Thats why Stevens is a complete and utter Chad.

In his next incarnation Thaddeus Stevens became Don Rickles.

Two scenes later he's telling us how he shits on the American people, then tells another man he's got slime for blood. He could do both.

"Perhaps that is why your constituents did not re-elect you to the coming term."

@@dovbarleib3256 LOL!

A reenactment of Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi & Schumer anti-Trump squabbling.

Lol. Great. Just a great quote.

@@bill2953 you clearly don't understand the scene or the film; these are the good guys. comparing them to pelosi and schumer is a compliment, not the insult you intend.

@@sirmoonslosthismind I was merely making the observation - sorry I didn't spell it out - that politics haven't changed, the contentious bickering still goes on as it has for 250 plus years. The film is nothing short of brilliant in Daniel Day Lewis' portrayal and the dynamics of the DC political sphere in the 1800's.

Bill Do not even in the depths of stupidity equate Lincoln with that shiftless, racist, moron, and tool of a foreign despot.

Odysseus Rex possibly. At least the most honest one and the one that best describes this movie as a whole!

It is a great line and still relevant in modern politics. Though I still like his "I do not believe in equality in all things; only equality before the law" speech and then Congressman Yeaman's "I said aye, Mr. McPherson. AAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"

Lincoln's "compass" retort was also pretty special. I love how one-to-two line segments in this movie annihilate so many stupid, idealistic opinions about politics. 'LINCOLN WAS A RACIST!" Uuuuh, homie, if he didn't say that racist shit, the border states would've joined the confederacy and your ass would be picking cotton. "I DON'T TRUST POLITICIANS!" Bitch, you elected this guy to scheme his way into getting what you voted him in for; if he's disloyal to you, fuck em, but otherwise, you WANT a backstabber on your side to get shit done... "WE NEED TO DEFUND THE POLICE HERE AND MAKE ALL HEALTHCARE FREE THERE NOW!!!" Bruhh, a compass will point you true north, but it doesn't tell you how to get there; "if you plunge ahead heedless of obstacles to achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp...what good is knowing true north?" This is an essential movie about democracy and politics.

@@alexayers9463 I love that line ("...what's the point in knowing true north") because it is the rebuttal to Stephenson's rebuke of partisan politics. Making a nation, an entire sprawling concatenation of millions, do ANYTHING is complicated. Making it do something radical and unprecedented and permanent is nearly impossible, in any society, let alone a democratic one. Anyone can shout about what everyone SHOULD believe. The funny thing is, depending on what room he's in, Stephens (consummate politician that he is in this movie and was in history) advocates from both sides of this question. To the radical purists, he was a practical man, shoving them off their self-satisfied pedestals in the direction of compromise and progress. To Lincoln, he was the pillar of fire, upbraiding him for falling short of the one true faith. And then he went home, ate dinner, went to bed, got up, and did it all over again. Great movie, to bring that out so nimbly. Tony Kushner FTW.

I dunno, I love it when Pendleton gets in a huff with Stevens and all he can do is shout, "HOOOOOOW DAAAAAARE YOOOOUUU!!!"

Why wait?

I'm 52 and I use it now.

@TMWSITY As president Abraham Lincoln yes.

Tommy Lee Jones did steal this movie profoundly. I've heard movie reviewers describe it as a Thaddeus Stevens movie in disguise.

They were as well-matched as their real-life counterparts.

Tommy Lee Jones is so good, he once stole a scene from himself.

Jones stole the movie for sure. Lewis was good but Hal Holbrook's Lincoln is still the standard to which all other portrayals are judged by!

I’m sure there was some fly on the wall that phoning it in, but thankfully, we’ll never know! This movie is a rarity in perfection!

I’m starting to think it’s a Spielberg thing. Actors getting in front of his camera and they want to bring it 100%.

Amen. They all should have received Oscars

@@abehambinoThat was the fly in Breaking Bad, she’s the best in the business.

It's one of the best movies ever made. I'd put it in at least the top 20. Just a magnificent movie.

Common cause. Lincoln had proven himself to be more than the master of the situations he was thrust into. And, when Stevens WANTED Lincoln to push for abolition of slavery, he believed that Lincoln would hold to his word. At the very least, Stevens had nothing to lose by pushing forward to abolish slavery through Constitutional Amendment.

Stevens believed in abolition (and full rights, though that was not to be), if given a chance to accomplish one of his life long dreams he was not going to destroy it.

Stevens' cohorts were a bunch of hotheads. Stevens was too but maybe it was his age or his having dealt with Lincoln personally more than the others that made him trust Lincoln. My belief is that Lincoln was always an abolitionist at heart and I'm sure that Stevens picked up that vibe from him, or perhaps even Lincoln told him so.

