Lincoln Movie Review

When I was on vacation last week over Thanksgiving.  I ended up going on a Disney cruise so I had unlimited access to different movies that Disney has under their different companies which included the Steven Spielburg directed, Lincoln. I saw it twice.  It was absolutely phenomenal.  From the opening battle scene of the movie, you already have the sense of how historically accurate the movie is going to be just by the way they showed the battle scene.  It was ugly, it was brute, it was dark, and it was realistic.  It accurately reflected how most civil war battles actually ended up after the initial gun fire volleys.  Then, it cuts to a scene of two black men having a conversation with someone.  We do not see who that person is at first but, finally his face is reveled and it is Abraham Lincoln, played by Daniel Day-Lewis.  Day-Lewis' acting in one word was phenomenal.  At times, you forget you're watching a high budget movie and instead find yourself immersed in America's past.  You also meet many other characters from the countries past such as Preston Blair, Alexander Stevens, Ulysees S. Grant, and my favorite performance and home town hero for myself, Thaddeus Stevens played by an incredible and inspiring Tommy Lee Jones.  I can go on and on about that acting but you honestly need to see it for yourselves to experience some of the best acting I think I've honestly ever seen.  I personally loved the cinematography in the movie, even though I know some people wanted much more from it.  Personally, I felt it complimented the story and honestly, I don't think they wanted to take away one bit from the absolutely perfect acting.  Another thing that was great was the scenery, the props, the make up, and especially the costumes.  Clearly it was a period piece and they did it in such a way that it was natural and didn't feel like a period piece even though it was exactly as they did wear at the time.  Another thing that was incredible in this movie was the writing.  There were so many memorable lines which is one reason that I say this, but the other, is much more important.  The movie is long, extremely long, and also a period piece and historically correct at that.  Yet, with all of these constrictions, the writing managed to captivate the entire theater of all ages and even myself, who can find myself dosing off in many of movies especially period pieces.  You can obviously tell how I feel about this movie and I feel that I am understating how good this movie actually is.  You have to see it, absolutely.  It is a movie that will be used to teach the civil war, president lincoln, and civil rights in college classrooms and high school classrooms for the century to come, it is just that good, and historically accurate as well.  I think it deserves to win every category at the Academy Awards because it is the full package.  Now, stop reading this and go out and see it.

The Longest Two and a Half Hours of My Life.

Okay. Maybe not the longest. But it was pretty close. I saw Amber's post on Lincoln and thought I would respond with what I thought of the movie. Over the semester there's been a lot of things that Amber has posted and talked about in class that I completely agree with, and we seem to share a lot of the same tastes in some things. I think it's safe to say this movie was not one of them.

When I went to this movie I went in with high expectations. I went with a pretty large group of people on Thanksgiving night, and my group came out split in half. Half were on Amber's side, and the other half found it mildly painful.

I have to admit, the story was solid and the actors did a good job. Daniel Day-Lewis was a fantastic Lewis. While I'm getting somewhat tired of seeing Sally Field as the same crying mother over and over again, I'll even give an a-okay to her performance. My problem with the movie stemmed from other aspects of the film.

In class, we spent a lot of time talking about how camera movement should help tell the story. You want reasons for everything that's in frame and every movement you make. However, during the long stretches of dialogue the camera would slowly pan and move up and down the table. I found this movement more distracting than anything else. Not only that, but it made the five+ minute stretches of dialogue feel even longer. I felt that if you are confident in your dialogue you shouldn't need to lean on painfully slow pans to add some interest to the piece.

Another aspect that I found distracting throughout the whole thing, which kept me from paying attention to the story, was the continuity...or lack thereof. Throughout the entire film, the piece is battling with constant smoke filling every room. Between cigars, furnaces, lamp, etc...the stuff is everywhere. However, there were a few different part in the film where the smoke would completely disappear in an instant. In one shot a character is faced head on and he takes a puff of the cigar, and a giant plume comes out. The next shot, where less than a second has past, looks at his back towards Lincoln across the room...no smoke to be found. In another scene a we find Lincoln's son outside by a flag that's blowing in the breeze. The next shot, also where less than a second has past, we see the same flag this time looking out of a window, and it's completely still. While these things don't seem that significant in the long-run, when you have a movie that is very dialogue heavy with very long scenes, little things like that can be very distracting. My brother's girlfriend who's never taken a film class in her life also mentioned these things, so I know I can't be the only one.

I would still recommend seeing this movie. I didn't absolutely despise it, and David Strathairn's role as Seward is enough to keep the movie afloat. I do think it did a good job at giving a bit of insight to a president that many people think is one of the best presidents to have ever led America, without really knowing much about him. I just think there were some...or many things that could have been better.

A Piece of History in Two and a Half Hours

Last Saturday, my brother called and asked if my parents, my other brother, and I wanted to go see the recently released movie entitled Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg. The rest of my family seemed very excited to go see it, and I never turn down the opportunity to go see a movie, especially one directed by such an accomplished and talented director. Besides that, I love history so I was already intrigued. So, following our usual routine we show up to the movie theater five minutes before the 6:40pm showing... and almost crash into a tall man in a heavy winter coat. The line to the ticket booth was incredibly long. As we slowly approached the counter, I realized that more and more people were buying tickets for Lincoln. Long story short, we ended up changing our tickets to the 10pm showing in order to spare our necks from the pain of having to stare up at a huge screen for about 2 and a half hours.

The theater was absolutely packed. I could only stand there in wonder. This movie has really gotten people excited, and after watching it myself I can see why. From the intricacies of Congress to his personal life, this portrayal of Lincoln and the brief span that is covered in the film was filled with rich detail. It was hard to catch it all in just one viewing. I was so impressed with the sets as well as the truly amazing talent of Daniel Day-Lewis who played Abraham Lincoln. Not to discount the rest of the cast and crew who, with all of their skill and hard work, truly made the story come alive. It was just his performance was done in such a way that captured what I would consider the essence of Lincoln. From the funny stories to the distraught husband and father, he really encompassed a complete character, right down to the walk. The cinematography was truly a work of art as well. The cuts and the camera movements themselves drew you into what was happening on the screen.

The effect of the movie was probably the best part though. I was waiting by the exit for my dad, when I overheard one woman who said she was going to go home and look up some more information on Lincoln and his family. All I could think was that this was part of the reason I wanted to go into this industry. The ability to create such a spark in people so that they leave the theater still thinking, still wondering, and better yet, actually act on that curiosity and learn something they may have never thought of before. Even my U.S. history teacher in high school, agreed that it was a great film and was pretty accurate historically (and mind you, this is no easy feat).

Needless to say, I enjoyed this film very much, and whether or not you are a history lover like myself, you should definitely go experience this wonderfully produced story. It may seem like an old one that we hear about all the time in history class, but to see it in such detail and with such strength, you may be surprised that you learned something new. I certainly was. Here is the trailer:
~Amber Capogrossi