Lincoln (2012)

[Edgy MD]

The greatest superhero of all time comes to the big screen. (Superpowers: wrasslin', railsplitting, and incredible world-on-his-shoulders gravitas.) Steven Spielberg directs. Daniel Day-Lewis stars. President Obama basks in reflected glow.

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[Vic Sage]

i'm looking forward to it. Day-Lewis is probably the best actor alive right now. If anybody could pull off Lincoln as both flawed human and superhuman myth, it's him. and that Spielberg kid is pretty good too, i hear. And then there's that Kushner writer feller; he don't have no flies on him neither. and if honest Abe wrassles a railsplitter with the world up on his shoulders, so much the better.

[Ceetar]

Is this a sequel or prequel to the Vampire Hunter one?

[Vic Sage]

parallel universe "Earth 2" story. c'mon man, keep up.

[Edgy MD]

How much can they cover about one of the most covered figures? The backcountry formative years? The young lawyer? The gay innuendo? The Lincoln-Douglas debates? The hotly contested Republican fight for the nomination? The war, the war, the war? The agony over McClellan? Gettysburg? The madness of Mary? The second inaugural? The cost of victory? The plot against him? The assassination?

All this in one narrative? Any of those subjects could be a movie (or more) in itself. Edited by Michael Kahn? Music by John Williams? Those guys are legends! The greatest! But they have enough years on them to go back to Lincoln's time if you put their lives back to back, I think. Can they still split a rail?

[Vic Sage]

The movie is based on Goodwin's TEAM OF RIVALS, and only deals with the last 4 months of his life. I think that keeping the focus that narrow will allow for more interesting story-telling rather than trying to cover the full scope of his life. In fact, they are more likely to convey the full scope of his life by keeping the focus so narrow.

DreamWorks has announced that the film "will focus on the political collision of Lincoln and the powerful men of his cabinet on the road to abolition and the end of the Civil War."[9] According to Spielberg, Doris Kearns Goodwin's entire book about Lincoln's presidency is "much too big" for a film, and said that the film will focus on the last few months of Lincoln's life, the ending of slavery and the Union victory in the Civil War. Spielberg said that "what permanently ended slavery was the very close vote in the House of Representatives over the Thirteenth Amendment � that story I'm excited to tell." Spielberg plans to show "Lincoln at work, not just Lincoln standing around posing for the history books...arguably the greatest working President in American history doing some of the greatest work for the world."

[Edgy MD]

Vic Sage wrote: The movie is based on Goodwin's TEAM OF RIVALS, and only deals with the last 4 months of his life. I think that keeping the focus that narrow will allow for more interesting story-telling rather than trying to cover the full scope of his life. In fact, they are more likely to convey the full scope of his life by keeping the focus so narrow.

Well, that's just great. But then, I wish they hadn't called the thing Lincoln. It's funny how large-scope historical films have to have larger-scope titles. And so Pearl Harbor and Titanic and Capote end up promising in their titles more than they even hope to deliver.

Funny to see Tommy Lee Jones, a Texan who rarely tries to sublimate his accent much, playing a northern arch-abolitionist.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Maybe they'll have a few flashback scenes with clips of Raymond Massey as Lincoln.

[Edgy MD]

Jackie Earle Haley as Alexander Stephens? I'm in!

[Frayed Knot]

And then there's the 31 y/o Joseph Gordon-Levett playing 21 y/o Robert Lincoln - but this will hardly be the first time that's been done in Hollywood, plus I think there's a quota now where JG-L has to be in a certain percentage of the movies produced over the last two years.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, the Wikipedia entry says that Liam Neeson studied for the role for a while but then withdrew because he had gotten too old for the part. Neeson has just this year turned 60, which, by Hollywood standards, should have hardly put him out of the running when shooting started three years ago to play a latter-day Lincoln, who died at 56. More likely just as true that he felt too old to engaunten himself with a starvation diet, while Daniel D-L probably lives for that sort of thing.

And then they have 66-year-old Sally Field ("hubba hubba" --- John Cougar Lunchbucket) playing Mary Todd Lincoln, who would have been 47 at the time her husband and president was killed.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've always had the impression that Mary Todd Lincoln was an "old" 47.

In Abe Lincoln in Illinois she was played by a young (44), but decidedly unhot, Ruth Gordon.

[metirish]

A rave review by A.O. Scott in the NYT.

Looking forward to seeing this one.

[Edgy MD]

Nobody yet, huh?

[Guest themetfairy]

Saw it this afternoon.

Day-Lewis was spectacular, as always. But the screenplay lacks focus and the characters lack depth. It could have been great as an instructive tool for students but for the language.

It'll get attention during awards season, but it's not a great film.

[Vic Sage]

just saw ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER on a plane trip.
So now I won't be able to watch LINCOLN without expecting him to open up a can of whuppass with a two-handed axe.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

2.5 hours of dialogue in dark rooms, and we know how it ends. A well-acted, well-meaning snoozer.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

We watched this again since Wifey fell asleep first time thru. Better than the above review.

[Edgy MD]

That's funny. My thoughts were pretty close to your original.