Lincoln (2012)
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Lincoln Movie Review
Lincoln is a 2012 biographical historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field. It’s a very tedious movie.
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“I could write shorter sermons,
but when I get started I’m too lazy to stop“
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It follows only the latest section of Lincoln’s life as he strives to abolish slavery and reunite his country during the Civil War. This is the approach with most modern biopics, so I was quite fine with that as this is after all the most crucial chapter in his life and one of the most important in the history of the United States. The film reminds us of the importance of this president through many impassioned speeches and a great look into the hardships that he endured as he tried to procure the votes for the 13th amendment and finish the war.
The movie is obviously extremely historically accurate as it has been verified on multiple counts by the best historians of this particular period. There are some changes here and there, but those were necessary changes for the big screen. Overall, in the regard of historical authenticity, this is the best possible depiction of this important historical period.
But just because a movie is historically accurate doesn’t mean that it is great filmmaking by any means. Sometimes, in order to be as accurate as possible, a director would forget to make a genuinely great, engaging film, and this is exactly what happened with Lincoln.
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Gone is the cinematic flair of Spielberg in favor of the many speeches and courtroom drama that happens throughout the very high two and a half hour mark. It is an extremely long movie, so it needed a bit more added onto itself to make it as impactful as possible. This way, with no war scenes, no outside rooms sequences and no bigger, grander picture outside these presidential and senate walls, the movie became very limited in scope and simply not particularly enjoyable.
It’s just too stagy. The cinematography, score and direction are competent, but far from the best that Janusz Kaminski, John Williams and Steven Spielberg himself have done on so many occasions previously. They were all limited by the scope and setting of the film and they could not get a chance to shine properly. Tony Kushner is also the one to blame as his script should have been more layered and more involving.
Daniel Day-Lewis is great in the role of Abraham Lincoln. Much has been said about him basically inhabiting this role, which to me was a bit too much as he always is trying way too hard, but at least this is one of those examples where the actor definitely not only sounds, but looks the part. He is eerily similar to the real president, and he sold the speeches and more moving scenes throughout.
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But others also deserve praise. While Tommy Lee Jones is terrific and per usual stealing the show in his scenes, it is Sally Field who deserves the most praise of the supporting cast as she imbued the wife of Lincoln’s with so much poignancy and personality. Their arguments were some of the best parts of the movie and the only ones where the scope of subject matter was extended at least for a while. The dialogue is great and genuinely moving and striking at times, but there was ultimately too much talking and not enough cinema to be found here.
