Paul Sassone

We have a state bird, a state flower.

So why not a state movie?

Since 2018 marks Illinois’ 150th birthday, the Illinois Bicentennial Commission conducted a poll to determine which movie set in Illinois is most popular.

Winning movie, and thus our new state movie, is “The Blues Brothers.”

This hip, crude concoction of car crashes, incomprehensible plot and blues numbers has been a fan favorite since it was released in 1980.

My choice for best movie set in Illinois didn’t even make the list.

My vote would have gone to “Young Mr. Lincoln.”

Released in 1939, the film stars Henry Fonda as the young attorney in Springfield. We see Lincoln in various guises and situations, from judge at a pie-eating contest to a courtroom victory for two brothers

unjustly accused of murder. Lincoln ultimately unmasks the real killer.

Through Fonda’s performance and John Ford’s direction we see Lincoln as a product of his time, but not a captive of those times.

And in comparing the Blues Brothers and young Mr. Lincoln, the latter is quiet, almost introspective. it is delicate, not crude, which alas, is the Blues Brothers trademark.

–‘Young Mr. Lincoln’ should be state movie–