Featured Audience Ratings

• Film C

  
  A mesmerising performance from Day-Lewis and what a mesmerising movie! A powerful and wonderful movie, hard hitting and emotional! Shouldn't be missed!

• Cynthia S

  
  Really, really good. Daniel Day-Lewis completely became the Lincoln that is in MY imagination. He nailed it in every way. This movie concentrates on the months it took Lincoln, and his staff, to get the 13th amendment through Congress. An historical moment told in the most outstanding… More
  Really, really good. Daniel Day-Lewis completely became the Lincoln that is in MY imagination. He nailed it in every way. This movie concentrates on the months it took Lincoln, and his staff, to get the 13th amendment through Congress. An historical moment told in the most outstanding way. Never boring. Superbly acted, and directed. It tells more about Lincoln's daily life, and character, than anything I've ever seen before. Well done!

• Mister C

  
  Steven Spielburg used to make movies you love. He now makes movies you admire. There's a difference. From the legendary director who brought us some of the great movies of the past century,from his theatrical debut in "The Sugarland Express" to the birth of the American… More
  Steven Spielburg used to make movies you love. He now makes movies you admire. There's a difference. From the legendary director who brought us some of the great movies of the past century,from his theatrical debut in "The Sugarland Express" to the birth of the American blockbuster "Jaws", to the man who brought us "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", his only attempt at a comedy "1941", to Harrison Ford fleeing a rolling boulder in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", from Henry Thomas furiously pedaling across the moon in "E.T.",to the terror of a hungry T-Rex in "Jurassic Park" to his attempt at directing adult oriented material ranging from "Schindler's List" to "Catch Me If You Can",and "The Terminal"...not to mention the less said about the sequels to "Indiana Jones",and "Jurassic Park",and his vision of fantasy and adventure ranging from "Hook", to last year's kiddle computerized "The Adventures of Tintin". But the evolution in Spielburg's filmmaking is not a matter of competence but rather perspective. It's notable enough that his epic "Lincoln" is Spielburg's own version of "Gone With The Wind" under his own "Lawrence of Arabia". Screenplay by Tony Kushner(who also collaborated with Spielburg's "Munich",and "Saving Private Ryan")with music by one of the greatest film composers of all the maestro himself John Williams(who has collaborated for composing Spielburg's greatest hits)has produced one of the best films ever made. What makes "Lincoln" intriguing is considering how the biopic he delivers today might differ from the one the director of "E.T." would have been made 30 years ago,or even 11 years when DreamWorks first acquired the film rights to historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin's then-unpublished biography "Team of Rivals:The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln"(on which the "Lincoln" confines itself to the final two chapters of the book) which covers the effect to pass the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery through a lame-duck House of Representatives during January of 1865,shortly after Lincoln's re-election. Spielburg not only focuses on the political process,the fractured forces both propelling and obstructing the landmark passage of this landmark amendment,but on the other hand the intense Civil War battle sequences and his resolute committment to pass the 13th Amendment. What follows is a revealing insight into the last breath of strategy from dealing with the subject of slavery and Lincoln's desperate fight to end it. The result is a movie that is brilliant in scope and detail with Daniel Day-Lewis' performance that will go down for the ages in scope and excellent visionary as one of the most honored and most respected Presidents in United States History. The cast itself is superb with two-time Oscar winner Sally Field(one of the most respected actresses of our generation) as Mary Todd Lincoln, along with an outstanding cast ensemble that includes David Strathaim, Joesph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, along with Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, and Jared Harris. This movie,which has a running time of 178 minutes will be the front-runner status for this year's Oscar race,with 12 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director(Steven Spielburg), Best Actor(Daniel Day Lewis), Best Original Screenplay(Tony Kushner), Best Supporting Actor(Tommy Lee Jones),Best Supporting Actress(Sally Field),and Best Original Music Score(John Williams). Of the 12 Oscar Nominations that it received,it won Two Oscars for Best Production Design and for Daniel Day-Lewis(Best Actor). "Lincoln" became a huge boxoffice success grossing $266 million at the boxoffice making it one of the top ten highest grossing films of 2012.

