This grouping, now bathed in warm Southern California sunshine, sets
an almost eerie tone during the current catastrophic flooding in Louisiana.
Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's use of brown
tones and chiaroscuro lighting is simply appropriate; interestingly,
almost every moment of imagination involves the physicality of the president — sitting before Union soldiers in a manner that conjures the Lincoln Memorial, standing atop the prow of the ship in an early,
eerie dream sequence, his long legs and tall hat anchoring one corner of a wide frame as he talks to his telegraph operators in the dead of night.