Review of Lincoln (2012) by Joe H — 31 Aug 2014

I honestly expected more coming from Spielberg. What might have been a thoughtful and penetrative character driven drama, epic in scope and intimate in emotional detail, is instead a generic political biopic that seems more interested in 21st century historical perceptions and less on the man behind the legend.

Borderline revisionist, the film also comes off as not a little patronizing, vilifying the entirety of the South while suggesting (incorrectly so) that slavery was the primary rationale driving the Civil War.

What the film does do is portray Lincoln's ends-justify-the-means mentality and dismisses it with shrugs as if to say, "it all worked out in the end." This is not the biopic we deserve, and certainly not the one we need.

Not even Daniel Day-Lewis himself (who is stupendous) can lift this film from the trappings of cinematic historical cliches.