by Brett Parker
I’ve heard all the snickers, groans, and bickering over the prospect of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, for the general consensus over the past few weeks appears to be that the film simultaneously represents creative bankruptcy in Hollywood, an abomination of our national history, and cinematic cheese jumping the shark. To be honest, I’m more irked by the people who complain about the film’s premise than the actual film’s existence itself. Where’s our sense of humor? Anyone bringing an ounce of seriousness to this enterprise is forgetting that most Hollywood thrill-rides are built on magnificent ridiculousness, and they should at least admire the cheerful way this historical mash-up is reveling in its own insanity. As far as the Steampunk genre goes, the film finds a very entertaining vibe from its historical resources. If Sherlock Holmes can dish out Kung-Fu and Edgar Allen Poe can get his Silence of the Lambs on, then I’m all for our Honest Abe chopping off vampire heads with an axe.
We first witness the young Abraham Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) as a man haunted by the death of his mother, Nancy (Robin McLeavy). Years earlier as a child, Lincoln witnessed an evil vampire named Jack Barts (Marton Csokas) sucking her blood dry to repay a debt owed by his father, Thomas (Joseph Mawie). As an adult, Lincoln wants to seek revenge, but has no idea what he’s up against. By chance, he meets a mysterious gentleman named Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper) who is quite the expert on hunting and killing vampires. He agrees to train Lincoln in the art of vampire combat if he vows to destroy more vampires beyond the one that killed his mother. Lincoln agrees, and after bouts of training, he becomes an axe-twirling warrior who expertly disposes of an alarming number of evil bloodsuckers.
All of this hunting leads Lincoln to discover than an ancient vampire named Adam (Rufus Sewell) is plotting to take over America through his forces in the southern U.S. Vampires favor slavery, for it provides them with countless warm bodies to feed on without anyone really noticing, and they hope to expand that enterprise all over the country. Lincoln realizes he must take his anti-vampire stance to a whole new level. He rises up through the ranks of government to become President of the United States, taking a firm anti-slavery stance to fend off his ghoulish foes. Realizing their opposing strength, he oversees the Civil War to make sure the south is defeated and slavery is abolished. With the assistance of his childhood friend and right-hand-man, Will Johnson (Anthony Mackie), Lincoln carries out his epic war against the vampire nation, all while keeping it a secret from his beloved wife, Mary (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
Producer Tim Burton had the right idea when he compared this flick to the blaxploitation mashup Blacula, for the basic idea is to marry together two incongruent but very entertaining genres of cinema and see what bizarro fun can be generated from the result. As a fusion of historical epics and action horror, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter isn’t half-bad. It doesn’t feel like the easiest marriage of opposite ideals, but its never boring and it presents the logic of its atmosphere with a surprisingly clarity. Part of me wonders if this film would’ve been better had it been built on broad humor in the style of Mel Brooks or The Naked Gun films. It takes itself pretty seriously in a hyperbolic action-thriller way, and perhaps we missed out on a great deal of laughs in the process. Yet the more I think about it, a silly comedy version probably wouldn’t have been all too funny, and the hard-boiled tough guy treats we’re actually given does a good job at making this deranged cartoon premise exciting.
Perhaps its an advantage that foreigner Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) is in the director’s chair here. An American director probably would’ve been slightly more timid about tinkering with his own heritage, putting a leash on action indulgences and being more meticulous about historical accuracy syncing up with supernatural ideas. Yet the Kazakhstan-born Bekmambetov clearly has no qualms about pushing one of our greatest national heroes into feverish lunacy, and he cheerfully places our 16th president in his comfort zone of grandiose action overkill. Bekmambetov’s Wanted was one of the most over-the-top action movies I’ve ever seen: a sleek, kinetic ballet of slam-bang scenes that could never, ever occur in a realistic universe (hell, it strained plausibility in a movie universe, if you know what I mean). Oddly, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is also founded on such impossible action. While the sequences here are clunkier than Wanted, they’re still a hell of a sight to see in a historical fantasy. A vampire chase across a stampede of horses and Lincoln dishing out beheadings in a southern mansion pumps up our adrenaline until the film’s climax sneaks over into Lethal Weapon territory with a flame-inducing brawl on a fateful train ride.
