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Saturday, February 15th

Upstairs at 8:30 PM

Lover Of Men
 
Lover Of Men - Trailer
Lover Of Men: Abraham Lincoln
(2024, 101 min)

Country: USA

Director: Shaun Peterson

Studio: Special Occasion Studios

Language: English

SYNOPSIS:

"Lover of Men" examines the intimate life of America's most consequential president, Abraham Lincoln. As told by preeminent Lincoln scholars and never before seen photographs and letters, the film details Lincoln's romantic relationships with men. "Lover of Men" widens its lens into the history of human sexual fluidity and focuses on the profound differences between sexual mores of the nineteenth century and those we hold today. The film fills in an important missing piece of American history and challenges the audience to consider why we hold such a limited view of human sexuality. "Lover of Men" is not only an exploration of gender roles and sexual identity, but also serves as an examination of American intolerance.


REVIEW:

Subtitled “The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln,” the film gathers an array of historians to argue that Lincoln had romantic relationships with men.

About a century ago, the poet and biographer Carl Sandburg remarked upon the “streaks of lavender” in Abraham Lincoln and a Southern gentleman named Joshua Speed. Aspiring beyond suggestion, Shaun Peterson’s “Lover of Men” mobilizes an impressive array of historians to argue that Lincoln had romantic relationships with men that affected his life deeply.

Four men are at the heart of Peterson’s playfully titled film, most prominently Speed, who bunked with Lincoln for four years in Springfield, Ill., and mentored the lawyer and budding politician.

Lincoln’s sleeping arrangements recur as evidence in the film, like how he shared the presidential bed with his bodyguard, David Derickson, when his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was away. (Lincoln also bonded with Billy Greene, whom he met at a general store early in his career, and Elmer E. Ellsworth, who clerked in his law office and later died a Union war hero.)

Suggestive phrases in letters to, from and about Lincoln reflect the ardor and closeness in these relationships, and his grief upon their dissolution. Peterson also floods the film with re-enactments to illustrate Lincoln’s time with Speed and others. There is value in imagining this etched-in-granite statesman in emotionally vulnerable private moments, but the scenes, sometimes in slow-motion, are distractingly hokey and undermine the movie.

The documentary tends to linger on some assertions about sexuality in Lincoln’s era while papering over others. But the general effort of bringing to light (and potentially to history books) an underrepresented part of American experience remains vital beyond defining Lincoln’s identity.

--Review by Nicolas Rapold, New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/)