels in America.

What more auspicious time to release a film about the president who served during the Civil War than these insecure, battle-weary times of ours? JAMES VERNIERE, BOSTON HERALD Better than any other, the movie captures President Lincolns awkward, shuffling, distinctly democratic greatness. The low in him that caused sophisticates to sneer. The high in him shaped by Shakespeare and Euclid. The humanity, frailty and aching introspection. The shrewdness, decisiveness and ferocious will. It is the democratic faith that exceptional leaders can be found among common folk.

MICHAEL GERSON, WASHINGTON POST LINCOLN OTHER BOOKS BY TONY KUSHNER
PUBLISHED BY THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
Part One: Millennium Approaches
Part Two: Perestroika A Bright Room Called DayCaroline, or ChangeDeath & Taxes: Hydriotaphia & Other PlaysA Dybbuk and Other Tales of the SupernaturalHomebody/KabulThe Illusion
(adapted from Pierre Corneille) Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue
and Happiness: Essays, a Play, Two Poems and a Prayer A FILM BY STEVEN SPIELBERG LINCOLN THE SCREENPLAY TONY KUSHNER Foreword by Doris Kearns Goodwin THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP
NEW YORK
2012 Lincoln is copyright 2012 by DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Foreword is copyright 2013 by Doris Kearns Goodwin Lincoln is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc.,
520 Eighth Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4156 All Rights Reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher The publication of Lincoln by Tony Kushner is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution. Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

ISBN: 978-1-55936-767-7 (ebook) Cover art and photographs: Copyright 2012 by DreamWorks II
Distribution Co., LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
Insert: Photos by David James
Cover, book design and composition by Lisa Govan

By Doris Kearns GoodwinBy Doris Kearns Goodwin I first met Tony Kushner on April 25, 2006. Five years earlier, Steven Spielberg had acquired the rights to my then unfinished book: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. From the start, Steven knew that he wanted to make a film centered on Lincoln the man, rather than the battles of the Civil War. And he wanted Tony to write the script. Tony was hesitant. The subject and the man just seemed too big, he said. To help Tonys process of decision, Steven asked me to arrange a daylong meeting with a dozen or so of my fellow historians.

You can ask them questions and all of your doubts will be answered, Steven assured Tony. For seven hours, with Steven directing a wide-ranging conversation, we talked about Lincoln, sharing stories about his temperament, his laborious efforts to educate himself, his string of political failures, the timber of his voice, the way he walked. We argued about the depth of his depression, the nature of his marriage, and his relationship with his children. We had differing opinions about Mary Todd Lincoln, his generals and the members of his cabinet. I remember looking over at Tony on several occasions, worrying that through our animated discussion, we were simply confirming that the story of Abraham Lincoln was, indeed, too big, too complex to capture in a movie. At the end of the meeting, Tony came over to me, still full of doubts.

I know exactly what youre feeling, I said. When I started Team of Rivals ten years ago, I had similar fears. With fifteen thousand books already published about the president and the Civil War, I knew I had to find my own angle. Then, even when I found my focus, by centering the story on Lincolns leadership skills, on the way he handled the troubled relationships with his former rivals, I still worried. And so will you. But I can promise you one thing.

Youll never regret any time you spend with Abraham Lincoln. I then confessed that having finished the book, I missed waking up with Lincoln every morning, thinking about him every night when I went to bed. I told him what Ida Tarbell, the journalist/historian had said at the turn of the twentieth century when asked to explain why so many people spent so many years writing about Lincoln. It is simple, she said, it is because he is so companionable. Tony later told me that our talk that afternoon played an important role in his decision to accept the challenge. No writer was better suited for the task.

One of the most celebrated playwrights of our time, Tony Kushner is passionate about politics and language, the twin pillars of Lincolns life. The nineteenth century was an age when the command of the spoken word was central to political success, when thousands of people stood riveted for three or four hours while political opponents debated in the open air, when audiences felt free to interject comments, cheer for their champion, bemoan the jabs of his opponent. It was an age when politics generated the enthusiasm and devotion we now devote to sports. In these pages, Tony perfectly captures this raucous era. The screenplay took six years to write. At one point it was five hundred pages long, covering the last four months of Lincolns presidency.

I saw perhaps a half dozen different drafts, each one compressing the time frame more and more, until the brilliant decision was made to focus on the single month of January 1865, to make the congressional fight for the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery the core of the filma thriller of a story that has a beginning, middle and end. The magic of the screenplay, however, goes far beyond the dramatic plot; Tonys lasting triumph is the compelling portrait he paints of Abraham Lincolnrevealing his fierce ambition, astonishing political skills, willingness to take responsibility for unbearable choices, melancholy temperament, gift for storytelling, life-affirming sense of humor, literary genius. Kushners Lincoln comes so fully to life in these pages that you feel as if you are by his side, listening as he talks with his cabinet, greets petitioners, visits wounded soldiers in the hospital, wanders into the telegraph office, fights with his wife, comforts his son. I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House, Lincoln once told a group of soldiers. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my fathers child has. It is in order that each of you have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence, that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable aspirations.

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