Review of Lincoln (2012) by Bheema D — 24 Aug 2014

I don't think anybody questions that Steven Spielberg is an excellent director. If you do, this movie is a good example of why you are wrong. Between the colors and the lighting and the blocking and the camera work especially, added onto great use of editing and music, from a technical standpoint this film should be praised without exception.

But it is more in the substance less than the style I find fault in the film. For instance: while it's undeniable the makeup is incredible, especially on Lincoln himself, I find the actor playing Lincoln, well, miscast.

Daniel Day Lewis is a solid actor and is putting on a great performance, but as if he's playing a different character. Look I understand before the era of sound amplification presidents with shrill and high voices were the favored as they could project the best.

But the American in an era where sound amplification has existed for quite some time thinks of Lincoln with a deep and, for lack of a better term, more masculine voice. I liked all of the supporting actors though.

The script is half and half. Lots of plot holes and one or two significant bumps in pacing. Why does the flag have fifty states? Tell me if I'm wrong but we didn't have quite that many back then.

All the scenes where Lincoln sympathizes with blacks make no sense. He was racist. Just less racist then most other people at the time. He straight-up said that he didn't believe that they should vote or be representatives, but our movie didn't deliver on the reality of that.

Hell, I'm not fully convinced the Abraham Lincoln of reality was against slavery. He wanted the country back together and slavery was a piece of that bigger puzzle. But if we're talking about the script, we have to address the fact that the dialogue is SO GOOD.

The ability to take such a high vocabulary for every single character and make it work on an emotional level is a testament to great writing.