@@XxowendanxX I agree. I think his personal dealings with old Abe showed him that the prez was a man of character, and also (despite being? 😂) a shrewd pol.

@@dmendez77 it's my belief that Abe was an abolitionist at heart, but not in practice. He lived in a time when men still revered the Constitution and still held to it even when they saw nothing in it that could be used to further their own interests or agenda. If Abe had his druthers about it, he would have abolished slavery at the first opportunity but he believed that the United States Constitution did not permit the federal government to abolish slavery in the states by fiat. That said, once he became president he did take every opportunity to curtail slavery when he found that he could do so without overstepping his boundaries as president. Even when he was not completely sure of his powers to do so, he would do so unless he was convinced that the Constitution forbids it. He decided that if he erred, it would be on the side of emancipation. Witness his Emancipation Proclamation, which historians are fond of pointing out emancipated no one in the strict, legal sense. And of course as the movie illustrates, he used the civil war as a way to hack the Constitution with nearly half the states absent in order to ram the 13th amendment through. Altering the Constitution itself was a way of abolishing slavery while still adhering to his constitutional scruples of limited federal power, which the movie also illustrates irritated the radical Republicans to no end.

Lol

I quote this religiously

Lol

LOL

Hahahaha

Yes, but more importantly show that yes bad things have happened in the past, but things can get better as well. In this current age people want to find the horrible things that have happened in history and wave it like an example saying, "Because "A" happened, things will never get better." We need to learn from our past and not only just the mistakes we have done no matter how horrible they were. But to also learn from the great things humanity has accomplished as well.

Yeah, cus our fuckin' history teachers don't do it.

@@sempermilites87 Bravo!!

This is one of the best US history movies Hollywood ever produced. _Spotlight_ is another. Can anyone recommend to me another?

This movie had 95% completely fictional dialogue. This is a movie, do not confuse it with actual history. There are factual resources to learn American History that are far, far superior to Hollywood movies.

How about the scene they were both in? Who steals that scene?

Lastly More Tommy

Well, Daniel Day-Lewis is the star, so, by definition, he can't really "steal" scenes, per se. But yeah, he and Tommy Lee are both mesmerizing in this film.

They are both examples of that increasingly rare actor, the ones who can hold your attention when ever they are on the screen.

Lastly More I don’t know if either steals the show in the scene they’re both in, but I liked the little grin Tommy gives DDL (Lincoln) at the end of they’re discussion. Just a brilliant scene for both of them.

Not to be "this guy," but...Stevens wasn't the speaker of the House. However he was Chairman of the Ways and Means committee, and enormously influential, especially among the Radicals.

@@pianoman9421 Oh I was talking about Colfax , who only gets one line in this scene

@@pianoman9421 lmao you’re not “that guy” just an idiot

The greatest leaders to be the quietest, because they see more than the screechers. The fact that the speaker spoke little showed he was looking at the merits of the then questionable decision for constitutional amendments

Great observation buddy-

@@guysalzmann9302 it shows good attention to detail on the part of the production designers. Overall a wonderful film - another Spielberg masterpiece.

@@sean2015 Indeed! One of my favorite pics! Thx-

Both this scene and the Alexander Coffroth scene were filmed inside the Thomas Jefferson Room at the Virginia Capitol Building; it’s a room I’ve stepped inside many times.

He was in the habit of doing that in real life, which I feel is the best part.

I believe now in 2020 it is called shade... :)

I believe that the insightful, targeted, devistatingly cutting remark you describe composes the vast majority of Thaddeus Stevens' entire vocabulary.

wrongway1100 from what I know of Thaddeus Stevens, this is an excellent portrayal of him. Biting wit, uncompromising beliefs, and one of the sharpest political minds in US history.

From what i have read, this is. pretty accurate account.

@@rlkinnard yes he researched his role deeply

Asa Litton never existed. He seems to be loosely based on Henry Winter Davis

Yup.

Asa is a compilation character of congressmen who distrusted Lincoln but were adamantly against slavery too

Clay Hawkins (the democrat who votes yes and dares the other dems to shoot him dead) is also fictional. I think he is meant to represent the good conscience of the Democratic Party in the film.

@@neilpemberton5523 Hawkins is meant to represent the congressmen who voted their conscience/kept promise in spite of being bullied and threatened by immovable democrats.

Thaddeus Stevens and William Lloyd Garrison are my favorite Americans.

That's goddamn right, brother!

Slavery is a bit different to most issues nowadays, though I see your point.