With this film and Wanted, Bekmambetov is clearly in love with the idea of a sincere young simpleton finding liberation and purpose after morphing into a gritty tough guy. Since that represents the basic fantasy of male moviegoers who turn up religiously to action pictures, having it literalized on the screen can add excitement to any frivolous thrill ride. What’s surprising here is not only how it fits and enhances the crazy concept so well, but how it also deepens our appreciation of Lincoln’s legacy, as opposed to the opposite effect. Credit for that must largely be given to the superb Benjamin Walker, who pulls off the main schizophrenic balancing act with a heroically straight-face. It’s a testament to his skill that we can see him playing either a true-blue sincere version of Lincoln (especially if Daniel Day-Lewis had to back out of Spielberg’s upcoming biopic about the president) or a sketch-comedy concoction of the man. That he can reconcile both of those aspects into a a package of open-faced alertness and remarkable leading man poise is nothing to sneeze at. Ironically, this isn’t even the first time he’s played a deliriously-skewered portrayal of an American President, for he starred in the Broadway hit, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Bringing level-headed magnetism to demented pop manifestations is the mark of a good actor, and I’m excited to see what Walker brings to us in the future.
I like to think that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter isn’t complete nonsense, but actually has thoughts to spare about our current business of American myth-making. Whats telling about our current times is that people seem to care more about superhero mythologies than they do about American history. Most schoolchildren probably couldn’t name all the U.S. Presidents, but they could recite the names of The Avengers--along with their secret identities--almost as a reflex action. It makes sense, then, that this modern-day movie about Abraham Lincoln is essentially a superhero film, in which a damaged soul turns to a life of righteous ass-kicking to squash evil and protect all that is good in this world. The tipoff comes when we realize that the scene first showing Lincoln with his iconic dark suit, beard, and stovetop hat holds the same cinematic allure of seeing Batman in his costume for the first time. Re-imagining Lincoln’s legacy in the mold of a superhero tale shrewdly allows lesser minds to reflect on his heroic deeds and his importance as a man in American history.
Another effect this strange premise achieves is that it plays out good old-fashioned American conspiracy theorizing to its absolute breaking point. Entire books and television specials have been devoted to secret conspiracies hidden throughout history that make The Da Vinci Code look like a John Hughes movie. Most people find it ridiculous to imagine Lincoln as a vampire slayer, yet an alarming number of right-wingers have no trouble buying that President Obama is a secret Communist overlord plotting to destroy democracy. By taking the ultimate absurd conspiracy theory and mapping it out with halfway-seriousness, we are able to hint at the mountains of implausibility and murkiness that arises when an actual conspiracy is visualized. I’m not saying all conspiracies are mirthless, but I imagine most paranoid grumblings would look as silly as the vampire plot expanded out here.
To the people that think this film will skewer Lincoln’s legacy and make people more stupid about history, I must clarify that this movie fueled a curiosity in me to do extensive research about the real-life Lincoln and seek out the actual facts about one of our finest leaders. So don’t let anyone ever tell you that trash serves no purpose. Either way, you have to realize that this is all in good summer movie fun. As Inglorious Basterds cheerfully pointed out, if we go to the movies for a history lesson, we’re usually getting a skewered version of actual events. Hell, I bet even Spielberg’s upcoming “serious” biopic about Lincoln will probably sentimentalize the actual truth. As with most Hollywood pop, the important thing is to understand the whole-hearted difference between real life and make-believe, and here its wise to know what this great man actually achieved as this flick wickedly suggests otherwise. Once you’ve done that, feel free to put your brain on autopilot and enjoy some sweet vampire beheadings!
No comments:
Post a Comment