The central reason to see Lincoln, the Spielberg directed film about the 16th President starring Daniel Day-Lewis, is, in fact, Daniel Day-Lewis.
Mr. Lewis’s performance is sublime, human, and profoundly (small r) republican. In Lewis, Lincoln’ politics emerge from the man’s inner life, his core, not the policies he promoted or the war he prosecuted. We see why Lincoln has become the centering - possibly the essential – American. His Lincoln is a man who understands what republics give us: The space for individuals to emerge. Given the rendering of Lincoln everywhere from Mt. Rushmore to Disneyland as a stiff, wise, tired old god, Day-Lewis hands us a wonderful gift: A human being.
Much of the acting is honed and spectacular. Sally Field re-emerges as one of our greats as Mrs. Lincoln. Field avoids the trap of playing crazy Mary Todd. In her limited screen time she fully owns her turf, confronting and protecting her husband by turns. Mrs. Lincoln is finally given her historical due in the hands of Sally Field. The scene in which she and Lincoln explode over the death of William Lincoln reminded me of Beatrice Straight’s breathtaking 5 minutes in Network.
Tommy Lee Jones as Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens , is funny, harsh and insightful as well. Actually, every performance works. The film does not however. The bulk of it deals with the fight for passage of the 13th amendment in the House. As interesting as this may be for history junkies it makes for long stretches of tedium. I make this statement as a history junkie. I knew who every player was, what they were up to, what the motivations were…It was still boring. CSPAN with better lighting. Members of Congress may think what they do is always compelling, and I bet many will love this film, but horse trading for votes doesn’t make good drama on the big screen. A friend I went with commented afterward “A film about ending slavery with no slaves as major players becomes an academic exercise.” He’s correct. In drama, history lessons must emerge from stories about people. If the lesson is the story it’s a strange documentary, albeit with very skilled actors.
All that said, I found myself all but openly weeping more than once. Tony Kushner overwrote most of the script but he and Spielberg have the good sense to include the Gettysburg Address – via Union soldiers - and the 2nd inauguration speech. Other than the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’s preamble these two speeches are our most valued and embedded language. Much of who we are as a people comes from those two speeches. They are indestructible and they are ours.
It’s sad Lincoln doesn’t quite work. Hollywood, when it rises above self congratulation and greed, has the ability to lift and refine our perception. A well told story about our greatest healer is needed right now. Lincoln heals in fits and starts, then wanders into the weeds.
Nevertheless, the Irishman Daniel Day-Lewis gives us a Lincoln worthy of our greatest ideals because he gives us a man, not a sculpture.
I plan to see this during the holidays and I can’t wait.
I have to chuckle-mordantly-when film critics say, “I never knew Lincoln was funny.”
Hello, genius, have you ever read a history book?
I, too, recently saw “Lincoln” and I love this review, John. You are a wonderful writer and give a fair review indeed. I. however, loved every bit of this film despite the fact that it was long indeed. Two hours and thirty minutes went by rapidly for me, though, and I was enthralled 90% of the time. Perhaps the fact that this Lincoln was so human, imperfect, and humorous – so much like I imagined him to have been, that the tedium virus never got me.
Sally Fields was glorious and, my hear throb, Tommy Lee Jones, won me over for the umpteenth time.
“Lincoln” moved me so deeply and resurrected within me the desire to understand my fellow humans more reverently that I will buy it when it is released and enjoy it repeatedly.
Thanks for your review, John!
I rarely go to the movies- maybe once every two or three years. This season two are coming out on my must see list- The Hobbit and Les Mis.
Sigh
I really dislike sitting in a dark room full of strangers.
PMM, Christmas day I will be in a theater watching Les Miserables with a bunch of friends. I’m a huge fan of the play. Saw it in London the year it came out with my father and both of us left the theater so choked with emotion that we couldn’t talk without crying. It looks like they’ve done a great job with the film – here’s hoping.
As for Lincoln, I was bored stiff. I can’t remember a Spielberg film that I’ve disliked this much, though I haven’t seen all of them.
Jay- I am giving my daughter and her wife gift cards to the movies for Christmas. Then I will just invite myself along lol. We all love Tolkien and the good musicals!
Spielberg sucks big time, imo.
Oh, Tamer — the guy who made JAWS doesn’t suck! It’s always on my list of favorite films, partially owing to a perfect script of course.
Seriously. He made Jaws!
I liked JAWS. He also made AI.