I actually disagree with this whole heartedly. I think partisanship should apply on a case by case basis. I've watched Mitch McConnell deadlock and break literally every procedural event that could even possibly be interpreted as a win for the Democratic party simply because they were in the majority at the time. The same man then turned around and used the fact that he gridlocked said government to try and win more political power by lying about his role in it when pressed or using whataboutisms. This is when he wasn't preventing routine court appointments and then turning around and stacking both the federal courts and the supreme court. The man is a ruthless partisan and would literally oppose the other side of the aisle on any issue just because it isn't his party. He even went so far as to say that the reason he voted to acquit in an impeachment had nothing to do with whether or not said impeachee was guilty or not but purely because they were both members of the same party. What kind of a world do we live in now where a politician in America can do so much harm, say the quiet part out loud, and still have a longstanding career in politics? Ruthless partisanship can be one of the worst things to happen at least in this country. You have to pick which battles are deserving of partisanship and the 13th amendment just happened to be one such battle. That being said it was a good thing Thaddeus was right because a central theme of this film is how trying to pass the 13th amendment at the time Lincoln wanted it passed could have damaged their ability to pass it later. Thaddeus himself also had to compromise his very moral principles for the greater common good by stating he did not believe in equality for all things just to get the amendment passed. Politics is about more than just outright partisanship especially when said partisanship gets you nowhere or will hurt the overall country.

We see here only a fraction of the Radicals who were in the House, Senate. Bear in mind several Governors out of Michigan, Illinois and New York were at one point radical Republicans

Sounds like a 'ska band from Northern California. Hard pass.

@@theevilascotcompany9255 Understandable.

But Lincoln wasn’t a Radical Republican. He was a pragmatist.

Because no one today entertains critical thought. Lemmings.

i am not sure about that.

*whale ship

@@jmr1090 sorry i was high as shit

Now its literally just about supporting rich people at the expense of everyone else. Dems do it too but at least there's guys like Bernie sanders and richard ojeda who break the mold

Creepy Closet if you think Bernie sanders isn’t one of those rich bastards then you are just stupid

Still are. And the democrats still keep black people down, this time, so the democrat can stand on their shoulders and proclaim that they fight for these people. Even though it’s radical republican president that has done more for blacks in American than Obama didn’t in 8 years. If I were a democrat I’d be embarrassed everywhere I go.

In the face of SJW dogma, they are again, the radicals....offering radical ideas like individual responsibility, and freedom

1daddy57 freedom? Oh no that’s terrible... who wants freedom besides everyone?

The old are young at heart. The young are old at heart.

TLJ steals every scene he is in, sucks the air out of every room, cowers every scholar with his knowledge, and I'm told by people in film who worked with him is bat shit crazy. Well that's an educated Texican for you. Reminds me of my Dad.

Lol I remember hearing that line, and thinking to myself “yeah because that’s the point of what he was saying!” 😂

It's likely Lincoln read Melville so he'd have at least an academic idea about whalers and whaling ships even if he'd never actually seen one.

But the movie's called Lincoln. But I agree more of Stephens would have been nice. He was possibly the sanest politician in the Deep South, and with horrible irony ended up the Confederate Vice-President. All he could do in such a powerless role was criticise Davis.

This scene is about Thaddeus Stevens not Alexander Stephens.

@@neilpemberton5523”the sanest politician in the Deep South”, have you read the “Cornerstone” Speech?

You do know Alexander Stephens gave “the Cornerstone Speech” right? Yeah, he was an ardent Southern democrat, but he was still a rabid white supremacist. He was against secession but praise it as soon as he could.

@cgallegos2106 Yes, I have. The sane Southern politicians tried to stop secession, because everyone agreed the Constitution protected slavery, unless you were stupid enough to secede. Public and legal opinion in the North was overwhelmingly antisecession, and during a war Lincoln could find a legal basis to emancipate slaves who made it to Union lines. Stephens was not insane in supporting slavery, just short-sighted, deluded and callous in the way of the South of his time.

"It's late, I itch from syphilis, and you didn't pay me a million dollars." - Trump

It's very sad that he died so early... He could have accomplished more in the time of reconstruction after Andrew Johnson. But unfortunately reconstruction was not popular anymore when Grant came into office. That explains most problems of later american society.

Probably accurate too

@jbl good perspective. Will dig more into it. Thank you!

Willwork4 XRP inspired comment!

