Steven Spielberg & Daniel Day Lewis' Lincoln

[Bim]

I'm anxiously waiting for this movie and Skyfall to arrive to my country

 

[Motown Marvel]

One of the things I liked about the movie was how different everything about the office of the President was portrayed as when compared to today. You've got Lincoln and his cabinet meeting in a tiny little room, you've got Lincoln just out and about in a fairly nondescript carriage in public without Secret Service...coming and going as he pleases with little fanfare...clothed in immense power, but just a guy with a job to do. That kind of stuff.

i agree that was really interesting. i've always had lincoln in my mind as a very stiff and stoic character, but he seemed rather casual and loose. Same with how the white house and his presidency functioned in the film.

 

[Marvolo]

One of the things I liked about the movie was how different everything about the office of the President was portrayed as when compared to today. You've got Lincoln and his cabinet meeting in a tiny little room, you've got Lincoln just out and about in a fairly nondescript carriage in public without Secret Service...coming and going as he pleases with little fanfare...clothed in immense power, but just a guy with a job to do. That kind of stuff.

That is how the presidency was conceived. Our founding fathers would be appalled at the state of the office today.

 

[Bruce Malone]

Well to be fair his getting shot may have had a bit to do with the more uptight security following, not to mention the 3 other presidents after him who were assinated...

I always cringe when i think at how easy it was for booth to just walk up behind him to take him out. His little derringer was actually so inaccurate he literally could only kill him by being that close in the first place.

 

[Compi716]

Great movie, but does anybody else feel like if it ended ten minutes sooner it would have been far more powerful? I really feel like if Lincoln concluded with the passing of the 13th Amendment and the end of the war it would have felt incredibly complete. The additional scene of Lincoln's death felt a bit shoehorned in, in my opinion.

Also, something about his youngest son's reaction to his death irked me. Not quite sure why, but it didn't feel as genuine as the rest of the film.

 

[Boom]

Yeah, I agree.

Spoiler

The shot of Lincoln walking down the hallway, coupled with Williams' subtle score, would have been a perfect ending.

 

[jacobed]

I too agree. I didn't like that they added his death at all.

 

[Bruce Malone]

I too agree. I didn't like that they added his death at all.

Wow way to spoil what happened to lincoln...

 

[Jokers_Wild]

Yeah, I agree.

Spoiler

The shot of Lincoln walking down the hallway, coupled with Williams' subtle score, would have been a perfect ending.

Loved this as well for an ending. Although I am quite fond of Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Speech, so I'm glad that was included. I think I would've ended on that and skipped the theater/deathbed scenes, as they seemed unnecessary.

 

[jacobed]

They were very unneccessary, we all know what happens to him and since its not a life story about Lincoln, it came off as unneeded

 

[The Guard]

Somewhere out there is someone who doesn't know what happened to Lincoln, even though here in the US, we learn about it in what, second grade? You can't make a historical movie that assumes that people know all the key things, even if they are things you think everyone should or would likely know. Otherwise, why even bother to show the results of the 13th Amendment Passing? We all know it passed, but they still have to show it per the demands of story. And that's why Lincoln's death was shown.

I agree, and I would have been fine with the movie ending on Lincoln's last line, with him walking down the hall, but the point of showing Lincoln's death was to complete the idea that the man gave pretty much everything to the cause, and that ultimately, it cost him his life.

 

[Poeman]

agreed, but i think Spielberg knows people still want to see what happened there and what a loss it was to this country when Abe got killed

 

[terry78]

You really can't have a Lincoln flick sans the assassination.

 

[Brain Damage]

I agree that the shot of him walking down the hall should have been the ending, but that's a minor quibble in what is otherwise a masterpiece of a film.

When I went in I was going for DDL and some Spielberg sensibilities, what I got instead was hands down the best movie I've seen all year and maybe in several years. Incredibly moving without being preachy, as I feared it would be. Just fantastic. Best thing Spielberg's done since Saving Private Ryan.

I honestly thought I'd spend tons of this movie being bored, as historical political films often have that effect on me. Instead, I was glued to the screen from first frame to last. Simply stunning. The scene where Lincoln talks about mathematical theory reminded me of why I go to the movies in the first place.

Stunning. Simply stunning.

PS: Was anyone else not expecting Tommy Lee Jones to have nearly as big of a role, and delighted that he did?

