Directed by:
Steven SpielbergScreenplay:
Tony KushnerCinematography:
Janusz KaminskiComposer:
John WilliamsCast:
Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill, Joseph Cross (more)VOD (3)
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A revealing drama that focuses on the 16th President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come. (20th Century Fox UK)
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I have to admit that while this is indeed one of the most talked about films I've ever seen, I wouldn't have expected much else from Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis made the most of himself, the props to evoke the atmosphere of the time were definitely not spared and despite the lukewarm course, you could see a proper climax in the end. Of course, if you have at least a passing knowledge of American history, the experience is immediately a bit more rewarding. Spielberg simply chose an unrewarding subject for a film treatment that is only able to fully score with Americans. Had he taken a less expensive and patriotic route, like the John Adams series, he might have succeeded far more.
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Not enough of Janusz Kamiński’s impressive exterior shots (two, to be exact: Joseph Gordon-Levitt watching body parts being covered with soil and the pair sitting on the porch). Too few emotional scenes in which John Williams could show off. Too few
relationship storylines that would increase interest in the characters and their fates. Too little of anything that would
intrigue viewers who are not interested in these particular historical events. Elegantly filmed and well-played interior
history tedium. Daniel Day-Lewis is excellent as always.
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Griffith, Ford, Spielberg. Lincoln. Three great American directors and their respective versions of the Lincoln myth. Though Spielberg takes an honest and respectful approach to Lincoln’s personality, creating a cult and idealising a democratic idea is not as important to him as drawing the viewer into the narrative. Above all, this is a riveting political drama, with Abraham Lincoln as the protagonist. It is fascinating to watch how smoothly one of Spielberg’s least action-oriented and least epic films moves forward, how the individual scenes are knitted together, how the director works with the deadline (to get 20 votes by the end of January), how the personal storyline serves the work storyline. The film does not primarily set out to depict Lincoln as a messianic figure demonstrating helpfulness toward all human beings without distinction, and such deification, if it happens, never overshadows the central goal of pushing through the Thirteenth Amendment before the end of the Civil War. We may even have doubts about the “purity” of Lincoln’s relentless pursuit of justice in the face of the law – we are not led to adopt a clear position as actively as in Spielberg’s other socio-political films, e.g. through impassioned music. Furthermore, the narrative is slowed the most by Lincoln’s “Christ-like” tendency to sit down in front of a group of listeners and start telling them a story. Does this really prove to us that Lincoln is the father of the American nation, who could take the liberty of making jokes about George Washington, or have we entered the realm of political satire about an elderly gentleman who liked to talk at times when it was necessary to act? The father interpretation would clearly be more appropriate also for the repeated adoption of the younger son’s childish perspective (including a very clever narrative feint in the climax), but to me it particularly involved the highlighting of the lack of didacticism in Spielberg’s approach. With the flawlessly cast actors and very impressive images (the meaning-making lighting and placement of the characters, frontal shooting, when there is a reason for every movement), With Lincoln, Spielberg primarily constructed an intelligent drama that ceaselessly keeps us on our toes and requires constant linking of contexts. And only then did he create a myth. 90%
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So what, guys, shall we abolish slavery? Yay or Nay? Lincoln watches broodingly. The lawmakers negotiate. Lincoln speaks broodingly. The lawmakers debate. Lincoln remains broodingly silent. The lawmakers argue. Lincoln dictates a letter, broodingly. The lawmakers vote. Lincoln broodingly leaves the room. The lawmakers celebrate. Lincoln dies, this time without a sign of broodiness. I’ll say this, for the target audience of historical conversational biopics (the film shows a battlefield only once, and right at the beginning), this film about the famous American president and the process of approval of the 13th constitutional amendment will probably be perfect. Spielberg is a master of his craft, Daniel Day-Lewis is a master of his art, and both of them show it. But honestly, who among us (with the exception perhaps of art scholars) can be interested in this? In short, a likely bland Oscar winner that I will not like. But I have to give it to it that it never pissed me off the way Spielberg’s previous film did. PS: And I looked forward all the time at least to the assassination… but nothing. PS2: Steven, please, do Robocalypse next.