No, the southern agricultural economic engine was built on slave labor. That is why they wouldn't have allowed slavery to end in 1776 and then in 1860 fought against its end. The North saw the Civil war as two things; first pulling back together the Union and then second the end of slavery. The South saw it as a separation of its states from an overbearing North and the saving of its economic engine (which its labor force was the slaves). That is why when the South started the process of ending the war they wanted to be allowed to keep their slaves so their economy wouldn't collapse. Also, the South saw a truce as an ending. The North did not and wanted a surrender and complete re-absorption of the southern states along with the end of Slavery. Reconstruction was to facilitate the whole process.

In 150 years someone will ask this question about politicians from 2020 in relation to climate change. The attitude 'it's a problem for someone else to solve' is the source of a lot of evils.

Sounds like the Boston Bomber. As a resident of Boston who was unconvicted of any crime, he had a right to be buried in the public cemetery. But while the good people of Massachusetts demand that others have unsegregated cemeteries, they themselves will not do hard things that the law requires.

They still have testicles, they are just in their mouth now.

@@reppinseattle7974 Problem is that those have cancer.

I AM THE PRESIDENT OF THE AARON JAN ESTRADA STATES OF AMERICA CLOTHED IN AWESOME, IMMENSE POWER! YOU WILL PROCURE ME THOSE VOTES!" @@aaronjanestrada9484

@@MegaToonzNetwork wut😂😂😂

@@aaronjanestrada9484 You said that in your 1995 inaugural address!

Yes of the two "historical" films, the one that was a complete lie won.

Could be Lafayette

I have read elsewhere that it is Robespierre. Stevens was likened to Robespierre by his detractors. Maybe the set designers were making a little joke.

Could be Marquis de Lafayette. Would make more sense

@@joeszymaszek1146 Robespierre would certainly be more radical.

Stevens was likened to Robespierre by his detractors, so the bust may have been just an inside joke by the set designers.

Yeah sure.. and he won the second period by landslade against traitor useless Union General McClellan..

3 of them were defending him

@@humbertoflores2545 There was serious risk of him losing reelection. That's why he chose Democrat Andrew Johnson to be his new VP. To appeal to some Democrats. He mostly won because of what happened shortly before the election, loyalty of Union soldiers and people believing that it's their duty to re-elect wartime president, even though the war was extremely unpopular.

???

@@jt7638 it might already be too late some ponies aren't meant for the light.

prior to the creation of the republican party, there was no party specifically opposed to slavery. the parties were organized around other issues.

The Republican Party was mostly Whigs. Lincoln himself was a Whig longer then he was a Republican and he called Henry Clay, the KY slave holder, the “bough ideal of a statesman”. Some Republicans had been Democrats before. David Wilmot of PA was a Democrat turned Republican but he also had no problem with slavery.

He was also Know-nothing at one point.

The elections immediately after the Civil War prohibited most ex-Confederates from voting, and especially from running for office. So most of the politicians were freed slaves. All the relevant legislatures passed the amendments. But Lincoln had the votes he needed. He needed majorities in 3/4ths (75%) of the state legislatures, and he already had 25/36ths, 70%. Ending slavery would have been far, far more difficult if the southern states had not seceded.

@Benj Smith Productions He's a lame-duck politician essentially. Lost the election but his term isn't up yet

in important ways yes but certainly not in every way

Modern Democrat? Dude no. Republicans back then were totally progressives. You just insulted them as Democrats.

They switched partially - but that switch really happened in the 1960s. With the civil rights act, that ironically more got more republicans support than democratic support. Republicans during this era were still a small goverment, pro-business, and anti-slavery party. The democratic party was a working class, labor and socially conservative party. They were extremely populist. Vestiges of that Republican party still exist - essentially northern republicans with who are quite popular in blue states, like Charlie Baker and Larry Hogan. In many ways the switch of the parties started back then, but the coalitions have shifted in stages and not all at once. It's almost but not entirely complete now. I think it's likely you'll see pro-growth elements of the Republican party now, who are generally liberal socially, cut ties and become a conservative wing of the democratic party. The process is already starting. FDR for example passed the New Deal, with support of conservative southern democrats - and it was opposed by the Lincoln Wing of the Republicans for being goverment overreach. The anti-goverment strain of Republican thought was alive and well during the civil war. One of the conflicts in the movie was how the Conservative Republicans wanted to end slavery while still maintaining seperation of powers, but the radicals were more willing to expand goverment power if it meant the end of slavery. But both wings were anti-slavery.

Not quite that simple.

Mr. Lincoln hardly was a churchgoer and professed scant interest in any theology. Yes, he did mention to Mary on that last carriage ride that he'd like to visit the Holy Land, which to him was a kind of river into which various creeks flowed. He was a politician and let others imagine in him what they wanted to believe. He had work to do.

It is the same party in name only. Lincoln would not recognize today’s Republicans.

@@GH-oi2jf Based on what?