If you want to see a very thought-provoking and brave film, check out “Cloud Atlas”. I’ve seen it twice and plan to go again. If you choose to go, prepare to be confused for the first 45 minutes or so. After that it all begins to make beautiful, profound sense.
I saw Lincoln as well. I think the movie is superbly acted, I think Spielberg’s greatest gift as a filmmaker is that he works so well with actors and generally gets great performances from them. I am a huge fan of Daniel Day Lewis, so I had pretty high expectations of his performance going into this movie and I have to say its absolutely stunning.. he captures the intelligence of Lincoln really well but also the weariness. He’s amazing in this movie and his portrayal goes against the stereotypical Lincoln characterizations (He allegedly had a high voice and wasnt a great orator).
Overall I think every actor does a great job, even Sally Field, who IMO is pretty much just Sally Field in everything. Even the bit parts were acted really well.
Once you get past the acting though, I thought the movie itself was kind of boring probably because the main focus of the movie is the battle to get enough votes to pass the 13th Amendment (spoiler alert- they get enough votes) and the resultant political gamesmanship that entailed. The performances are great, it obviously is a huge turning point in our evolution as a nation, but the story contained in the movie just isn’t that compelling because we know how it ends.
What is interesting to note and Im curious to hear more about is that the movie kind of insinuates that Lincoln prolonged the Civil War to get the vote on Amendment 13, surmising that if the war ended or was perceived as close to ending that the Emancipation Proclimation would end and all of the momentum on abolition would be lost once the Confederacy ended and was again part of the Union. I left the theater wanting to know more about that.
No Spielberg movie would be complete without liberal doses of shmaltz, but I was surprised that he kept it to a minimum.. there were only a few cringeworthy scenes for me.. the biggest one being having soldiers recite lines back to him from the Gettysburg address… but there are also some really great moments in the film where you see how he’s really mastered his craft as a director.. Robert Lincoln’s shocking discovery at the army hospital scene comes immediately to mind.. the boy who played Tad Lincoln is great and all of his scenes were a joy to watch, except obviously the last one
but if anyone can work with kids it’s Spielberg.
Has anyone seen Skyfall yet?
Saw SKYFALL last week and was shocked to find myself bored in a Bond film! I’d wonder if something was wrong with me if I weren’t loving HOMELAND and some other cable shows so much.
I fully expect my ‘bored at the movies’ trend to end this week with SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.
” the movie kind of insinuates that Lincoln prolonged the Civil War to get the vote on Amendment 13,”
Bullshit. Near the very end of the war, Lincoln did refuse to meet with CSA envoys seeking to discuss an armistice. Even at that late date (Richmond under siege), they still refused to abandon slavery.
.. and more importantly, refused to abandon Southern independence.
http://www.irishbrigadegiftshop.com/images/souvenir/d4flag.jpg
oh crap wrong thread!
So disappointed to learn that a fine actor portraying a great figure was wasted in a movie about YET MORE White Guilt. AMISTAD II.
I didnt think it really think it was insinuating white guilt, but the overall movie was just all about political give and take for me.
So much material on Lincoln to draw from, and they chose to focus on the 13th Amd. These people are obsessed with racism & White Guilt.
One of my favorite Spielberg films is “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.
Tamerlane, “white guilt”? I am white and feel no guilt about anything I did not do personally.
I feel the same as you about the White Guilt thing. And in the Civil War, ftr, my people went from off-the-boat and straight into places like The Cornfield, The Sunken Road, The Dunker Church, and The Bloody Angle.
I liked CLOSE ENCOUNTERS when I was a teenager. Spielberg also re-made WAR OF THE WORLDS.
Spielberg’s masterpiece is Jaws. All one needs to know about how to construct a movie can be learned from watching Jaws.
John, interesting article on Jaws book cover/movie poster, you might get a kick out of this:
http://www.jbiocommunication.org/free_issues/36-1/feature2.html
“l one needs to know about how to construct a movie can be learned from watching Jaws.”
So what happened with HOOK?
He also made 1941.
I think Spielberg is great with actors when he has q,solid story to work with, that’s why I think he was so successful with George Lucas… Once they both got into the “roller coaster” mentality of making product their work suffered.
Hook was probably the most egregious example of this, it isn’t even interesting as a failure.
Schindler’s List is my favorite.
I though Liam Neeson was robbed at Oscar time that year.
Also:
http://observer.com/2012/11/lincoln-rex-reed-daniel-day-lewis-tommy-lee-jones/