• familiar s

  
  Titled Lincoln, the movie instead focuses on one part of his life. There's apparently much more to Lincoln than is portrayed here. The movie is good, but only in in bits & parts. Pacing it slower only makes it further less interesting. Seems like Steven Spielberg has given… More
  Titled Lincoln, the movie instead focuses on one part of his life. There's apparently much more to Lincoln than is portrayed here. The movie is good, but only in in bits & parts. Pacing it slower only makes it further less interesting. Seems like Steven Spielberg has given preference to cinematic splendor than entertainment (although the genre has less space for it, the dragging sequences could have been well replaced with intriguing ones). The astounding performances make the fare tolerable enough.

• Spencer S

  
  One of the biggest, most funded, most beloved and critically acclaimed films of the past decade, it is also one of the easiest to criticize thanks to its subject and the employment of historical fact versus fiction. Lincoln, though a man who did say racist things in his own lifetime,… More
  One of the biggest, most funded, most beloved and critically acclaimed films of the past decade, it is also one of the easiest to criticize thanks to its subject and the employment of historical fact versus fiction. Lincoln, though a man who did say racist things in his own lifetime, who didn't accomplish much with the Emancipation Proclamation, and who had reservations about legislation for the thirteenth amendment, was well represented. He is never a savior, never treated as anything more than a president who tried to end slavery, though it seemed impossible at the time. He was a man of many quotes, who told stories at a whim and always had a moral at the end of it, and that is clearly undisputed throughout history. This film could easily have been over the top and flawed, and yet it was about human compassion, dignity, and a true historical representation about a period of time that was still frenzied with racism. The film is about the passing of the thirteenth amendment which abolished slavery for all, not just blacks in Confederate states during the Civil War. "Lincoln" deals with the complexities of trying to get the legislation passed, and the president himself even makes remunerations and compromises time and again in order to simply get it through Congress. He isn't perfect, though he does give multiple speeches where he comes across as a grand leader against the institution of slavery. Really though, most of the trite criticism about this film is flawed logic thanks to a lack of understanding of history and people looking for things to gripe about. The supporting cast was brilliant and everyone in this was based on an actual person, there was a lack of liberties taken, and it simply looks beautiful. The cinematography alone deserves a good amount of praise. It definitely does more with the material than many Lincoln biopics, and covers more of what struck the president as prudent before his untimely death. I did like the framing device near the end and found others' disdain for it to be mindless noise. The one thing I thought would have been better covered was the mental illness of Mary Todd Lincoln. The woman had the outbursts and mental capacity of a dementia ridden person and yet she has one tantrum and she is called crazy in a moment of seconds. That was too rushed, and for a screen time of two and a half hours it would have been best covered. The relationships between him and his sons was given considerable time, including his oldest son Robert, who would later become a political figure in his own right. This film dealt not only in the political rigor of the time, but the life of a president, as flawed and haunted as he was.

• Josh L

  
  Lincoln is a movie that was much easier for me to admire than to love. It has some excellent performances that have been mentioned a thousand times by everyone else, but still managed to impress me. Daniel Day-Lewis is almost in another league of acting all by himself. He's… More
  Lincoln is a movie that was much easier for me to admire than to love. It has some excellent performances that have been mentioned a thousand times by everyone else, but still managed to impress me. Daniel Day-Lewis is almost in another league of acting all by himself. He's simply remarkable. While the supporting cast plays second fiddle to Lewis, there's still some fine acting on display from Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Fields, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, and David Strathairn. Beyond the wonderful acting, the film is impeccably made. It completely transports you to 1860's America. The costume/stage designs do wonders. You feel like you are in the room with characters as they change history. The film itself though is rather wordy and uninvolving at times. Don't get me wrong, there is some compelling bits in this film, but there's also too much. It's overlong and sometimes tedious to watch because you know at some point it is going to get good again, but you have to sit through a couple stretches of characters going on and on about politics when you as the audience already know the outcome of the story. I'm sure history buffs will dig this film like there is no tomorrow, but for the general audience this could be a little off-putting. If you told me you loved this film, I wouldn't question it, but if you told me you didn't like it, I would understand that too. I simply am in the middle.

• Daniel L

  
  Lincoln is a fantastic period piece that tells a historically accurate story of the passage of the 13th Amendment. The film is a bi slow-paced but it is interesting narrative with great performances.

• Nikhil N

  
  Daniel Day-Lewis is phenomenal. The movie is great because it is entertaining despite the fact that it is a dialogue driven drama. It may be a little too slow for some but there are scenes (notably the voting scene) that are so suspenseful that even an action-junkie will be… More
  Daniel Day-Lewis is phenomenal. The movie is great because it is entertaining despite the fact that it is a dialogue driven drama. It may be a little too slow for some but there are scenes (notably the voting scene) that are so suspenseful that even an action-junkie will be spellbound.

