Young Mr. Lincoln

When most people think of Hollywood's "golden year" of 1939, what comes to mind are high-profile classics such as Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, not John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln. This may be due in part to the film's sporadic availability in previous formats, but it's also because some critics see Ford's blending of legend, fact, and folksy Americana as too sentimentalized to qualify as art. Poppycock! Young Mr. Lincoln was the first of Henry Fonda's six classic collaborations with Ford, and the actor was nervous about taking on the title role due to Lincoln's almost godlike stature. Ford tersely reminded Fonda that the film (written with great charm, humor, and mythic reverence by Lamar Trotti) was not about Lincoln the legend, but Lincoln the "young, jack-leg lawyer," who is seen, in early scenes, as a prototype of the man he would become, suffering great loss (the death of his first true love) and sowing the seeds of wisdom that would take him, inevitably, to the White House and into the annals of history. In Ford's perfectly modulated scenes of Lincoln's early adulthood, we come to recognize the qualities of the legendary Lincoln, yet the portrait remains rooted in reality, its narrative grounded in the outcome of a murder trial that will forge Lincoln's identity. A profound vision of one of our most beloved public figures, Young Mr. Lincoln is presented in a double-disc Criterion Collection set with a restored, pristine high-definition transfer, and DVD extras such as a feature-length profile of Ford's career, hosted by British director Lindsay Anderson and originally broadcast on the BBC in 1992; a 1975 BBC-TV interview with Henry Fonda; archival audio interviews with Ford and Fonda; and a vintage radio performance of Young Mr. Lincoln. The accompanying 32-page booklet includes essays by film critic Geoffrey O'Brien and the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, who held Ford's film in high regard. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (J. Shannon)[Blu-ray/DVD Review—Jan. 9, 2018—Criterion, 100 min., not rated, DVD: 2 discs, $29.95; Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1939's Young Mr. Lincoln sports a fine transfer and an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary by film scholar Joseph McBride, a 1975 talk show appearance by star Henry Fonda (49 min.), an “Omnibus: “John Ford,” Part One” director segment (43 min.), an Academy Award radio dramatization (30 min.), audio interviews with Ford (8 min.) and Fonda (5 min.) conducted by the director's grandson Dan Ford, and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien and an homage by filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. Bottom line: this classic from Hollywood's Golden Age sparkles on Blu-ray.]