In talking about this movie I’m setting aside politics and historical accuracies and just focusing on Lincoln as a movie nothing more.
First and foremost, make no mistake this is Daniel Day-Lewis’ movie. He owns every part of this movie so much so that even Spielberg got out of the way and let Day-Lewis do his thing. And let me tell you, he does his craft amazingly well, watching him act is reason enough to see this movie. I personally thought he was going to be the only reason to see this movie but he’s not, not by a long shot. Considering this movie is 2 ½ hours long and directed by Spielberg I was expecting it to be extremely high on sentiment with lots of periods of fluff thrown in for no other reason than who directed it but it wasn’t. Spielberg got out of the way and actually directed one of his best films since Schindler’s List.
This movie is how you do a biography: it takes a certain point in the historical figures life and presents that instead of showing everyone the historical figures' whole life from childhood to death with absolutely no focus. This movie has focus, considerable focus, especially for a Spielberg film. The important focal point is the implementation of the 13th amendment that essentially abolishes slavery and frees every black person held in captivity at that time. Everything in this movie revolves around the 13th amendment, like I said it’s a great focal point and drives the movie forward. There is plenty of debating about this amendment, nothing to me reeked of over-the-top-ness but instead seemed like real honest debates they would have had back then when discussing an amendment that would have repercussions to all of America.
Day-Lewis is simply amazing throughout the movie as every scene he is in continues to show why he is one of the best actors ever to act, in my personal opinion, I think he’s the best actor ever. But I think the only thing keeping him from truly being the best actor ever is that they don’t make films today like they used to back in the day so his filmography will never match that of Jack Nicolson, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Katherine Hepburn, or Robert de Niro. There is just no way that can happen. Other than that though he is simply a joy to behold as he weaves his way through scenes with a simplicity and casualness that makes you wonder if he traveled back in time to learn how people of that time period did things. His elegant-ness is that fluid and seamless. A big round of applause must also go to the make-up artist who helped transform Day-Lewis into Lincoln because whoever did it did an eerily exact replication of the pictures I’ve seen of Lincoln. You add Day-Lewis and the make-up artist together and it appears for all intents and purposes that Lincoln is alive and well breathing among us now, there combination is that perfect. Another thing I liked about Day-Lewis’ acting is he’s never over-the-top and only yells when the situation calls for it but other than that his acting is really subdued even when he’s sitting or just looking he embodies Lincoln so well that you can almost see what’s going on inside his head as the character not the actor. But when the scene calls for him to get animated, he delivers with a passion and vigor that ignites the whole scene.
The screenplay does a great job of mixing all the political proceeding with some nice home life touches of Lincoln to present him as president and family man. The balance for these is done well as it helps to flesh Lincoln out as a character. The only time Spielberg chooses to introduce himself into the movie is near the end where he lets sentimentality get in the way of the story (what is it with Spielberg and endings anyway?). He had perfect chance to end the movie with Lincoln walking off into a shadowed hallway, which would have been perfect ending. All in all though it was a really good movie that had some good pacing considering it was drama and 2 ½ hours long it wasn’t a bad way to spend the night.
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