• Candy R

  
  I like historic dramas and Steven Spielberg but I found the opening, scene setting very slow. It got better from 2/3 of the movie in, it picked up the pace. Story about Lincoln's passion and influence to end the civil war and slavery. Fab performance by Daniel Day Lewis. Really… More
  I like historic dramas and Steven Spielberg but I found the opening, scene setting very slow. It got better from 2/3 of the movie in, it picked up the pace. Story about Lincoln's passion and influence to end the civil war and slavery. Fab performance by Daniel Day Lewis. Really deserved the Oscar. Good cast but not the epic it could have been.

• Stella D

  
  DDL deserved the oscar, i barely recognized him here. bit of a dry history lesson but well cast with some great scenes. sally field kind of annoyed me as well as gordon-levitt. does this guy have to be in everything?

• Matt G

  
  I wanted to fall asleep after fifty minutes of this bore-fest. People mistake good acting for good entertainment.

• c0up  

  
  'Lincoln'. No one brings weight and gravitas to a performance like Daniel Day-Lewis. Kushner's words and Spielberg's direction shine. There's a lot of Hollywood to 'Lincoln'. Monologues a minute, sometimes hampered by John Williams'… More
  'Lincoln'. No one brings weight and gravitas to a performance like Daniel Day-Lewis. Kushner's words and Spielberg's direction shine. There's a lot of Hollywood to 'Lincoln'. Monologues a minute, sometimes hampered by John Williams' overwhelming score. You know the heartstrings are pulled at, and you mainly go with it. It's an... important film, resting squarely on Daniel Day-Lewis' mannerisms and delivery. It's physical and emotive acting of the highest class, and I felt a flood of emotion late in the film when he uttered the words "slavery is done", with not a hint of dramatic flair, score absent.

• Directors C

  
  [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Right from the opening sequences Steven Spielberg quite marvelously restrains "Lincoln" from collapsing into the single worst mistake imaginable and the one which plagues most historical biopics.… More
  [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Right from the opening sequences Steven Spielberg quite marvelously restrains "Lincoln" from collapsing into the single worst mistake imaginable and the one which plagues most historical biopics. Simply that the film doesn't actually begin with the years of Abraham Lincoln in his youth. It drops all signs of uninteresting baggage that could have extended it's already enormous running time, and maintains that both our eyes and brains are captivated in it's poetic, witty and challenging majesty. That being the inspiring story of Lincoln's final days before his untimely death. The president is portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis, one of the most performance versatile working today and there is no point in me repeating what has already been said that his depiction is unique, masterful and quite simply breathtaking. Undoubtedly this has a place on the short list of movies that maintain suspense and dramatic tension despite the fact you know everything that's coming. It artfully polishes history into an instant cinema classic featuring a witty script and typically great Spielberg direction. If I have any criticisms of the film it is that in certain moments, it edges ever so slightly towards pretentious self amazement like it's repetition of Lincoln's troublesome times at home with his family. Also at times I felt emotionally detached which is odd for a film which is supposedly uplifting. However the film responds to this small flaw with cerebral intrigue matched with a gorgeous, rich and convincing period settings molded perfectly by Spielberg's wonderfully engrossing long shots. We get to view Lincoln as a simple ordinary man making beneficial uses of his power for the good of the people as he endures his own political and social dilemmas. A side of him which we have never seen before in cinema history, and it's never short of being fascinating, or for that matter incredibly entertaining.

• Thomas B

  
  Beautifully shot and measured in pace, this is a brilliant period pace by various masters of their crafts. Full review later.

