The Better Angels

The Better Angels is a 2014 American biographical historical drama film about United States President Abraham Lincoln's formative years. It was written and directed by A. J. Edwards and produced by Terrence Malick. The film had its premiere at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. It was subsequently screened in the Panorama program at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival on February 8, 2014. In March 2014, Amplify acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released on November 7, 2014. Synopsis and background This film serves as a story of Abraham Lincoln's childhood, his upbringing in Indiana, and the hardships and tragedies that made him the man he was. Lincoln lived more than thirteen years in Indiana, but the film focuses on his life from ages eight to eleven or twelve (years 1817 to 1821), and explores Lincoln's relationships between Lincoln and his birth mother and his stepmother. Lincoln historian and scholar William Bartelt served as a historical consultant for the film with Bartelt's 2008 book There I Grew Up: Remembering Abraham Lincoln's Indiana Youth providing substantial inspiration to the filmmakers. The title of the film, "The Better Angels," is borrowed from the final words of Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address, "the better angels of our nature."