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People will expect from this movie whatever they will. It was made by Spielberg, so in this respect there is nothing wrong with it, more or less. Daniel Day-Lewis in turn trained god knows how many years for this character. Everybody keeps saying that he articulates like Abraham, but nobody has really seen him alive. But yeah, I get it. But I’d say that such a movie only makes sense for the USA. Over here, it’s average at best and it’s impossible to have any deep emotions about it. Quite the contrary. I only watched it because of Spielberg and it was a waste of time.
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In some ways, Lincoln uncomfortably reminded me of last year's sensational The Help. Probably due to the film’s ostentatious clinging to the fact that black and white, truth and falsehood have no shades. Spielberg made a film that reminded me of Eliad's concept of an absolute epic time. It is not a historical drama. It's a myth. A myth in which politicians disintegrate into enlightened progressivists, hysterical obscurantists and spineless "hesitators". A myth in which we do not ask what motivates the main character to such a determined attitude, what drives him forward, because the main character himself is the absolute truth (although it suggests a certain internal ruggedness in the film, the film never lets it prevail and disrupt the state aura). Lincoln could not have wished for a better form than Daniel Day Lewis imprinted on him - slow, deliberate, genial, infinitely kind, yet convinced and convincing to the bone. Spielberg treats the character with striking iconicity - the way he places him in the shots, the way he uses the meaning-creating light, only confirms to us that Lincoln the mortal is not in front of us, but rather Lincoln the icon. When the president dies, Steven draws a baroque shot in which life is darkness and death is light ("He has gone to Eternity"). The Hagiography of the Saint, including the structure of the narrative - an exposition revealing the world in imbalance / enlightenment through dream / rectification / martyrdom (something that has worked well since the Middle Ages, through messianism, to this day). I'm not making fun of it, I’m not questioning it. I've seen other deified lumens with a far greater degree of dilettantism, and it does not bother me in Lincoln. But it also doesn't affect me in any way. This is a film-ritual for believers, whether "Lincoln" or "Spielberg" lovers, who will compete in praising how narratively and formally brilliant it is (and it indeed is). I do not deny the film the visual captivation of classical art, nor the narrative prowess with which Spielberg brings humor to the leather framework of parliamentary debates and skillfully alternates spatial-temporal plans. But the film is cold, simplistic in some respects, avoiding real problems... I have to smile a little: when Lincoln bribes the Democrats to help him out, we can agree that he's doing the right thing (because he represents the truth, "it's a long time ago", and moreover it's filmed as a comedy). But when the protagonist of The Ides of March does the same thing, it's disgusting pragmatism, dirt, disgusting politics, and American critics are writing about a film that today's America doesn't need. Today's America certainly needs Lincoln and a solid granite myth. As a spectator, I don't need to see anything like this, even if it has a more self-virtuoso form. It is, in my view, self-affirming ideological boredom that defends any doubts by eradicating them with the schemes seen a hundred times, to which the elite actors' faces and the proven structure of the narrative give the impression of uniqueness. But such a film is not able to offer me anything important for life, just a yawning abyss of distance from the perfectly coherent and closed world of myth. With all due respect, Mr. Spielberg.
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Big words, lofty speeches, and in a way, just one big Abraham Lincoln bon mot. Steven Spielberg adored this part of American history so much that he simply made a passage from a history textbook. The brief family passages reveal sparse fragments about the main character while the movie strives purely for annotation, peace, and political negotiation. No emotions, no enthusiasm. Just with perfectly crafted production and zero added value. And we all knew even before the first applause that Daniel Day-Lewis wouldn't just play Abraham, but he would completely become him. The disappointment is even greater now, since Steven has obviously filmed a(nother) magnum opus of his dreams and yet managed to entertain me only with some unbridled Tommy Lee Jones and, as expected, the scene of the actual voting itself. After seeing this, the slightly problematic War Horse now looks like a perfect period piece.
