A Connecticut Congressman is asking Steven Spielberg to go back to the editing room and correct an historical inaccuracy in the director’s hit movie, “Lincoln.”
Democrat Joe Courtney wrote to Spielberg on Tuesday, requesting a correction to the Academy Award-nominated film.
“As a member of Congress from Connecticut, I was on the edge of my seat during the roll call vote on the ratification of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery,” Courtney wrote.
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“But when two of three members of the Nutmeg State’s House delegation voted to uphold slavery, I could not believe my own eyes and ears.
How could Congressmen from Connecticut—a state that supported President Lincoln and lost thousands of her sons fighting against slavery on the Union side of the Civil War—have been on the wrong side of history?" he asked.
Courtney did his homework before contacting Spielberg. He said he checked the Jan. 31, 1865 Congressional Record and found that all four of members of Connecticut's house delegation and both of its senators voted to abolish slavery.
Rep. Courtney was sympathetic to the moviemaking process. Still, he’s hoping the correction can be made before the public can bring the movie into their homes.
"I understand that artistic license will be taken and that some facts may be blurred to make a story more compelling on the big screen, but placing the State of Connecticut on the wrong side of the historic and divisive fight over slavery is a distortion of easily verifiable facts and an inaccuracy that should be acknowledged, and if possible, corrected before Lincoln is released on DVD,” he wrote.
Aside from the historical miscue, Courtney told Spielberg he thought the film told a “compelling and consuming” story and had “beautiful” cinematography.
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