Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln"

[Captain General]

Originally Posted by Pruitt

Lincoln the Politician was responsible for twisting arms and getting the legislation through Congress. Pruitt

That is shown in the film.

[hellboy30]

Originally Posted by Pruitt

I am poking fun that Chase can't find the movie in Arkansas. From the scenes I have seen, I see a movie by a fine actor playing Lincoln the man who died for our sins. Abraham was so much more than that. Lincoln the Politician was responsible for twisting arms and getting the legislation through Congress.

I love 'Gone With The Wind'. I don't love 'Birth of a Nation'. I thought 'Gods and Generals' was only a fair movie and not so great from a historical point of view.

I bet the screenwriters dodged the issue of Freeing Slaves behind Union Lines and made it look like he was freeing all Slaves. That did NOT happen!

Pruitt

Actually, the 13th Amendment would free ALL slaves. You are thinking of the Emancipation Proclamation. The point being about the other films is that there is certainly enough "Southern propaganda" being pushed around....this film shows the nitty gritty dirty side of things political. Northern racism is shown. Lincoln's deftly trying to gain votes without violating the law is shown. It isn't all giftwrapped & handed to him. They have to fight every inch of the way & it shows.

[hellboy30]

Originally Posted by Captain General

That is shown in the film.

Exactly!

[Legatus Augusti]

It seems as though you haven't seen the movie. ALL of what you address is directly handled in the movie, including the fact that the emancipation proclamation didn't free slaves in the north, and his dilemma with the fact that it actually acknowledges them as property.

See the film before you bash it.

Originally Posted by Pruitt

I am poking fun that Chase can't find the movie in Arkansas. From the scenes I have seen, I see a movie by a fine actor playing Lincoln the man who died for our sins. Abraham was so much more than that. Lincoln the Politician was responsible for twisting arms and getting the legislation through Congress.

I love 'Gone With The Wind'. I don't love 'Birth of a Nation'. I thought 'Gods and Generals' was only a fair movie and not so great from a historical point of view.

I bet the screenwriters dodged the issue of Freeing Slaves behind Union Lines and made it look like he was freeing all Slaves. That did NOT happen!

Pruitt

[llkinak]

I'm very far from being an authority on President Lincoln, so I can't comment much on the hostorical accuracy of the film. However, I thought the movie was well made and I enjoyed watching it. One of the better films I've seen in a while.

[Pruitt]

Lance,

If you enjoyed it, I am glad. I might put it on when it hits cable if the youngest grandson tries to put on Spongebob.

Pruitt

[Pruitt]

I finally went and saw the movie. What decided me was I saw Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay. I went to the Episcopal Day School with Leslie and Tony Kushner. They were both younger than me.

As long as I don't judge it as literal history, it is not bad. Sally Fields put in a good performance, but she did not sound like a wealthy Kentucky Belle at all. Mary Lincoln had lost one of her Brothers early on when he fell in the battle of Baton Rouge. Tony should have worked that in. She also seemed to treat the Black woman servant as some kind of equal. Once again, would a Kentucky Belle do this?

I saw Lincoln holding the buggy door for Mrs Lincoln and the Black Servant as well. They had a White House Servant standing there watching. That is not what I would have expected. I think this movie was a little too politically correct.

I did see it as funny when the Confederate Peace delegation arrived and the Black Cavalry Trooper greeted him and indicated where they should ride. Confederate Vice President shows his manners by thanking the Trooper!

Pruitt

[Merkava188]

I think this movie is great given that the only other movie on Abe Lincoln was the one were he supposidly was a "vampire slayer"(and that film was a bigger piece of garbage than buffy).The film that could top Lincoln in terms of Oscar potential is the one were Bill Murray portrays FDR.

[Pruitt]

Abe the Vampire Slayer was actually from the UK, wasn't he? I thought it was funny.

Pruitt

[hellboy30]

"Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer" was a terrible movie, but a great book. There is also another Lincoln movie coming called "Saving Lincoln", which is about Lincoln & his bodyguard.

[Hypaspist]

There aren't a lot of Civil War movies for some reason, and when they do get made, they kind of beat around the bush and really don't have much to do with the war at all.

The movie was corny, silly in its characterizations, but most of all, it was BORING. Steven Spielberg used to make such great movies, but he jumped the shark way back with Minority Report.
The best made movie is easily Glory. It has a perfect setup and does right by switching between the commander and the regular soldiers. Even if it strays slightly from history, it doesn't matter. It isn't dark and morose but it makes the war look real at the same time.
Gettysburg was an example of a movie being too accurate - it doesn't have mass appeal. Plus the reenactors are all fat. Gods and Generals was good looking, but the dialogue was bad. I think it should have either been a play or they should have edited the movie a lot. They had a good biopic of Stonewall Jackson, but if that's what they were going for, it should have been more focused. At least the battles and the soldiers all looked right. Probably the best battle portrayal since the 1970s Waterloo.

[Karri]

Boring. Really, really boring.

[copenhagen]

Saw this today. I thought it was very well done as it is pretty much men in rooms talking a lot but Lewis's performance is very very good. For once though I thought John Williams music detracted from it. I love his work but he often does help to paint a level of sentimentality over a film with his style of score. I think that in this film's case it was not needed and for once I think Spielberg had tried to tone it down from his previous efforts.... Great acting and visually great.

As has been said, it is remarakble that this is pretty much the only decent attempt to portray who is easily in my opinion, America's greatest president...

[Massena]

Have you seen 'Young Mr. Lincoln' that John Ford made in 1939 with Henry Fonda as Lincoln?

It is an excellent film and does capture the young Lincoln in both substance and wit.

I would take issue with you on who was the greatest US president. I'd vote for Lincoln as Number 2, with Washington as Number 1. No Washington, no Lincoln, as Washington set the tone for the presidencey, and Article II of the Constitution was written with Washington as the model.

Washington is too easily overlooked.

Sincerely,
M

[Dunnigan]

Just saw Lincoln this morning. Excellent movie, but I'm a historical nerd, so this did it for me. I didn't need combat scenes, just Lincoln being Lincoln. The script forces you to pay attention to every dialogue and every scene, and there wasn't much in the way of too many side extraneous scenes. I can certainly imagine folks, especially politicians behaving and acting bombastically as they did back then, so I didn't think it was over the top.

I particularly liked David Strathairn's performance with Daniel Day Lewis' performance as a given. Tommy Lee Jones was great and Sally Field really captured Mary Todd Lincoln very well.

I agree a bit with Copenhagen's comment about John Williams' score. You can tell it's his score and sometimes I kept thinking "is this the Civil War documentary or Saving Private Ryan" strictly by the background music, but it was good nonetheless.

A very strong movie. Beautifully shot. The lighting was excellent where they could make excuses for dramatic lighting on one's face because of strategically placed "candlelights".

Spielburg and his production group also went to add little touches of historical research into this, like including Ely S. Parker in the background of one scene. He was a Native American and an aide to Grant. I think I even espied Meade in the background. Heck, they even got Traveller's colors right.

There's a lot of actor's in there where it made me wonder "oh, where did I see that guy before?".