"Young Mr. Lincoln" (1939) and Mythologizing Our History

In the first scene we get of  Henry Fonda as Abraham Lincoln in John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln, Lincoln humbly speaks before a small crowd. He's running for the legislature, and he tells them, "I'm not here to make a speech". He informs them of his political principles and lets them speak for him. But it's the manner in which Fonda delivers the monologue and his dialogue that follows that's equally as important as what he's saying. Fonda slows down his words to a Kentuckian, slow-as-molasses drawl. He punctuates breaks between lines by looking down at his feet as if he's uncomfortable in his own skin, and doesn't care much for making a big show or drawing much attention to himself.

Fonda isn't Lincoln in the film so much as he's the Lincoln we imagine the man to have been. He's the Lincoln of folk tales and high school history textbooks. This isn't the raging candor of Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. The film is purposely obfuscating some of the truth about the man. To quote another Ford film, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend". This is the aw-shucks, gee-whiz country boy who believed truth, justice, and the American way. It's the formative years of the man. He's free of wrinkles and weary signs of age. He's, in stead, a fresh, youthful idealist.

In the central story of the film, he takes on a court case for two young men accused of murder; he saves them from a lynching, and makes the town realize its civility and morality. Everyone deserves a proper trial by a jury of their peers, and Lincoln gains the moral high ground by preaching the necessity of justice. For most of the case, it seems Lincoln is defending men who are guilty, not because he agrees with their actions, but because they are only human and citizens of this great nation. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, Lincoln finds a way to win the case, and impresses everyone (Although, it's a surprisingly morally complex situation up until that impossible reversal).

Lincoln is placed on an impossibly high pedestal. He calls himself "simple"; he's a soft-spoke individual of integrity and wit. When he gets a law book, he looks at it not as a daunting task but rather with honest excitement at the potential to discover. He pauses after reading a passage that interests him, and notes how right is right, and wrong is wrong. He's so darn earnest we can tell he believes it.

The film is an act of mythologizing, but Fonda's performance is still a good one. He's pretty perfect for this version of Lincoln. Not only does he fit the part, but he almost makes us believe in the sincerity of his character. His body movement is as measured as his speech patterns; he looks like he's constantly considering his words. This is only one story of Lincoln, the legendary figure; the film ends with him walking away, probably to save some other innocent with his folksy wisdom.