Lincoln

Man for a movie about a vampire hunter there sure was a lack of violence! 

Oh wait...what? This isn't Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? 

You mean this is the second movie to come out this year about Abraham Lincoln? 

All jokes aside ladies and gentlemen, this IS the second movie this year about America's best President, and it's certainly the better one...although that isn't saying much since there wasn't anything special about Vampire Hunter. This one takes a far more serious, historical look at the man's life, specifically the time around his push to get the 13th Amendment passed (you know, the one that abolishes slavery?). The film is directed by Steven Spielberg and is quite a different direction than the adventure titles he often gives us. It has been getting rave reviews and is one of the highest rated titles of the year. Rath's Reviews is here to tell you if it is worth the hype and praise. (hint: it's a bit of yes and a bit of no).

Set in the year 1865, the American Civil War is raging onward with little signs of slowing down. For those of you that need a brief history lesson, the Civil War was about slavery at its core. Republicans wanted to abolish it, Democrats wanted to keep it, and there were many people in between that saw the pluses and minuses of both sides (sounds familiar to current politics huh?). Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that gave slaves their freedom during war time, but legally could not free them during non-war time. Thus why he fought so hard to pass Amendment 13 which makes all men equal under the U.S. Law. Simply put, it was one of the defining moments not only in our nation's history, but in world history, and it was all on this man's shoulders. 

Daniel Day Lewis is UNCANNY as Abraham Lincoln...

And who better to portray one of the most important people in history than one of the best actors in history? Daniel Day Lewis has the Oscar for Best Actor on lock, similar to the year that Heath Ledger won it. His performance of Lincoln is, for lack of a better word, mesmerizing, and is almost the entire reason that this movie isn't a snooze-fest. The man gets so deep into his characters it's alarming. I wonder what he would have been like as a villain in Nolan's Batman films? In addition to Daniel Day Lewis, the cast turns in strong showings with Sally "You-Really-Like-Me!" Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, David Strathairn as William Seward, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robin...er, uh...Robert Lincoln, James Spader as W.N. Bilbo, and several others. But they are all easily overshadowed by Lewis. The only one who somewhat comes out of the shadows and will probably get himself an Oscar nomination as well (Best Supporting Actor) is Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens. He provides almost all of the comic relief but also plays a very important role. 

Need some old-grumpy-man comedic relief? Call on
Tommy Lee Jones!

Now, you may have caught my quip earlier about Lewis saving this from being a snooze fest, and truthfully his enchanting performance does. Lincoln is what I call a talking movie. There is no action, there is no love story, there are no dance or song numbers, just talking...and talking...and talking. And when that's the case, your movie better have a damn good script and it better have some superb performances. Luckily, Lincoln has both of these. Unluckily, no one in Spielberg's camp realized that they made entirely too long of a movie (150 minutes) with obvious room for editing. And that is my biggest problem with Lincoln. What it has to say is highly interesting, and what it shows us about our country's history is amazing, but it just doesn't know when to move on. Abraham Lincoln was known for telling stories to prove his points, and in this movie, they are really fascinating. But there comes a time in the middle of the movie for about 40 minutes that it just feels like a thread of "I remember this one time..." stories and it really starts to chug. It's a shame because I feel like this could have been a really well done, compact tale that still told the exact same story but would have been 120 minutes rather than 150. 

I mean SERIOUSLY. This ^^^ is creepy...

But in the end, Lincoln won me over for what it had to say about politics. These days, there are so many extremists, from both sides. Too many, in fact. In 1865, there were extremists on both sides too. There were people who believed to their death that slavery was okay and that the nation needed it to survive. Looking back, we seem disgusted with that fact, but they were people just like you or I, who believed in this. We need to remember that hindsight is 20/20, all the time. There are so many people worried with the choices that our nation is making today, myself included, but we do not know what the future holds for this country. So many people think that this plan will "destroy America" or this change will "ruin our futures" and this comes from BOTH sides. The fact of the matter is that there were people in 1865 who believed that ending slavery would "destroy the nation". They believed in it so much that they gave their lives to fight for it. And over 100 years later, it was one of the best, and most crucial decisions made in the history of modern mankind. I guess what I'm saying that I learned is that people need to stop being so closed minded with political opinions, both Democrats and Republicans and Independents. 

To paraphrase Lincoln: if we are to plant two seeds of opportunity right now, today, could you truly distinguish which one will grow stronger for the next 100 years? Some extra food for thought during your Turkey-induced Thanksgiving nap tomorrow...

Pros:

• Daniel Day Lewis. Give the man the Oscar now, because it's virtually on lock. Because of his eerie representation of the 16th President, the movie survives, and even flourishes
• The rest of the acting is strong, most likely several Oscar contenders. Tommy Lee Jones shines and is the much-needed comic relief
• While this is a "talking movie", the script is often very intriguing and I found myself hanging onto every word that Lincoln had to say at times
• Lincoln's stories
• The production values are phenomenal, which is to be expected from Spielberg. He captures the era perfectly, has good cinematography, and a fairly good original score
• The scenes located in the House of Representatives are some of the best in the movie. It is both historically fascinating and entertaining to watch politicians of that time period argue over the Amendment

Cons:

• Like several movies I have seen lately, there are places where Lincoln could have been shortened. After it was all said and done, I got the feeling that it was long, just for the sake of being long
• Too many of Lincoln's stories
• I really enjoyed this focus on the 13th Amendment portion of his life, but would have loved to seen a broader portion of his lifetime. There is no Gettysburg address, no childhood, etc. It would have helped to know this going in, so that's why I'm telling you now

Rath's Review Score: 8/10