I've had Lincoln at home for about a week now. Had to carve out a time slot to really hunker down and get into it. Daniel Day Lewis roles can not just be viewed, they must be ingested. His devotion to roles mesmerizes me. I expected it to be good, but the oral reviews I've heard from people were way off the mark. What I heard was "good, but long" "boring" "it only talked about one thing" "it wasn't really about Lincoln" and "I hated it."
Let me give answers to all these comments I've put in quotations. It is long, but for a movie that is two and half hours, it felt like a speed race. The last movie I watched was an hour and fifty minutes and felt longer. It is far from boring, with a script that is emotional and witty, with scenes that get your heart pumping. It talked about many things, the war, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment, but most importantly the internal and external struggle he faced, balancing his job, his life and his family. It was all about Lincoln and who he really was. Those who hated it, I can only assume one thing, you live in fear. Fear of change, fear that this man's vision changed a nation while almost tearing it apart. Fear that those who disagree with your vision of America as a utopia is false. Either that, or quite simply, you're a racist.
The movie is based on one of, if not the foremost authority on the American Presidency, Doris Kearns Goodwin. If you've never read her and don't like history, may I suggest Wait Til Next Year: A Memoir, where she takes us back to her childhood and her love of baseball and the year her life was torn apart, the year the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. It's beautifully written and sports fans will relate, as will any woman who want to reminisce about the passions they had for things as a child and their desire for their father's love and affection. This combined with a brilliant screenplay, make it feel like a seamless journey through the final four months of our nation's greatest president and quite possibly the most important amendment of our constitution, as it relates to today's world.
Then you add Daniel Day Lewis, who not only looks the part, but shows the pain of conflict that is evident in almost all the photos of him. Lewis is incredible, but the performances by Sally Field, as his wife, is one for the ages. In one scene, during a banquet, she confronts Tommy Lee Jones character and blows the doors off the movie. It's at that point the movie starts steamrolling. It should be noted, it's the only scene where Jones himself doesn't steal the scene. Other standouts are Jason Straitharn, James Spader and Jackie Earl Haley. I tend to get emotionally involved in films, but the last 30-40 minutes is awe inspiring. The scene in the House of Representatives, when they take the vote is absolutely bone chilling, in a good way, but it's followed with quite possibly the most subtle scene in the entire movie and one that brought the tears that had already welled up in my eyes, to full pour. The scene might have been an act of artistic license (although rumored to be true and was featured in D.W.Griffith's Birth of a Nation for opposite reasons), but it was beautiful in every sense of the word. The movie could have ended there and those who felt it went to long, could quite conceivably complain about the final 15-20 minutes, but we needed the story to end, like we all know it did. For some reason, we all need to know what we already know, as it makes the learning process easier.
The movie is written about a time in our nation's past. It tells of a time of disarray, of war and of serious conflicts of interest and ideology. It's a story about a few men, who decided our constitution wasn't perfect and needed to be corrected, as we call it amended. It's the story of those men willing to risk their careers, their reputations and their lives in the pursuit of freedom and equality. It's a story about one of the few times where the minority became the majority and our land, our world, became a better place. It's not about today's world. Today's world is fighting a new hate. A hate Lincoln wouldn't have tolerated. Sadly, there hasn't been another Lincoln since and sadly, I don't know if there ever will be.
Let me give answers to all these comments I've put in quotations. It is long, but for a movie that is two and half hours, it felt like a speed race. The last movie I watched was an hour and fifty minutes and felt longer. It is far from boring, with a script that is emotional and witty, with scenes that get your heart pumping. It talked about many things, the war, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment, but most importantly the internal and external struggle he faced, balancing his job, his life and his family. It was all about Lincoln and who he really was. Those who hated it, I can only assume one thing, you live in fear. Fear of change, fear that this man's vision changed a nation while almost tearing it apart. Fear that those who disagree with your vision of America as a utopia is false. Either that, or quite simply, you're a racist.
The movie is based on one of, if not the foremost authority on the American Presidency, Doris Kearns Goodwin. If you've never read her and don't like history, may I suggest Wait Til Next Year: A Memoir, where she takes us back to her childhood and her love of baseball and the year her life was torn apart, the year the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. It's beautifully written and sports fans will relate, as will any woman who want to reminisce about the passions they had for things as a child and their desire for their father's love and affection. This combined with a brilliant screenplay, make it feel like a seamless journey through the final four months of our nation's greatest president and quite possibly the most important amendment of our constitution, as it relates to today's world.
Then you add Daniel Day Lewis, who not only looks the part, but shows the pain of conflict that is evident in almost all the photos of him. Lewis is incredible, but the performances by Sally Field, as his wife, is one for the ages. In one scene, during a banquet, she confronts Tommy Lee Jones character and blows the doors off the movie. It's at that point the movie starts steamrolling. It should be noted, it's the only scene where Jones himself doesn't steal the scene. Other standouts are Jason Straitharn, James Spader and Jackie Earl Haley. I tend to get emotionally involved in films, but the last 30-40 minutes is awe inspiring. The scene in the House of Representatives, when they take the vote is absolutely bone chilling, in a good way, but it's followed with quite possibly the most subtle scene in the entire movie and one that brought the tears that had already welled up in my eyes, to full pour. The scene might have been an act of artistic license (although rumored to be true and was featured in D.W.Griffith's Birth of a Nation for opposite reasons), but it was beautiful in every sense of the word. The movie could have ended there and those who felt it went to long, could quite conceivably complain about the final 15-20 minutes, but we needed the story to end, like we all know it did. For some reason, we all need to know what we already know, as it makes the learning process easier.
The movie is written about a time in our nation's past. It tells of a time of disarray, of war and of serious conflicts of interest and ideology. It's a story about a few men, who decided our constitution wasn't perfect and needed to be corrected, as we call it amended. It's the story of those men willing to risk their careers, their reputations and their lives in the pursuit of freedom and equality. It's a story about one of the few times where the minority became the majority and our land, our world, became a better place. It's not about today's world. Today's world is fighting a new hate. A hate Lincoln wouldn't have tolerated. Sadly, there hasn't been another Lincoln since and sadly, I don't know if there ever will be.
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