Movie Talk

Title: Lincoln

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Screenplay by: Tony Kushner

Runtime: 147 mins

Rated PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, David Strathairn, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Haley, Bruce McGill, Tim Blake Nelson, Joseph Cross, Jared Harris, and Lee Pace, Peter McRobbie

(Full cast and crew at IMDb.com)

In 1865 the Civil War has been going on for four years, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln ( Daniel Day-Lewis) goes into a political battle to pass the 13th amendment that will banished slavery forever in the United States. Peace is getting closer and the amendment has to be passed before the war is over or the returning southern states will stop it from becoming a law. Lincoln is faced with a challenge end the war early so that the deaths will stop and they can start rebuilding or wait until the amendment is passed so that slavery can stop.

Lincoln is another reason why Spielberg is still one of the best directors today. If you’re looking for a movie that is filled with action scenes then this is not a movie you will enjoy, Lincoln only has one battle scene which is at the beginning of the movie and it’s extremely brief. Lincoln is filled with a lot of talking scenes but it’s still entertaining.

Daniel-Day Lewis as Lincoln is powerful and was like seeing a ghost, his performance its literally the closet thing we will ever get to the real Abraham Lincoln. He did a great job of showing Lincoln’s fatigue from both the war and his age; he also did a fantastic job of showing how great of a public speaker he was. Daniel-Day Lewis should win a Oscar for his performance, it’s probably one of his best performances ever. Lewis wasn’t the only actor who gave an award winning performance Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens is humorous at times but he also gives some of the best monologues in the movie. Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln wasn’t as impressive or powerful as Lewis and Jones was but it’s still an award winning performance. The rest of the cast gave really great performances as well, there wasn’t as single weak actor/actress.

As I said before Lincoln contains a lot of long dialogue driven scenes and very powerful monologues, it’s not for people who need a lot of action for a movie to be entertaining. There was not a single scene in this movie where I was bored or wanted it to be over, I was actually disappointed when a scene would end. My only complaint with Lincoln is that I wish it would have been longer, Lincoln is 2hrs and 30 mins the average length for a Spielberg movie but with how great the cast was and the story I really never wanted it to end.

I have read reviews where people are complain about the accuracy on the history, I am not going to write if the history is correct or incorrect because we never will know everything that happened during the Civil War and how Lincoln got rid of slavery. To me Lincoln does a better job of telling about the history during Lincoln’s time than most history books. Steven Spielberg spent about twelve years researching about Lincoln for this movie and it showed through the movie that Spielberg was trying to be as accurate as possible.

Lincoln is a movie that I will definitely buy when it comes out on DVD; it’s a movie that I recommend to anyone who loves history and movies. Even if you’re not a fan of history I would still give it a watch it may get you interested in history. Spielberg did an amazing job of showing Lincoln’s last few months of his life and the challenges he faced. Finally some people may complain that they don’t show Lincoln’s assassination but we all know that he was assassinated and by whom, so there wasn’t any need to show it. There was a great scene at the end that I feel would have made a better ending, the scene shows Lincoln walking down the hallway out of the White house going to Ford Theater. Rating: 5/5 A+
(This is a review from my blog)