Lincoln Review
3/4 stars
Beautifully Shot and Strong Performances Make this Biography Come to Life
Your fascination about this movie will depend on one factor. That's your love of history. If you hate history, you aren't going to enjoy this movie very much. However, if you love history or at least like it, it's worth seeing. While undeniably a drama, as it is about the civil war and Abraham Lincoln's final months in office, there are times of unexpected humor, while also times of pure joy for when our ancestors finally realize how wrong they have been. Here is a brief synopsis.
The civil war is dragging on for four long years of bloodshed, heartbreak, pain, and misery. This is all on Lincoln's (Daniel Day-Lewis) hands. After his re-election he has been seriously pushing for the 13th amendment to add to the constitution; the amendment to abolish slavery. You have your radical democrats who fiercely oppose the new law based on pure racism, and most republicans who agree with it. On top of everything that's going on, Lincoln's eldest son, Willy, has been killed in the war. He grieves silently, while his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (Sally Field), is in a serious depression. Their next oldest son, Robert (Joesph Gordon-Levitt), comes to stay with them at the white house, and reveals to his father he too wishes to enlist in the war. Lincoln discourages it and tells him how much stress and misery it would put on his mother, yet he enlists anyway. With time running out, Lincoln must realize what's really important, what needs to be changed, and how much longer he will let the bloody war continue.
Normally history doesn't bore me out of my mind. Not that this movie did, but there were a few scenes of him and his cabinet simply talking politics which was a little tedious. My other problem was when justice finally came around; it didn't give it enough majesty and high-spirited zeal it deserved. Besides those little things, just the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis could be enough to go see it. He is spot on as Lincoln, looks and acting-wise. Sally Field among the countless others gave her role everything to deliver an accurate depiction of her character. Ultimately this is movie you should at least see once.