Abraham Lincoln loomed large in the imagination of the director John Ford, as seen in the 1939 drama “Young Mr. Lincoln” (which I discuss in this clip), an ingeniously tight-focussed yet historically resonant view of the future President’s rise to prominence. In his biography of Ford, Joseph McBride runs through the remarkable number of references to Lincoln throughout Ford’s filmography and quotes Peter Bogdanovich about the elderly Ford speaking of Lincoln with “such an extraordinary sense of intimacy in his tone… that somehow it was no longer a director speaking of a great President, but a man talking about a friend.” I’m reminded of a remark by Norman Mailer to the effect that the one character no novelist can successfully imagine is a greater writer. Perhaps no filmmaker bore the burden of historical consciousness as deeply, as seriously, and as humanly as Ford did; his “friendship” with Lincoln had a firm artistic basis.
Goings On
What we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week, online, in N.Y.C., and beyond. Paid subscribers also receive book picks.
Pop Music
The Tortured Poetry of Taylor Swift’s New Album
“The Tortured Poets Department” has moments of tenderness. But it suffers from being too long and too familiar.
By Amanda Petrusich
Letter from Biden’s Washington
Did Mike Johnson Just Get Religion on Ukraine?
The Speaker’s sudden willingness to bring foreign-aid bills to the House floor risks his Speakership—and Trump’s wrath.
By Susan B. Glasser
Infinite Scroll
The Internet’s New Favorite Philosopher
Byung-Chul Han, in treatises such as “The Burnout Society” and his latest, “The Crisis of Narration,” diagnoses the frenetic aimlessness of the digital age.
By Kyle Chayka
Dept. of Medicine
How to Die in Good Health
The average American celebrates just one healthy birthday after the age of sixty-five. Peter Attia argues that it doesn’t have to be this way.
By Dhruv Khullar