Peter Handke on John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln

From Peter Handke's marvelous 1972 novel Short Letter, Long Farewell:

[A mob is attempting to lynch two brothers accused of murder] ...Lincoln stopped them by softly reminding them of themselves, of what they were, what they could be, and what they had forgotten. This scene—Lincoln on the wooden steps of the jailhouse, with his hand on the mob's battering ram—embodied every possibility of human behavior. In the end not only the drunks, but also the actors playing the drunks, were listening intently to Lincoln, and when he had finished they dispersed, changed forever. All around me in the theater I felt the audience breathing and coming to life again.

I wish I had written such a simple, poetic explanation of what John Ford's little masterpiece achieves. I find myself thinking about it a lot: about Fonda's muted performance that's not really Lincoln but the idea of Lincoln; about Ford's affinity for small towns, warts and all; and about that enigmatic final scene, after which the audience does, indeed, seem to come to life again, released from the film's spell. Posted by mike, October 27, 2009 7:17 PM