Lincoln (2012)
85th Academy Awards
3/5 Stars
Nominated for 12 awards, of which it won 2.
Nominated for Best Picture (Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy), Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones), Best Supporting Actress (Sally Field), Best Adapted Screenplay (Tony Kushner), Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Sound Mixing (Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom, Ronald Judkins), Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Best Costume Design (Joanna Johnston), and Best Film Editing (Michael Kahn).
Won Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Best Production Design (Rick Carter, Jim Erickosn).
Watched February 27, 2014.
I have heard a lot of good things about Lincoln, and perhaps these things, along with Daniel Day-Lewis' win at the Oscars made me expect too much. As much as I tend to enjoy the pristine nature of a good Spielberg film, the stage like dialogue, production design, and cinematography left something to be desired.
President Abraham Lincoln is perhaps one of the most well remembered Presidents. This film focuses on a small period of time around his reelection, just months before his assassination. He is gunning for the 13th Amendment, which would abolish slavery, much to the chagrin of his cabinet. Even some within the Republican party were hesitant. Everyone wanted peace from the Civil War. They wanted their sons to stop dying in battle and for the South to come back to the nation. The Democrats were vehemently opposed to the Amendment.
We all know what happens in the end, which takes away some of the mystery and suspense, although the filmmakers tried their best to keep the audience on the edges of their seats. The representatives vote and threaten each other. Lincoln is slow and yet eloquent. He speaks strongly when needed but prefers a calm state and story telling. In tense situations he commands the attention of a room by telling a story that might relate to the situation at hand.
The acting, particularly from Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field, is top notch. They deliver difficult lines and portray a wounded spirit very well. My favorite scene involving Mary Todd Lincoln (Field) is when she defends her remodel of the white house to some extremists, showing a bit of the gumption that Lincoln must have fallen in love with in the beginning. The loss of one of her sons has all but done her in, but in this moment there is fire in her eyes, much like in the President's when he expresses how disgusting slavery is.
He and his political party dance the line between peace and the freedom of slaves. They believe that if they declare peace with the south before the Amendment is brought to a vote, there will be no sense of urgency and it will not be passed. They employ questionable and typical techniques to "buy" votes and stall envoys.
Some of the story is much too slow, or maybe unnecessary. I understand why they included the story line of Robert Lincoln (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the son who wants to go to war, but it is so underused that it is more of a distraction from the main story than anything else. It shows the fear of his parents and unearths more of their grief. The emotions in these scenes are palpable, but the execution of the filmmaking is very staged. There is a constant tug of war between filmmaker and actor in this film that I found very distracting.
Despite some negative attributes, the film is well done and deserving of its nominations as well as wins. I would definitely watch it again, although I might not own it. If you are a history buff you will probably really enjoy it. I can recommend Lincoln as a good film, but you should expect it to be somewhat slow, dark, and quiet.
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