Regular Price $39.95

Starring: Henry Fonda,  Alice Brady,  Marjorie Weaver,  Arleen Whelan,  Eddie Collins, 
Directed By: John Ford, 
Rated: Unrated
Release Date: 1939-06-09
Studio: Criterion
Format: Black & White,  Closed-captioned,  Dolby,  DVD-Video,  Full Screen,  NTSC, 

Editorial Reviews and DVD Information about Young Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection

Description
American master director John Ford crafts a fictionalized account of ten years in the life of Abraham Lincoln (magnificently portrayed by Henry Fonda), before he became known to the world

Amazon.com essential video
Has Young Mr. Lincoln--the first cardinal masterpiece of director John Ford's career, and the finest film of that epochal Hollywood year 1939--been neglected because people fear it's a stodgy history lesson? Even Henry Fonda, drafted to play the title role, was reluctant till Ford testily explained, "This isn't 'The Great Emancipator,' for God's sake--it's a movie about this jackleg lawyer...." And so it is: a small, slow-gathering village tale about a young man whose biggest moments--such as losing the love of his life--occur between scenes, and whose emergence as a historic figure is decades away. Yet the essential Lincoln is being forged in luminous scenes that unfold with the simplicity of fable, only no one knows it's a fable yet. The French title for the movie says it beautifully: Toward His Destiny.

The script, by Lamar Trotti, introduces Lincoln as a frontier storekeeper and drolly inadequate politician. In an early scene, we see Abe receiving his first books of law in a casual transaction with a pioneer family on their way to make a new home in the wilderness. But was it Trotti or the director who decided that this same family should circle back into Abe's life years later for the dramatic heart of the film, a murder trial in which his wit, ingenuity, and bedrock decency shape Lincoln's first public triumph--and that neither Lincoln nor the family recognize they have met before? That's typical of the movie, in which what is most important, most definitive, most valuable, is always outside the frame, out of reach, beyond naming. Even triumph is imbued with a heartbreaking sense of loss.

This transcendently beautiful film was a modest production, without the Pulitzer Prize cachet of Abe Lincoln in Illinois (not a Ford picture) the following year. Fonda, in his first of six collaborations with Ford, is the only marquee name in the cast, though Alice Brady is radiant as the pioneer matriarch (her final performance), and Ford stalwart Ward Bond has a key role. Sergei Eisenstein, no less, wrote a lucid and impassioned appreciation of the film, hailing it as "a movie I would like to have made"--and proved it by stealing a few visual tropes for his own Ivan the Terrible! This is a great, great motion picture, eminently deserving of the Criterion treatment on DVD. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews for Young Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection

A great movie, and a classic of Hollywood
During a 4th of July celebration in Springfield, a man is killed during a fight. Two brothers are found over the body, and it's pretty clear that one of them murdered the man - so clear that the men of the town prepare to lynch the two. But, one man steps up and talks some sense into the crowd - that man is a young lawyer named Abe Lincoln. The family is in a tough spot, and will need a miracle. What they need is Abraham Lincoln.

This 1939 movie is an absolute masterpiece, a work of art, and those are words I do not toss around lightly! In 2003 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, recognizing the movie's significance.

I loved this movie on so many levels. I liked the story, which was gripping at all the right times, and always entertaining. And, I liked the acting - Henry Fonda brings an intensity to the part of Abe Lincoln, really bringing the Rail-Splitter to life, and making him seem simultaneously larger-than-life and yet very human.

This is a great movie, and a classic of Hollywood. If you want to see one of the films that built Hollywood's reputation, then get this one. I give it my highest recommendations!Young Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection

John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1N81Y1TDI9HRRYoung Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection

Good condition. Lousy delivery time, it took over 12 days to recieve it!
The DVD was in good condition, packaging was good, but delivery was lousy! It took this seller more than 14 days to get this product to me and that is not fair considering what you get charged for delivery! For me, timeliness in delivery counts! Otherwise, I take my money elsewhere!
Franck StrongbowYoung Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection

Fonda's Unerring Performance Dominates a Modest Look at Lincoln's Early Years
Long on mythology and short on actual historical facts, John Ford's seminal 1939 film about Abraham Lincoln's early days is made singularly memorable by Henry Fonda's sterling performance in the eponymous role. With a prosthetic nose, lanky build, and his voice in measured tones, the actor manages to capture with palpable sincerity and conviction the future President's endless curiosity had as a young man about life and the law in 1830's Illinois. He evokes a folksy, self-deprecating persona befitting of Lincoln, and screenwriter Lamar Trotti's anecdotal portrait humanizes the man behind the performance by emphasizing the life-size qualities that served him later - his deep humility and self-effacing manner; his conviction in helping those who could not help themselves, and more broadly, his gift for reconciling warring factions despite the odds.

The film is deceptively modest in scope, as the story only covers Lincoln from the time he begins to consider studying law to his first major court case. Where the film feels somewhat less than a masterpiece is in its pacing, which fluctuates between elegiac and lethargic. I'm sure it was intentional on Ford's part to take his time in establishing the rural atmosphere and tracking Lincoln's growth toward iconic status. Sometimes, the approach works wonderfully well as in the early scene when an obviously smitten Lincoln tentatively chats with Ann Rutledge, an unrealized romance due to her early unexpected death. Ford has the actors express their mutual yearning beautifully in the scene and then follows it seamlessly with a sad wintry scene when Lincoln speaks to her grave. On the other hand, other scenes go on far too long such as the Independence Day celebration sequence and the courtship with Mary Todd. The overall effect can get wearing.

However, the momentum picks up with the court case, which has Lincoln defending two brothers charged with murder leading to a strong jailhouse speech from Lincoln and a courtroom climax that portends the whodunit cases of future TV series. Aside from Fonda's stellar work, Alice Brady impressively switches gears from her usual gadabout roles and plays the frontier mother Abigail Clay with poignancy. Others like Ward Bond and Donald Meek play their archetypical Ford roles with customary ease. The two-disc 2006 Criterion Collection DVD is rich with extras as is standard with their packages. The first disc offers an excellent print transfer of the film, but unfortunately no commentary track from a film scholar. Two archival video pieces are included on the second disc. Directed and hosted by filmmaker Lindsay Anderson, the first is an illuminating 1992 BBC portrait of Ford, "Omnibus: John Ford, Part One", which covers the filmmaker's career until WWII.

The second video is a 1975 interview that longtime British talk show host Michael Parkinson conducted with a seventy-year old Fonda. The actor talks candidly about his career, including his fortuitous casting in "Young Mr. Lincoln", as well as a traumatic childhood experience where he witnessed a lynching. Perhaps most surprising and touching is what seems to be his genuine pride over the accomplishments of his children Jane and Peter. There are a few audio-only extras - a thirty-minute condensed radio broadcast of the movie that was originally broadcast in 1946 with Fonda and Bond repeating their roles, as well as two brief interviews with Ford and Fonda conducted by Ford's grandson Dan. Lastly, there is a handsome booklet included with the package that included pieces from film critic Geoffrey O'Brien and filmmaker Sergei Eisentein.Young Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection

Favorite John Ford Film
This is the best movie about a historical character that I have ever seen.
It may not be accurate, but it's close enough for me. Anyways, it's the integrity of Abe Lincoln that it be portrayed in the movie that's important. And it was. This is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, old movie.

I greatly love the music in it too. I have been trying to find out if they have a soundtrack out yet, but I don't think they do. They need to though! It's great music. If anyone knows where I can find some of the music from the movie, I would be very happy to know. Especially the song that plays while Abe is at Anne's grave. You guys know the song!

Young Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection

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