• Devon B

  
  Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" might just as well have been titled "The Passing of the 13th Amendment", as the bulk of the film centers around the circumstances leading up to its passing (which abolished slavery in the United States). As the movie opens,… More
  Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" might just as well have been titled "The Passing of the 13th Amendment", as the bulk of the film centers around the circumstances leading up to its passing (which abolished slavery in the United States). As the movie opens, Lincoln (as portrayed by the gifted actor Daniel Day-Lewis) is speaking with some former slaves-turned-union-soldiers about the lack of equality between blacks and whites. It's an unlikely scenario to say the least, but it shows the direction the film is going to be taking us. In Spielberg's hands, Lincoln's mythos gets treated to a hollywood romanticism and the results harken back to the director's earlier output. The events of the movie take place just after Lincoln's re-election. The civil war is in it's 4th bloody year, and there is dissent in the house of representatives. President Lincoln expects the war to end within a month, and also expects that the Emancipation Proclamation will be discarded by the courts once the war is over and the southern slave states return to the union. In order to keep the slaves free, Lincoln begins a desperate push to pass the 13th amendment. However, many democratic representatives oppose the amendment, because it might hurt the chance for peace and an end to the war, but mainly they oppose it because of their own racial bigotry and prejudice. Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward then launch a plan to bribe, buy out, and in general influence the votes needed to pass the bill, sending out hired guns (led by the suitably sleezy James Spader) to try and pursuade the representatives. Meanwhile, republican party founder Francis Preston Blair (Hal Holbrook) will offer his support of the amendment only if every avenue of peace has been extinguished. He meets with southern diplomats and arranges a peace negotiation. Lincoln must get the bill passed before the end of the war and has the delegates delayed while the amendment is still up for the vote. But will the delay be enough? Well, anyone who knows anything about history already knows what happens, so in that manner, this movie is a bit of a rhetorical exercise. Lincoln is dutifully bathed in reverential light, but these real life characters never felt quite real, just like actors on a stage. Spielberg only momentarily touches real, live human beings on the screen. In passing, we only get brief glimpses of genuine human beings, whether it's Mary Todd Lincoln's emotional breakdowns ("I'm going to be known as the crazy woman who made your life miserable"), or Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) revelatory love affair, or, greatest of all, the man behind the beard and hat. Lincoln as portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis is a mixture of the historical and the human, and it's sometimes an ackward mix. The make-up job, with Day-Lewis' eyes peering out of Lincoln's face can be distracting (at least I was) and sometimes his portrayal of Lincoln's mannerisms were downright creepy. And yet, sometimes they were charming and heart-breaking. But in the end, if anything is flawed in this movie, it's not the performances but the directing. Spielberg can't decide what kind of film he's trying to make, something of humanistic realism, with all it's dirt and beauty, or a reverential hollywood mega-production with sweeping orchestration and grandiose sentiment. This is a good, very nearly great film, that's just hindered by a lack of cohesive vision.

• Jens S

  
  It probably would have been easy for Steven Spielberg to make a film about Lincoln that deals with the big events, the civil war, the battles and drama. Instead he decided to make a movie about politics, the forcing of an important amendment to end slavery in the United States. That… More
  It probably would have been easy for Steven Spielberg to make a film about Lincoln that deals with the big events, the civil war, the battles and drama. Instead he decided to make a movie about politics, the forcing of an important amendment to end slavery in the United States. That may not sound as exciting and indeed it does require a lot of concentration to follow dozens of bearded characters through political discussions in the first twenty minutes. What carries the film through the slower parts is Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln who adds another unforgettable performance to his oeuvre, one of the strongest ones put on film in recent years. His anecdote-loving, kind and gentle, highly intelligent but far from glazed character is, of course, the pulsating heart of the movie. Once the film enters con artist territory, it gets a much lighter mood at times and even a few great laughs, many of which thanks to the fantastic James Spader and his comrades. Things you can rely on in a Spielberg film are outstanding cinematography, a John Williams soundtrack and fine performances down to the smallest roles and it delivers in all those aspects. In the second half, even the political and historical aspects of the voting for or against the amendment get as exciting as a court thriller even though we know how it ended. A great, enthralling and interesting history lesson for an audience that doesn't mind digging their teeth into a topic instead of just seeing it rush by.

• Carlos M

  
  A pathetic melodrama that is always more interesting when focusing on the politics involved, but a very schmaltzy "lesson of life" whenever Lincoln appears - shown as a wise and mythical storyteller of pure heart (but fine with bribing, of course), never a complex real man.

