Disney announced today the official release date of Lincoln, Steven Spielberg: The November 9, 2012, according to Deadline . And although not yet confirmed the date in Spain or Latin America, large releases of Hollywood values ​​usually occur simultaneously to prevent data leakage and generate a wave of global expectations. Taking advantage of this announcement in Extracine we have listed the most memorable performances of the most memorable of U.S. presidents. And the figure is a record, because according to IMBD has appeared on screen more than 298 times, so that Daniel Day-Lewis performance run number 299. Exceeds even the country's founder, George Washington, who has been played 153 times.

Abraham Lincoln is always a safe bet, since it was the country's leader during the Civil War and tried to avoid fragmentation of the country during the conflict. Indeed, Spielberg's Lincoln portrays his figure commanding the armies of the North and its action in favor of the continuity of the Union. In addition, the laws enacted by the U.S. feel more pride for the rest of the world: the Thirteenth Amendment, which involved the abolition of slavery and allowed the equal protection of all citizens. Thus, Lincoln always becomes a source of patriotism and unity: if you love Lincoln, love the spirit of America. On the other hand, is the first president belonging to the Republican Party, so it represents the perfect balance between progress and tradition.

Therefore, we can glimpse the Spielberg project is aimed at promoting the spirit of unity at the wave of crisis in their country. But what role has been fulfilled in your work? We leave you with 5 appearances or references on screen:

The Birth of a Nation (The Birth of a Nation), David W. Griffith (1915)

This film is the source of all: the origin of narrative cinema, because it sets the parameters based the story of the classical Hollywood cinema, and the origin of the myth of America as emerging nation. U.S. does not have an epic of the foundation, so it requires of stories that can identify the boundaries of the nation and the collective unconscious of its inhabitants. Griffith tries to bridge this gap in the narrative travésde fratricidal conflict of the Civil War, and the assassination of Lincoln (played by Joseph Henaber y) in the Ford Theatre in Washington, filmed with an absolute mastery serves as an example of the absurdities of war: Griffith shows us the need to promote peace between North and South.

Young Mr. Lincoln (Young Mr. Lincoln), John Ford (1939)

Henry Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln ran the best interpretation of Abraham Lincoln's classic film, and Daniel Day-Lewis sure the check for their preparation. John Ford's film portrays the president's childhood and tries to show his conversion a lawyer to do justice to the murder of his sister. Thus, Ford tells us that he would like an ideal that moved the country: the struggle for the establishment of a just order, but now we suffer the excesses of this desire for justice after the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Fortune Cookie (Fortune Cookie), Billy Wilder

Boasting of the corrosive irony of that boasts Billy Wilder, this film chronicles the adventures of a footballer and a lawyer seeking to feign an injury caused by sport to collect insurance money. It is played by John Anderson (who would interpret it in The Lincoln Conspiracy), although the highlight is the commentary of the lawyer played by the great Walter Matthau after reading the president's famous phrase: "no one can fool all the people all the time ". Title to the tape, as this quote works just as a phrase of fortune cookie, and the lawyer's response could not be more painfully true: "Lincoln, great President, bad lawyer." And is that the values ​​on which America was born and had no place in society disabused of the sixties. It is the beginning of the demystification of the great figures of the country's founding.

Family Guy

Family Guy calls for radical irony: Lincoln asks his neighbor by the height of your lawn and it censured, indicating that the absence of slaves prevents you from keeping beautiful. The clip, left below shows the impossibility of living by the ideals of the founders of the country without the slave system existing at the dawn of the nation. An indirect criticism of the transmutation of these values ​​in pure market, and the humor that characterizes the series:

The Simpsons

In The Simpsons, the statue of Lincoln is collapsed claims of American citizens who do not know what course to take. But the ideals of Lincoln are already buried, and only emerge as a souvenir, as it appears in the rap Duff beer that makes a robot president. Also in another episode, Lincoln and Washington as they kiss is a celebration of the adoption of gay marriage. The Simpsons is shown in the subversion of the ideals of Lincoln in contemporary society, whether in favor of progress (gay marriage), whether in favor of the abyss (the exaggerated consumerism). I leave the video, sorry for the quality but have not found other versions.

The representation of Abraham Lincoln evolved in parallel with the evolution of the country, so a classic movie mythologized Lincoln enters a ironized Lincoln in contemporary setting, which affects the relativization of his conquests: the proposals of Lincoln have resulted, in part, on what America is today. So, following this short list should review the latest work produced by Tim Burton: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter the , where the president is transmuted into vampire hunter. Perhaps because their ideology has vampirized whole society to cause a loss of identity for its inadequacy to reality. We will wait for its release in August, and November Spielberg, of course, to continue with this brief evolution.