Lincoln Page #17

Synopsis: Lincoln is a 2012 American epic historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as United States President Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. The screenplay by Tony Kushner was loosely based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, and covers the final four months of Lincoln's life, focusing on the President's efforts in January 1865 to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the United States House of Representatives.
Production: Dreamworks Pictures
  Won 2 Oscars. Another 108 wins & 242 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.4
Metacritic:
86
Rotten Tomatoes:
90%
PG-13
Year:
2012
150 min
$129,477,447
Website
864,545 Views


of life's less prophet-able

occupations!

He accepts the gloves. Slade laughs a little, Robert scowls.

Tad holds another glass negative up to the light.

TAD:

Why do some slaves cost more than

others?

52.

ROBERT:

If they're still young and healthy,

if the women can still conceive,

they'll pay more -

LINCOLN:

Put `em back in the box. We'll

return them to Mr. Gardner's studio

day after next. Be careful with

`em, now.

(tugging at his gloves:)

These things should've stayed on

the calf.

TAD:

(to Slade, putting the

PLATES AWAY:
)

When you were a slave, Mr. Slade,

did they beat you?

WILLIAM SLADE:

I was born a free man. Nobody beat

me except I beat them right back.

There's a knock on the door and Mrs. Keckley enters.

ELIZABETH KECKLEY

Mr. Lincoln, could you come with me-

WILLIAM SLADE:

(TO TAD:
)

Mrs. Keckley was a slave. Ask her

if she was beaten.

TAD LINCOLN:

Were you - (shakes his head)

Tad.

ELIZABETH KECKLEY

(TO TAD:
)

I was beaten with a fire shovel

when I was younger than you.

(TO LINCOLN:
)

You should go to Mrs. Lincoln.

She's in Willie's room.

ROBERT:

She never goes in there.

Lincoln starts towards the door just as John Hay enters,

dressed in the uniform of a Brevet Colonel.

53.

JOHN HAY:

The reception line is already

stretching out the door.

Robert shoots an angry, envious glance at Hay's uniform as

Lincoln, Slade, Mrs. Keckley and Hay leave. Robert calls to

HIS FATHER:

ROBERT:

I'll be the only man over fifteen

and under sixty-five in this whole

place not in uniform.

TAD:

I'm under fifteen and I have a

uniform.

Robert storms out.

INT. THE PRINCE OF WALES BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS

Lincoln enters a dark room, its heavy drapes closed against

the dim afternoon light. There are two beds. One is stripped

bare. The other is canopied with a thick black veil.

Mary, dressed in a deep purple gown with black flowers and

beading, perfectly pitched between mourning and emergence, is

seated at the head of the canopied bed. On a nightstand next

to the bed there's a toy locomotive engine, a tattered book

of B&O railroad schedules.

Mary holds a framed photograph: an image of WILLIE, 12,

handsome, bright-eyed, confident.

Lincoln crosses to the window.

MARY:

My head hurts so.

(BEAT)

I prayed for death the night Willie

died. The headaches are how I know

I didn't get my wish. How to endure

the long afternoon and deep into

the night.

LINCOLN:

I know.

MARY:

Trying not to think about him. How

will I manage?

LINCOLN:

Somehow you will.

54.

MARY:

(SAD SMILE:
)

Somehow. Somehow. Somehow... Every

party, every... And now, four years

more in this terrible house

reproaching us. He was a very sick

little boy. We should've cancelled

that reception, shouldn't we?

LINCOLN:

We didn't know how sick he was.

MARY:

I knew, I knew, I saw that night he

was dying.

LINCOLN:

Three years ago, the war was going

so badly, and we had to put on a

face.

MARY:

But I saw Willie was dying. I saw

HIM -

He bends and kisses her hand.

LINCOLN:

Molly. It's too hard. Too hard.

Mary stares up at him, her face heavy and swollen with grief.

INT. THE EAST ROOM, WHITE HOUSE - LATE AFTERNOON

Mary, radiant, her charm turned to its brightest candlepower,

is greeting the Blairs, who are part of a long receiving

line. The Blairs proceed from Mary to Lincoln.

TITLE:
GRAND RECEPTION

JANUARY 15

The enormous room is splendid, decked with garlands of

flowers, tall candelabra burning, flags from Army divisions.

An orchestra plays.

Lincoln and Tad stand together. Slade is near Lincoln. Mary's

a distance away from Lincoln, to his right.

Robert takes his place next to his mother, as conspicuous as

he'd feared he'd be in his civilian clothes.

55.

A sea of people surround the President and his family.

Rate this script:2.9 / 8 votes

Tony Kushner

Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. He co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film Munich, and he wrote the screenplay for the 2012 film Lincoln, both critically acclaimed movies. For his work, he received a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013. more…

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Submitted by acronimous on March 13, 2016

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