• William D

  
  "Lincoln" is a quietly moving, serious film for grown-ups. It has its flaws, chiefly that it's too worshipful of its subject. Director Steven Spielberg lays on the hagiography very thick. Surely Abraham Lincoln must have had one or two flaws; you'd never know it… More
  "Lincoln" is a quietly moving, serious film for grown-ups. It has its flaws, chiefly that it's too worshipful of its subject. Director Steven Spielberg lays on the hagiography very thick. Surely Abraham Lincoln must have had one or two flaws; you'd never know it from watching this film. It could be called "Saint Lincoln." Another major weakness is the unbelievably old-fashioned style, including nauseating orchestration that's filled with one musical cliche after another. This kind of movie music was cliche by 1960, for God's sake. At times the music is so thick with sentimentality that it almost seems Spielberg is doing a parody of the 1950s Hollywood "prestige picture." If one tunes out the mawkish music, church-like reverential tone, and overall didacticism, there actually is much to enjoy and think about in "Lincoln." The central story line focuses on the extremely difficult campaign to pass the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned slavery. In early 1865, with the Civil War in its final days, President Lincoln pulled out all the stops to get the amendment through the House of Representatives. The film looks at this legislative campaign in terrific detail. Presumably, the history is right. The screenplay (by playwright Tony Kushner) is based in part on a serious historical book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." Goodwin has an excellent reputation among historians, so I'm presuming the film's historical details are reasonably accurate. The Republican Party at the time (Lincoln's party) had two distinct factions: upper-crust Conservatives and populist Radicals. Both were opposed to slavery, but slavery wasn't a top priority for Conservatives. Their biggest concern was winning the war. Led by Thaddeus Stevens (played with wicked aplomb by Tommy Lee Jones), the Radical Republicans were first and foremost abolitionists. The Democratic Party at the time was for the most part pro-South and pro-slavery. To get the Amendment passed, Lincoln had to unite Republicans, no easy task, and persuade about 20 Democrats to switch sides. The film humorously depicts some of the untoward aspects of the campaign. Lincoln quietly hires a few unsavory characters (one played hilariously by James Spader) to "buy" votes by offering wavering Democrats jobs in the executive branch. Less humorous is Lincoln's effort to prolong the war in order to get the amendment passed. The Confederacy secretly sends a delegation to Washington to negotiate an end to the war, and Lincoln refuses to let them enter the city! He is concerned, rightly so, that if the war ends, the amendment would lose momentum. He maintains the ruse that abolition is necessary to end the war. It's quite stunning for this to be presented in a positive tone. The film depicts Lincoln as making abolition a do-or-die priority. He even commits an impeachable offense by lying about the peace initiative undertaken by the Confederacy. That's how far he's willing to go to modernize the country and protect "Negroes" (as African-Americans were known at the time) from re-enslavement after the war. (The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Confederate states only temporarily, to aid the war effort.) I've never before seen a film sink its teeth into complex political machinations, much less do it in an entertaining way. Even though one already knows how it turns out, the House vote is still a nail-biter. Spielberg also effectively conveys the momentousness of the vote. It's hard to imagine how history would have turned out if the 13th Amendment had not passed, and it easily could have gone the other way. The amendment passed the House by a razor-thin margin. What would America have become if slavery had not been abolished? Would the country have survived? If the country had collapsed, what would have replaced it? How would the world be different if there had been no America in the 20th century? The only comparable turning point I can think of is World War II. What would the world be like today if Hitler had won? I shudder at the thought. ****************************** What I really appreciate about "Lincoln" is that it operates on several other levels as well. Its principal concern is the 13th Amendment, but the film elegantly explores a range of minor themes as well. Sally Field delivers an arresting, unpretty, thought-provoking performance as Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd. She is presented as fiercely intelligent, deeply engaged with the war and the general political issues of the day, and shattered by the tragic death of her 11-year-old son, William. The film doesn't provide details, but they are as follows: William's death occurred in early 1862, one year after the family moved to the White House. This was not the family's first tragedy, however. The film doesn't mention it, but the Lincolns first lost a son in 1850. He was three years old. Mary Todd, believe it or not, would go on to bury a third son, age 18, six years after witnessing the murder of her husband. This is a woman whose life was filled with unspeakable tragedy. She herself died in 1882, age 63, with only one of her four children surviving her. The film could easily have ignored Mary Todd, but it digs into her character with real seriousness. Other minor female characters are also looked at in an illuminating way. The film seems to say that while American women weren't voting in the 19th century, they certainly weren't on the political sidelines. They participated forthrightly in political discussions and had a major role in determining the course of history. Their husbands and sons may have been the ones voting, but to a large degree the family decided together how the men would vote. I love the film's overall approach to women. Lincoln's eldest son (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is another engaging minor character. This college-age boy wants desperately to join the Union Army, but his parents forbid it. They cannot bear to lose another son. He tries to abide by his parents' wishes, but eventually he explodes, defying his father's authority. One can palpably feel the agonizing life-and-death struggles of this 19th-century family, and by extension all the other families of the era. The almost complete absence of African-American characters is a bitter disappointment. The subject is slavery, for goodness sake. No slave characters? I'm sure black audiences have been outraged about this. Dejected even. In this day and age, a film about slavery can still be written with no black characters. Unbelievable. Here's a story about the freedom of African-Americans, and they don't enter the story! They just appear in the background, the subject of white people's discussions. Mrs. Lincoln's black maid does have some weight as a character, but that's about it. She has one beautiful scene where Lincoln asks her if she is fearful of what's going to happen to "her people" if freedom comes. In that exchange, one sees how awesomely transformative abolition was. No one knew what life would feel like in the new day. What would black people do? How would white and black people live side by side for the first time? Would black men have to be given the vote? What impact would that have? The open-endedness of it all awed Lincoln, even frightened him from time to time. Early in the film he has a dream, a sequence strikingly presented by Spielberg. Lincoln is alone on the deck of a large ship barreling forward at warp speed, powered by some other-worldly engine. He stands alone in the cold night, struggling to maintain courage as he races into an unknown future. "Lincoln" has its flaws, but it's a top-flight film overall. It's encouraging that a film of this nature would garner so much awards attention and become a commercial hit. I never would have expected ordinary Americans to flock to this the way they have. "Lincoln" is good for America.

