Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones
Director: Steven Spielberg
This movie is a part documentary on one of the finest politicians of the world by one of the finest movie directors of the world. What do you expect?
You are subjected to perfection – in each and every frame. Be it costume, set, dialogue or acting – every element is well taken care of. Performances by Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field are excellent.
However, being an Indian audience you find it difficult to relate and thereby fully understand – almost one and a half century old American history, concept of long drawn civil war, issue of color and social system of slavery. Most of all you happen to miss the element of entertainment that you so non apologetically associate with the experience of movies. But this will not deter the serious cine goers from watching this highly critically acclaimed movie. Rather it will provide a good audio-visual study of that era.
The movie covers the time period spanning between termination of Abraham Lincoln’s first term and beginning of second term as the American President. It mainly focuses on the internal battles that the aforesaid great human and politician had to fight among his own party members, the Republicans and also the Democrats to get passed the Amendment 13 that effected the Abolition of Slavery. It also shows his personal anguish and family vibes related to this matter. You also see glimpses of his personal wit and jolly nature. Cleverly, the director has refrained from focusing on the actual Civil War and drudges of slavery, thereby keeping the movie length and audience interest intact.
Two interesting facts can be observed in this movie. One – most of us have probably seen Lincoln’s picture as a portrait in a school text book. But here you get to see him as a very tall and very thin man, more so when he is shown as a corpse in a nightgown. Two – in that era when apparels were coarse and voluminous and fashion as such nonexistent, men happen to exercise all of their fashion attempts on facial hair i.e. beard and moustache! An amazing variation of the same can be seen in this movie