Let me explain how excited I was for this. I'm a huge fan of Steven Speilberg. It was his films that made me a movie fan in the first place and he ranks as one of my favourite filmmakers. And it goes without saying that Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the great actors of this generation. Do I need to give you this guy's resume? If you haven't seen any of his work, then go see it. The man is a genius. Also, I've always been interested in American history, and Abraham Lincoln has always been a hero of mine. I actually found out about this movie's production in 2011 from my American history teacher (By the way, he apparently loves this movie) Did it live up to my expectations? Oh yeah.
What can I say? Speilberg directing Day-Lewis as Lincoln with a script from the screenwriter of Munich. There is no place where this movie could not have been great. The script is tense and powerful, and it gives Day-Lewis plenty of time to develop his character. How good is he? I felt I was watching Abraham Lincoln in his real life. I wasn't watching Daniel Day-Lewis acting. He was Lincoln. This movie doesn't try to put Lincoln on a pedestal and treat him as some god. We see Lincoln the man as much as we see Lincoln the President. There are many times when we see Lincoln interacting with Mary Todd, and some great scenes when he is with his son Robert. We feel Mrs. Lincoln's anger at his threats to put her in a mental institution when she didn't stop crying over the death of their youngest child. We see their marriage warts and all: I'm glad they did that, it gives us a more human view of the whole thing. As much as I'm praising Day-Lewis, I actually think one actor manages to outshine him. Tommy Lee Jones was not a guy I was expecting much from when I heard he was going to be in this movie. He's a great actor, but I expected Day-Lewis and Sally Field to steal the show. Jones plays Thaddeus Stevens, and he's magnificent and an easy pick for Best Supporting Actor. Every moment he's on screen is full of power and intrigue. You just love this guy: I think he's my favourite character and the reveal at the end was very well done. The production values, as you would expect from Speilberg are the very best. The Civil War scenes are minimal yet effective, but the rest of it looks great as a period piece. The makeup on Day-Lewis is great: he does look a lot like Lincoln. I also must say: the death of Lincoln was handled very well. Actually showing him get shot at the theatre would have been way too heavy. We've spent the entire movie getting to know Lincoln as a human being instead of a historical figure. People already mourn Lincoln just for what he did. Seeing him die in this movie would have been traumatizing. Showing his son's reaction to it worked better and was very powerful in his own way.
Is Lincoln one of the best movies of they year? Hell yeah. There was a ton of effort put into this to make a great film and a great tribute to Abraham Lincoln. Even if you're not a fan of history, see it. I realize this is not a great movie for young people (I was the youngest person in the theatre by like 20 years) but I would still recommend it to anyone. It's a great movie purely for the characters in it. Check it out.