• Dan S

  
  A remarkable picture that captures the battle that defined the legacy of Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis), a President who fought valiantly to amend the constitution by abolishing slavery only months before his death. Quite simply, this is the best film about American politics… More
  A remarkable picture that captures the battle that defined the legacy of Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis), a President who fought valiantly to amend the constitution by abolishing slavery only months before his death. Quite simply, this is the best film about American politics dedicated to cinema, with a masterful, quietly intense performance from Day-Lewis, the best actor of our times. The supporting cast is tremendous as well, notably Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln. In addition to being fantastically scripted and handsomely constructed from a dialogue standpoint, it is also entertaining, beautifully set, and irrefutably moving. A must-see.

• Emil K

  
  There seems to be this tradition in Spielberg's career for these more serious films based on a real life like Lincoln, Schindler's List, Munich, Amistad or Saving Private Ryan, and between more entertaining ones like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Minority Report, War… More
  There seems to be this tradition in Spielberg's career for these more serious films based on a real life like Lincoln, Schindler's List, Munich, Amistad or Saving Private Ryan, and between more entertaining ones like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Minority Report, War of the Worlds or especially his Indiana Jones - films. In my opinion Spielberg is much more home when creating a stories and worlds of his on than just recreating them from history. At his finest, like in his amazing A.I., he can mix entertaining adventure into science fiction and make it also heartfelt and profound. He is filmmaker who has fantastic eye for detail and a voice of his own. When he is at his best he is very good and when he is not that good he can be truly awful. Lincoln might have big budget, impressive ensemble casting and one of Hollywoods finest teams behind it but nothing takes away the fact that this is stuffy, forced and catastrophic effort to make a film about Lincoln and American Civil War. The events which this film tackles are important in the context of history but Spielberg's approach to Tony Kushner's screenplay is way too restrained for its own good. This is a film that does look very polished. Every camera angle and glimpse of light from cinematographer Januz Kaminski feels extremely measured and all the props are designed with impressive detail. But the problem is not the visual one here, the problem is Spielberg's style that mostly focuses on talking men in a stuffy rooms. Don't get me wron here, you can make conversations into a great thrillers, Ron Howard's fantastic Frost/Nixon was extremely good example of that, but Spielberg's characters in Lincoln feel like they are lifted from a bad stage play. Especially Daniel Day-Lewis and his methods feel more than fake. And there are those typical over the top Day-Lewis moments to be seen here again. When he raises his hand and addresses to his fellow actors the impact feels so calculated and forced that it turns into near parody. Same goes for Sally Field as a Lincoln's wife. There is great cast here with a names like David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Hawkes, Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader but they all are left unfortunate amounts of material to work with or ends up being overblown caricatures. Only Tommy Lee Jones manages to bring some depth into his character. I am quite surprised that many consider this as another of Spielberg's masterpieces. In my opinion this is far away from Spielberg's greatest work and actually ranks down there as one of his weakest films to date. Spielberg is often very capable to rise some big emotions with his films but Lincoln just felt like an bad and overlong play that somehow ended to a big screen.

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