 

[Octoberist]

I wish those two union soldiers in the beginning (One of them being Lukas Haas, I think) should have been Bill and Ted.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Ha ha, most excellent.

 

[Marvolo]

What a LONGGGG winded talky movie.

But, god, it was FASCINATING! Everything I would like to say has been said so Ill just say that it is a wonderful piece of historical drama with wonderful performances, great dialogue, and worthy of its praise.

9/10


One caveat, the ending. Imo it would have been more powerful to end it with Lincoln walking down the hallway off to the play.

 

[Matt Mortem]

What a LONGGGG winded talky movie.

But, god, it was FASCINATING! Everything I would like to say has been said so Ill just say that it is a wonderful piece of historical drama with wonderful performances, great dialogue, and worthy of its praise.

9/10


One caveat, the ending. Imo it would have been more powerful to end it with Lincoln walking down the hallway off to the play.

I agree 100%

 

[Marvolo]

I agree 100%

It was such a beautiful powerful shot. Especially coming after his line about not wanting to go and his butler having that look on his face. The whole shot held it all. No more was needed and I feel like everything after it was there simply to check off a box.

 

[Motown Marvel]

yeah, i coulda gone without the assassination. it wasnt all that relevant to the story, since they werent telling the story of lincoln's life.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I really enjoyed this film, but I do kind of wish it had gone more into Lincoln's life than just the period of trying to pass the 13th Amendment. All the stuff about the family dynamic I felt were more interesting than the building of the amendment. While I get why it was done and it works in its own right, I was left wanting more in that way.

 

[DACrowe]

Saw it this morning. What a truly astonishing film. I heard all the quiet backlash that DDL is phenomenal, but the movie is only "okay." Well, maybe it's because I love history and I love watching politics, but I found this movie riveting at all times and a true pleasure to watch.

The cast, unsurprisingly, was superb. DDL honestly deserves his third Oscar for this film (and it should be his fourth as his turn as Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York should have also won). This man is a true pleasure to watch. But beyond that, Sally Fields and Tommy Lee Jones deserve nominations and their equal recognition. They brought both Mary Todd and Thaddeus Stevens to life in a way I had never seen before. Truly exceptional. And the rest of the supporting cast ranging from Jared Harris as Grant, Jackie Earl Haley as Alexander Stephens, Joseph Gordon Levitt as Robert Lincoln, etc. were predictably strong.

But what I really like about this movie is that it is a political movie about "people talking in rooms." Too often our historical icons, be they the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, or the way the left covets Roosevelt and Kennedy today and the right covets Reagan, are far too often carved in marble and falsely remembered as deities. This movie didn't just bring a "warts and all" approach to Lincoln, because honestly those warts are never going to be that bad on his personal character, but brought to life American politics for those who imagine it was once civilized and as earnest as a Justice League comic book. It showed the sausage being made and the ugliness and the horse trading (some would say bribing) of something we take for granted now--the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.

This is Spielberg's best since at least Munich, but probably Saving Private Ryan. This is also the best movie of the year so far.

 

[DACrowe]

That is how the presidency was conceived. Our founding fathers would be appalled at the state of the office today.

To be fair there is a chance that a good number of them would be appalled by the state of the office in Lincoln's time. Besides the pettiness of political parties, this is a man who emphasized the supremacy of the federal government over the states and more than once would flex the power of his office n extraordinary ways ("Clothed in immense power!"). He was our first president that used the office so forcefully. Hence, why there was a backlash against him, among other reasons, by some Northerners at the time, and just not Democrats sympathetic to some of the South's grievances. I really think it is not best to evoke the Founders in that kind of context. Just my opinion.

 

[DACrowe]

http://www.slashfilm.com/filmcast-ep-207-lincoln-guest-laremy-legel-from-film-com/ The Slashfilmcast took on Lincoln. In my opinion pretty much all of them are widely offbase in their view of this film.

Wow, I've never listened to that podcast before and I never will again. That was horrible. Especially when they clearly had no idea what they were talking about when they:

A) Called members of the House of the Representatives, "Senators."

B) Were surprised that Republicans were "liberal" (in the modern American sense) back then and that it was making a allusion to gay rights today and was a pointed jab at the modern GOP.

C) Were confused as to whether the House Chamber was a courtroom.

D) Thought Lincoln telling folksy stories (many of which were actual stories he told) was "mythologizing" him.

Yeah, that was terrible. And that is a fact.

 

[Kane52630]

^