Bringing Mr. Lincoln back to life!

It is a rare, rare thing when a film actually does justice to the personality that it is supposed to reveal. All too often, biographical films are just that, stilted retellings of lives that we, all too often, already know the beginnings and ending about. With Steven Spielberg’s latest offering--Lincoln-we are not given a biographical account. From the very start of this film, where two colored union soldiers recite back to the literally sitting president his Gettysburg Address from memory after they inform Lincoln of the differences--discriminations--between colored soldiers pay and rank from their white counterparts, we see something quite different and quite rare. We see the life and times of Lincoln and his world for one month--January, 1865, as Lincoln and his men strive to get the thirteenth amendment to the constitution through a very reluctant lame duck congress still populated by too many democrats.

For those who do not know their history or their constitution, the thirteenth amendment to the constitution abolished slavery. It is different from Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in that this document only freed slaves in the seceded states who were at war with the union, while the thirteenth amendment freed all slaves everywhere in the United States for all time.

It was important to try to get the thirteenth amendment through congress before it adjourned at the end of January, 1865, because the fighting season was soon to begin once again and so many war weary northerners were eager for any kind of peace. The feeling was that if this amendment was passed, that the south would give up the cause and return to the union in an attempt to try to defeat it before it received the appropriate two thirds majority among the states. The amendment had already passed the senate so all of the political action centered around efforts to get it passed by the House of Representatives. The election of 1864 had sent sixty five democrats down to defeat, so, the republican party would have the super majority that they needed to pass the amendment when the new congress was to meet later in the fall of 1865.

But, still, there was this costly war in treasure and in lives going on and Lincoln would like to get it over as soon as possible. He and the nation had struggled across four previous springs as the carnage continued on and on and its cumulative affect had not been lost on any of them. By the beginning of 1865, the south was just hanging on and there was no question that the war would sooner of later be won. But, at what needless additional cost! Towards the end of the film, Lincoln meets with General Grant. Grant looks at him and says that Lincoln has aged so much in the last year. Lincoln looks back at him and says that he can feel the war and its costs in his bones. It is perhaps why he pardoned so many union soldiers destined for the firing squad.

If you are a political junkie, this film is for you. If you are a Lincoln fan, this film is for you. If you know very little about Abraham Lincoln, this film is especially for you. What Steven Spielberg has done with this film is to bring back to us a Lincoln that has not been seen since April fourteenth, 1865! There have been some films done about Lincoln in the past but they do not begin to compare with what Daniel Day Lewis has done with Lincoln in this film. Day brings to us a man who is very complex, very funny and very aware of who he is and the place that he already holds in our history. Daniel Day Lewis’s Lincoln is a man in full command of the presidency and we are shown this time and again throughout this film. But, he also shows us the so very warm and human side of a figure that has, like so many others, retreated into the mists of history and been shoved behind things like the stony image on Mount Rushmore or the imposing image that sits amid the eerie quiet in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.. There is nothing quiet or imposing about this Lincoln. He is a very approachable and very earthy figure in this film.

Abraham Lincoln was a very warm, loving and caring man! And, he was so very humorous as well. The one story among several that we see Lincoln tell features the revolutionary war hero Ethan Allen in London after the close of the war using the water closet (toilet) of a British nobleman when he notices a picture of George Washington there before him as he does his deed. What the nobleman says to him when he returns from the john and what Allen says back to him will live in the annals of film as long as films are shown! In some ways, this film is truly hilarious! When Lincoln’s men realize that they have to deal with--God forbid--Democrats, they find some very earthy men to deal in this “unseemly work� because Lincoln nor his cabinet could not be caught dead doing this sort of thing. They need twenty democrat votes to get this important thing passed and the task before them is formidable because most of the democrats want nothing to do with this at all. What they go through, and some of the methods employed will give anyone who has ever been curious about the sausage making of legislation a view into these processes that will remain with them for a lifetime. To look at the thirteenth amendment now standing there as imposing as it is one would never think that people did some of the things that they did to have it arrive where it stands today. And one could not believe that people said some of the things that they uttered to one another in the nineteen century political scene. If we think that we are bad today with some of our rhetoric, wait until you get a load of what goes on, on the floor of 1865’s House of Representatives!

Every actor who appears in this film might one day think that they gave the performance of a lifetime, because they did. No speaking part was too small and every one who had one seemed to realize the importance of the effort that they were participating in! The casting of this film is simply superb from top to bottom and each character had an important part to play in its final outcome. Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as radical Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens stand out. It is perhaps a mark of the subtlety and historical accuracy of this film thee way the friendship between Lincoln and his secretary of state William Seward is portrayed. David Strathairn does a superb job in the role of Seward!

It will be interesting to note which film will get knocked off of the American Film Institutes list of the top one hundred films of all time to make way for Spielberg’s Lincoln, because this movie is that good! When they give out the Oscars early next year, this film may take its place as one of the most honored films of all time. And this film, along with Schindler’s List, is certain to stand atop those made in the long and illustrious career of Steven Spielberg!

Go see this film and meet history with all of its warts head on! You will never forget it and you will have an experience of a lifetime! We judge films by the number of times that we look at our watch while they are being shown. We never looked at our watch once during our viewing of this two and one half hour masterpiece and we left, at the end, sad to see it end and wanting more! It is one of the finest cinematic efforts that we have ever seen brought to the screen! And, it is surely the best portrayal of Lincoln the man ever done!

IOVHO,

Regards,

Joe

To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.