Ok this is
another film that is going to get talked about a lot. I mean, it already is. It
did quite well at the Golden Globes, it got a slew of nominations for the
Oscars® and if the Golden Globes are anything to by (and it is no industry
secret that they often are), Lincoln is set to do well there as well. Now, we
already know that this is a Spielberg biopic, which, in itself, gives away
quite a bit. But let’s get the lowdown on this three-hour long epic shall we?
(By the way, what IS it with the length of films these days? Nothing under 2, 5
hours long! I mean, mostly the quality is quite high so the length is not, in
itself, an issue but still, I’m curious. Films used to be a lot shorter in the
past, even when technical developments allowed for much longer films. Now, when
our attention spans are supposed to be getting shorter, films are getting
longer and longer. There’s a thesis for a researcher or three in there
somewhere…). Ok, I’ve done another one of my mile-long parenthesis. But bear
with me; I’m getting to the point. In fact, this was not intentional, but it is
kinda fitting that I went down a bit of detour here. Because one of the main
“things” about Lincoln is that it is verbose. Very verbose. But I’ll get to that in just a sec.
Let’s briefly hear the story first.
This
biography of Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day Lewis), takes up the story of the
great politician’s life in 1865. Lincoln has two very important matters on his
hands. The greatest without any shadow of a doubt is the Civil War. One thing
is clear however, the war seems to be inexorably winding to a close. Lincoln is
more than happy that the North seems to be winning. And with people dying in
their thousands, peace could surely not come soon enough. The only thing is, Lincoln
has a second issue on his mind that he is desperately trying to balance with
peace with the south. For a while now, Lincoln’s main political aim has been to
end slavery. However, he must bring the amendment to the attention of the
senate and be sure to pass it before the southern states join if he is to have
any hope of success. The economy of the southern states depends largely on
slave labour, meaning that they would, almost to a man, block this amendment.
Lincoln has a race against time on his hands if he wants to get this historic
amendment through. On the one side, there is the hope of an early peace and
saving thousands of lives. On the other, there is the chance to end slavery,
which brings hope of much greater things in terms of ethics, lives and quality
of lives. And then of course, there is the possibility of the amendment being
rejected anyway, as the representatives are far from unanimous in their support
of it. Lincoln deals with this crisis within his conscience with the aid of
such historical figures such as William Seward (David Strathairn) and Thaddeus
Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) with truly historical consequences…
First up,
hats off to Spielberg. This is an epic of quality and grandeur to suit a great
man such as Abraham Lincoln and the historical changes he wrought in American
history. The cast, full to the brim as we mostly know by now with big name
stars (Joseph Gordon Levitt, Sally Field and Hal Holbrook among those who I
couldn’t work into the synopsis) , present us with a true feast when it comes
to acting. And for those, like me, who have very limited knowledge of American
history, especially this period in American history, the film is easy to
follow. The explanations given by the characters are clear and easily fitted
into the storyline. And to be fair, seeing that the main part of the story
takes place in parliament and amongst politicians, there are plenty of
opportunities to make the discussion clear, so all levels of knowledge can
follow and gain something. But of course this comes at a price. This tendency,
coupled with the nature of the story, as detailed just now, means there is a
lot of talking. And I mean A LOT of talking. There are, as I said, detailed
explanations on what is going on, and even though my levels of concentration
are definitely average if not slightly above, even I had to rewind, and/or
check out a few facts online from time to time. You might, thus find it a tad
hard to get into the pace of the film if you are a fan of less talking and more
action, as it were. But once you “get” the storyline and adapt to the pace,
this film will prove a wonderful lesson in a historical event in history. And I
defy you not to get excited about the whole thing at the end, even though
history tells us what happened as clear as day…
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