When you have one of the most accomplished directors in
cinema history directing arguably the greatest actor of our generation who is
portraying the United States’
greatest President, you expect great things.
You can also expect an abundance of hardware over the next three months
as well.
Lincoln
doesn’t disappoint. Daniel Day-Lewis is
the greatest of character actors; he completely immerses himself in his
roles. This one is no different. As an amateur historian, I have done more
than my fair share of study on our sixteenth president and Day-Lewis is as an
accurate portrayal as any I’ve seen, and there have been many good ones. The mannerisms such as his gangly, slightly
hunched, lurching gait to his slow, and back-woodsy story telling, in his high
pitched voice, are believable in every sense.
This IS Abraham Lincoln.
Day-Lewis is entrancing in the role, so much so that as the modern day
viewer, you get to be the proverbial fly on the wall.
Another great performance in Lincoln is
Tommy Lee Jones as radical Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens. For me, Jones has a career littered with as
many poor, disinterested performances as great ones. He was at his best in this film. Stevens was a fierce abolitionist who had a
reputation for supporting minorities and the downtrodden his whole career. Historically, he is blamed for the strict
Reconstruction enforced upon the South after the war. The film briefly touches on the difference of
opinion about Reconstruction between Stevens and Lincoln, who favored a much gentler,
forgiving stance than did Stevens and the radicals. Lincoln’s
death took away Stevens’ biggest obstacle in his wish to punish the South. John Wilkes Booth did as big a disservice to
the South as any man in the Post-Civil War era.
Lincoln would have promoted
a forgiving Reconstruction and instead, Stevens got his way and the rest is,
well, history, and led to a century of hatred and misundersting between the two
geographical factions.
A few more names need to be mentioned for their performances
in this picture. James Spader was
delightful as W.N. Bilbo, who was what we might categorize as an early lobbyist
of sorts. Sally Field as the mentally
unstable Mary Todd Lincoln and Lee Pace as Representative Fernando Wood also
stood to me.
Historically, Lincoln was very accurate. Spielberg encompassed as much of the
President’s story as he could within the restraints of only one month’s time of
his presidency. Lincoln
suffered from melancholy, which today we know is depression. This was a life long malady for the
President, made worse by the stress of the job, casualty figures (from both
sides), and the death of his son Willie, which is dealt with in the film. The President also had to constantly deal
with what we call today a high maintenance wife. Mary Todd Lincoln, while probably not
outright insane, was a constant burden during his presidency. There were battles between the First Lady and
Congress, which are subtly alluded to in the film, that didn’t help Lincoln
at times when dealing with his political opponents. Lincoln also suffered from nightmares and
premonitions. He was a darker man than
is widely known by the general public.
He put up a good front with his light, upbeat, unpolished
mannerisms. Lincoln does a
great job of giving us a true sense of his personality.
Ultimately, Abraham Lincoln was a grand manipulator and a
political genius. That is why he is
considered our greatest president. Every
politician in Washington, from
his enemies to his cabinet, all thought they were smarter than Lincoln. The President was a patient man who was
willing to slowly lead people to his way of seeing things. In the case this movie focuses on, the
passing of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the President
does not have time to be patient. Everyone
knows the war is coming to an end and if the amendment isn’t passed before the
war is over, it would never pass. Honest
Abe was willing to bribe and cajole opponents into voting his way. There is a line in the film that was
perfect. To greatly paraphrase, it went
something like this – never has such a just cause been won by such corruption
by such an honest of a man. You get the
picture. Lincoln
did what he had to insure the passing of the most important legislation to our
country’s history since the Bill of Rights.
If Lincoln had not pulled
this rabbit out of his stove top hat, how long would it have been before it
would have passed? No one knows but it
would have probably been decades because the southern states would not have
ratified it if it passed after they returned to the Union.
My favorite scenes are the ones that take place on the floor
of the House of Representatives during the month long congressional debate over
the 13th Amendment. It was a
different time and the debates were much more entertaining back then. The insults were not subtle and were made
face to face, not through the media.
Congressional debates were loud, almost tavern brawling affairs (Senator
Charles Sumner was beaten as his desk in the Senate Chamber by Preston Brooks
for an insult during a debate). The film
does a great job giving us a flavor of the times through these accurately
depicted scenes.
The movie wasn’t perfect.
The story did drag down when it was focused on Lincoln’s
oldest son Robert, who wanted to join the army against his parents’
wishes. While this was a real issue in Lincoln’s
life, the film puttered along during these scenes. Also, I wish Spielberg would have done a
better job informing the audience of some of the historical, satellite
characters. If you don’t have a degree
in History, there is a good chance you don’t know who Preston Blair was or his
role in the government, yet he has a significant role in the film. Lincoln’s
cabinet, maybe the President’s biggest opponents in Washington,
goes largely unidentified in the movie, even though they are in a couple of
major scenes. There are a couple of very
minor inaccuracies in the film but they really have little to do with the
momentous events which take place in the scope of the film and only the history
dorks like myself will have noticed.
I highly recommend this movie. It is an incredibly important part of our
nation’s history and there are lessons to be learned in the current political
arena. The film deals with the
importance of bipartisan cooperation on points of great bearing. Today’s politicians should take notes. The movie is rated PG-13, mainly for a bit of
swearing and two brief, yet gruesome battle related images. Whether you love history, or well acted, well
directed films, this is a must see and will certainly win its fair share of
hardware in the coming months. The film
drew significant applause during the showing I attended at it was well
deserved.
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