By PATRICK MULLEN
STAFF WRITER
Lincoln is not the movie most were expecting. It is not a large-scale, fast-paced Spielberg film, but rather a slow, talky, very political film unlike anything the director has ever done. The narrative focuses not on Abraham Lincoln’s life as a whole, but a span of about a month in early 1865 when the 13th Amendment, which would put an end to slavery, was being debated in the House of Representatives.
We see Lincoln as a president torn between ending the war and ending slavery, for he is told he cannot do both. We see the sacrifices and the decisions he faces. Daniel Day-Lewis does a great job as a very fatherly and funny version of the 16th president, nearly a polar opposite to his great performances in There Will Be Blood and Gangs of New York. Day-Lewis proved to me that he can do anything, including significantly changing his voice to fit the historical research that reveals Lincoln to have a high-pitched voice.
Alongside him is an all-star cast that includes Sally Field (Forrest Gump) as his wife; Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Looper) as his son Robert; Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) as Thaddeus Stevens, the leading voice for abolition in the Republican Party; as well as Hal Holbrook (Water for Elephants), James Spader (Shadow of Fear), John Hawkes (Miracle at St. Anna), Jackie Earle Haley (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and the always-reliable David Strathairn ( The Bourne Legacy). The performances are all quite good, with Jones standing out as phenomenal.
Tony Kushner, Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright, wrote the screenplay for the film, based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. While you might argue that Kushner’s very talky script may be better suited for the stage than the screen, it includes some of the wittiest, most memorable and most fun dialogue I have heard in years. This is a surprisingly funny movie, but Kushner and Spielberg never let the humor take away from the emotional impact.
Steven Spielberg, who has directed too many classic films to count, has always excelled at appealing to emotions. Some of the most emotional scenes in this film come cleverly without any dialogue. For example, the President’s subtle interactions with his family, a scene that reveals the lost limbs of the war to Robert Lincoln or how Stevens treats his servant show cinema lovers the motivations of the characters. The film compels the audience to feel their own emotions along with the characters onscreen, leading to a cinema experience like no other.
This is not a perfect movie — I thought Spielberg and Kushner could have done a little more with a few of the characters and ideas — but it is a very good one. It may be Spielberg’s best since Saving Private Ryan, but I would still consider it a solid notch below his absolute classics. It is still a must-see for anyone into history or politics, as its themes are as relevant today as they were in 1865.