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I had to force myself a little to look at Lincoln at all and I must say that it was worth watching. A myriad of great actors who have something to say... And Spielberg doesn’t make thoroughly bad movies at all and, although long-winded and boring, he makes the process of pushing through the 13th Amendment interesting. Abe (Daniel Day-Lewis is great and the Oscar nomination is more than justified) uses delay, corruption and twisting the truth to get his way. His kind and wonderfully pointed stories make him look like a nice guy, but because of this, the people have to suffer an extra month of war. A stellar moment in history they say... there’s nothing stellar about trying to get your own way and to succeed by scheming and half-truths. I should point out that during the final vote I had my fingers crossed that it would be passed and found myself with a wider and wider smile at each “Yay". Spielberg was successful in not presenting this period in history as being something ultra significant in creating history. He takes it raw, without emotion. And if it works, fine. And if not, at least they tried. Well it is a bit of a disadvantage that we know how it turns out. So it’s hard for the viewer to be fully satisfied. Excursions away from interiors (there are only a couple) where we see the war and what it involved (severed limbs in the wheelbarrow) take up just a couple of minutes of this lengthy movie. This is precisely the style (apart from the fact that the arguments have a head and tail to them) used when the Czech parliament sits (apart from the fact that in the movie someone is really sitting there and nobody is reading the newspaper or sleeping, in fact they actually speak and express their opinion) and I just can’t watch that for more than a few seconds. At least that Williams did the music, otherwise nothing special.
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You are watching this historical borefest and keep thinking to yourself "where the hell did Spielberg's dynamism and fierceness in individual shots go, where’s the drive?". Lincoln is beautifully shot, solidly narrated with strong historical foundations, and Daniel Day-Lewis is once again captivating. However, films like this should be at least a little bit accessible to the audience, in other words, they must not be boring and tedious. Unfortunately, this was not the case here even in the slightest.
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I love how different every Steven Spielberg film has been in recent years. How each time he tries a slightly different approach, a different genre, and works with different actors to get it right every time. Like now. For the record, I consider Amistad to be one of Spielberg's best films ever, which made me all the more eager to see how he would deal with slavery this time around. Almost as good (i.e., Amistad is better after all). To make a two and a half hour long film in which there is only talking and dozens of historical characters pass through obviously bothers some people. I don't understand why. A lot of so-called reviewers grumble that the film is a messy, chatty stew that was made just to win an Oscar(s). And most importantly, "there are no battles - even in War Horse there were more". Oh, my God, people! Lincoln is great precisely because there are no battles. We know that the Civil War is raging, we can imagine what a tragedy it is thanks to the opening scene, but why should we continue to watch it? Isn't it enough to watch what it does to people? I think absolutely. The relentless pursuit of the 13th Amendment is a hundred times more thrilling than scenes of a battlefield where cannons tear people apart. And that effort is well described - as is President Lincoln. A sensible and stubbornly opinionated man who has his quirks, his ailments, but also a sense of humor, a perpetual storyteller and (the nicest surprise for me) a thoroughly skilled schemer. The characters, of which there are definitely not as many as many people claim, can be beautifully understood thanks to their performances, the individual stories into which the whole plot is divided are excellent and especially well ended (the last scene of Tommy Lee Jones!). There's not much to say about the actors, Steven Spielberg doesn't pick bad ones... I just wonder why Liam Neeson turned down the role when he's certainly not too old to be the Lincoln we see here. But Daniel Day-Lewis is... Wow! Amazing! So now it's just classic praise for Kaminski's stunning cinematography, which once again plays with light and shadow and looks great in the movie theatre, and of course Williams' music (it doesn't stand out in the film as much as it does on the separate soundtrack, but it's still divine). Five pure stars.
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Academy borefest??!! Enslave me, but whoever said this just doesn't have much of a clue as to how far the genius of cinematic storytelling can stretch. Lincoln is a 150-minute long, mostly conversational treasure that, despite the knowledge of the historical outcome, literally engulfs the viewer without a single flinch or flicker of creative indiscretion. A story where there isn't a single scene or line that doesn't fundamentally shift the titular political line or unsentimentally deepen the personal and familial line, which is then logically reflected in the decisions and development of the former. I can't wait to watch it again (and again), to savour more attentively the balanced rhythm with which the lines alternate, overlap and complement each other, the witty interweaving of successive events or the ingenious transitions between scenes, which without exception fit together compositionally and continuously like a full stop at the end of a sentence. Not to mention the brilliant games with lighting and camera positions, the emotions that can only be evoked by the clever handling of editing and narrative direction, and finally the performances of absolutely everyone who appears in front of the camera. Lincoln convinced me of two things: that Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest figures of the 19th century (even allowing for the undeniable glorification of the film, of course) and that Steven Spielberg is the greatest Hollywood director of all time.
