"I could write shorter sermons, but when I get started I'm too lazy to stop."
- Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis)
by Hunter Isham
I must begin this review of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln by revealing my bias toward the film. Spielberg is my favorite director, I have a great fondness for Abraham Lincoln, and I am a fan of politics and history on film. To say I am a pushover for a film that takes these three things and combines them into one phenomenal motion picture would be a massive understatement, not to mention the attractive qualities of an intelligent and witty script by Tony Kushner, a quiet and moving score by John Williams, and a fantastic ensemble cast led by the incomparable Daniel Day-Lewis. Lincoln is the kind of film that, given the twelve years it took to develop and eventually produce, comes with enormous hype, with filmgoers hoping it would land among Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan as one of Spielberg's best dramatic efforts. To say it delivers on the promise of excellence would, like my predestined love for the film, be an understatement.
As with all great films, the story is key, and Tony Kushner's script wisely sidesteps the usual biopic route of capturing an entire life, instead opting to focus on the sixteenth president's final months in office, and his effort to pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (banning slavery) in a lame duck House of Representatives. This microscopic focus on a single piece of legislation allows us to see Lincoln as a flesh and blood man, rather than witness a scene by scene account of his accomplishments from Illinois lawyer to Great Emancipator. Such a film would no doubt have been interesting, but it would have given us a history lesson, instead of the window into Lincoln's humanity that this story provides. Kushner's script gives us a Lincoln who deeply cares for the Union he works to preserve, inwardly melancholy, outwardly hopeful and humorous. We see him as the intelligent, sometimes scheming politician who knows how to work the American political system for the greater good, and as a husband and father living with the grief of a dead son that nearly consumes his wife.
A miraculous performance is given by Daniel Day-Lewis to bring these qualities to life. I say "miraculous" because it is one of few performances that can be categorized as anything but. He is Lincoln. Upon first viewing the film, I knew I had witnessed something great, but it did not occur to me until after that I didn't think of him as an actor. Abraham Lincoln was actually up on that screen with Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field, and the rest of the marvelous cast. Day-Lewis deserves every bit of the praise he has earned for his portrayal of this mythical figure in our history, because he brings to life not only Lincoln's walk or his now famous high-pitched voice, but also his soul.
To lavish Day-Lewis with such acclamation is not to disparage his many co-stars, because while he disappears into his role, the other performers inhabit theirs. Tommy Lee Jones is quite obviously Tommy Lee Jones when he plays staunch abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens, a fiery curmudgeon if there ever was one. Jones is known for such roles, but what sets this one apart is the wit and emphatic energy with which he defends his views and pursues his goals. Jones is truly in his element, stealing just about every scene in which he appears. Sally Field is similarly exceptional while recognizable as herself in the role of Mary Todd Lincoln. Her greatest achievement with the role is taking an individual who, much like her husband, has been turned into a two-dimensional caricature by history, and restoring her to a level of humanity not often afforded the seemingly crazy but genuinely smart and troubled Mary Todd. Nearly every role in the film is played by a recognizable character actor, and not a single one disappoints. James Spader is a standout as a smarmy lobbyist, one of three Lincoln hires to help secure votes in the House of Representatives. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a star most certainly on the rise, appears to be underused as Lincoln's eldest son Robert who desperately wants to join the war effort, but in the larger context of the story, having a talent such as he in the relatively small role only strengthens this subplot.
And so we come to the individual without whom this film would never have been made. Steven Spielberg is a director well known for his grand visuals and emotions. His War Horse, a good but definitely flawed picture, is a masterclass in how to inject a film with too much of these elements, aiming for sweeping epic, but delivering instead a film that is often too saccharine for its own good. And so many, myself included, approached Lincoln with trepidation as to how big Spielberg would go on a film about a man who is second only to Jesus as the most written about figure in history. To our relief, he embarked upon this cinematic journey with a quiet reverence. Neither his camera placement nor his staging is ever so ostentatious as to distract from or overshadow the performances. Spielberg's grandiosity is appropriate for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Saving Private Ryan, to name just a few of his classics, but Lincoln is small in stature while towering in purpose. To match that thematic and narrative height with directorial flair would be a disservice to the material. Spielberg has put the story far before his own ambition in this film, and when he does allow some of his sentimentality to creep in, it is only when we as the audience have fully embraced the people and the world on screen before us.
Lincoln ends somewhat controversially with the title character's assassination. It is not, most thankfully, a grisly depiction of that event, instead showing us the expected scene in an unexpected way. Many believe that this scene is unnecessary and irrelevant to the film's narrative, and while I cannot argue with that sentiment, I can only say that after spending nearly two and half hours with Abraham Lincoln, I wished he could stay forever. "It's time for me to go," Lincoln says before departing for the theater on that fateful Friday in April, "but I would rather stay." We all know what happens beyond that point, but for this reviewer, seeing Lincoln's body sprawled out on a bed in Peterson House as the time of his passing is noted does not seem gratuitous, serving instead as a moment of closure.
The title of this review, a quote from the film, seemed appropriate, because even without a single word on the digital page, I knew I would go on and on and on about Lincoln. It is my favorite film of the year 2012, and I believe it stands as an extraordinary achievement in filmmaking. Movies are meant to transport us, and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln not only puts us in the middle of history, it moves us with the heart and soul of those who made history. To borrow Lincoln's sentiment, I would much like to stay in that world, but I suppose I must go. All great things come to an end, perhaps sooner than we wish they would. 10/10
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