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I think there's little appreciation of how easily this could have been an excruciatingly schoolboyish ode to how America's greatest man confronted America's greatest problem, but instead it's an intimate yet systematic drama about the processes and behind-the-scenes of American politics that can easily be applied to the present day. About the processes that make it virtually impossible to always play fair within the framework of purpose, force reliance on weak and sporadic characters, and eradicate the last vestiges of idealism in people. All of this can be felt in the character of the permanently exhausted, sickly, and despite his nature, reluctantly scheming Lincoln, who floats through the film with his three-meter arms like a vampire, planting unrelated stories around him in a sleepy voice and the unbearable political dilemma of the possibility of ending the war early at the expense of the 13th Amendment visibly eating him up from the inside. As the film's surprising climax, it is not the passage of said amendment, but the utterly silent scene where he announces to the Confederate state representatives in a low, calm voice as they negotiate the terms of surrender, "Slavery, sir... It's done". The first decisive, firm, and unqualifiedly intelligible sentence he can finally utter. In the end, I’m raising it to 5 stars because, despite the tame opening and a percentile more sentiment than is necessary, Lincoln is actually both a political maze and a physical drama, with the protagonist's wasting away is contagious and robs the film of the shield of mere historical reconstruction.
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It probably doesn't make much sense to talk about who Abraham Lincoln was. Regardless of his intentions and methods, he was one of the greatest American presidents. He did so much for the country and possibly even for the whole world that it would be hard for anyone else to match. The abolition of slavery was a step towards the America we have today, where a person of color can be president. I don't know what would have happened if the people in the film who lived in Lincoln's time and opposed the 13th amendment had seen Barack Obama in office. But this is progress. It's not worth arguing too much about what kind of person Lincoln was, because he did many things that will never be forgotten. We know this, and we're not Americans. However, Steven Spielberg decided to educate the whole world, show them the political environment of that time, which is not so different from today. In addition, he will also show the person of a significant individual in his various variations. But above all, he will make such a patriotic film that even a non-American would feel like taking the stars and stripes flag and setting it on fire. No, I'm not saying this because I'm against America, quite the opposite. Most of the movies I watch are from America and I appreciate them, no matter what they are. But Spielberg simply didn't realize that he's making nothing more than American self-indulgence in their own history. Moreover, the history can be quite boring in some places. The film Lincoln has two aces up its sleeve. Neither one of them is the director. The first one is the fact that the film is based on historical events and presents them somewhat impartially. Both racist and non-racist views are presented. Of course, the non-racist view prevails, that's what history calls for. The second ace up the sleeve is the casting. Most of the actors perform well, but they blend in. There is one man who carries the film on his shoulders and without whom Spielberg could skate by. If he chose him himself, kudos to him. Of course, I'm talking about Daniel Day-Lewis and his portrayal of Lincoln. He was the only reason I decided to see the movie. It was clear from the trailer that it would be something truly unique. I personally hope that Daniel will win an Oscar, because no actor has ever disappeared so completely and skillfully portrayed a role. He was the 16th President of the United States in every sense. Daniel never slipped out of character. These are simply roles that you can't forget. When I watched "The Dark Knight," I wasn't watching Heath Ledger, I was watching the Joker. When I watched the film "Capote," Philip Seymour Hoffman didn't appear before me, it was truly Truman Capote. The same goes for the movie "Lincoln." It's a film that fills Americans with pride for their own history, so patriotic that I'm surprised it wasn't just red-white-and-blue. But for everyone else, it will primarily be one of Daniel Day-Lewis's best performances. And that's saying a lot, because this actor has had so many great roles. That's also why we see so little of him, because his preparation must be incredible, as well as his role selection. I thank him for his incredible performance, he is the reason why I give the film a higher rating, because it would be a shame if it were otherwise. However, Spielberg has only shown that in old age, he is only mature for pathos and strong patriotic inclinations. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2013/01/divosi-10-years-divoka-stvoreni-lets.html
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I'm not saying it's a bad movie, but I had to force myself through it, twice. From a craftsmanship perspective, it's a masterfully executed work, and Spielberg deserves credit for that. However, I can't shake off the feeling of a certain mystification of the character of Abraham Lincoln, and that bothers me quite a bit. On the other hand, casting Daniel Day-Lewis in the lead role was certainly a good choice, even if he's almost unrecognizable under the mask. There are certainly more pros and cons that I could mention, but there's no need to elaborate further, others have already done that. Simply put, Lincoln is a very contradictory film, which must be reflected in my rating. (55%)
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