Lincoln

LINCOLN

Director : Steven Spielberg

Year : 2013

Genre : Historical Drama

Rating : ***

Winning multiple Academy Awards and appearing on many critics top 10 lists, Steven Spielberg's historical drama 'Lincoln' has become known as a true modern masterpiece; complete with a knockout performance from Daniel Day Lewis, expert direction from Spielberg and a narrative that tells one of the most important chapters in American history. If you are regular reader of my reviews, you will know that my favourite film of all time is Spielberg's terrifying 'Jaws' and that I consider Daniel Day Lewis to be one of our greatest living actors. So why then can't I love 'Lincoln' as much as every other critic on the planet? Yes it's brilliantly acted and well directed, but nothing stands out to me as particularly exceptional or note worthy. I can't profess to know a healthy amount about either Abraham Lincoln or the American Civil War so all of the events and people portrayed on screen are new to me and thanks to a laboriously speechified script and little to no explanation of the foretold situations or circumstances, I was pretty lost throughout a large amount of the films running time and despite my best efforts, I found myself rather bored. 

Beginning in 1895, 'Lincoln' tells the true story of how American president Abraham Lincoln endeavored to push the landmark 13th amendment to a recalcitrant Congress. As the Civil War rages on between the Northern and Southern states, the president faces a race against time to achieve passage of the controversial amendment to abolish slavery before the war ends and the Southern states force an end to the new law.

For me, Steven Spielberg has always been at his best when he making blockbuster, popcorn entertainment such as 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind', 'E.T : The Extra Terrestrial' and the 'Indiana Jones' trilogy (I don't count the fourth film as it's a travesty). His more serious work such as 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Schindler's List' and 'War Horse' may garner more critical praise, but to me, Spielberg really shines when he given fun, exciting material that allows his playful, almost jovial nature shine. While his more critically lauded work is certainly more heavy handed and cerebral, I often find these films to be more self important and intentionally momumental, but ultimately less enjoyable and this is certainly the case with 'Lincoln' which is probably the least Spielberg-ian film I have ever seen. It lacks the fizz and crackle of his other pictures which have inventive camera work and innovative cinematography and the direction is understated and rather unremarkable. For a filmmaker who has made his reputation with such an avant garde almost auteurial style, 'Lincoln' is something of a visual and experiential disappointment. 

As I said earlier, I don't know the greatest amount about the life of Abraham Lincoln so I was hoping that this film would enlighten me and teach me the story of the greatest American who has ever lived (Lisa Simpsons' words, not mine). However, 'Lincoln' is a picture clearly made for a predominantly U.S audience as characters who are important to the story are barely developed and certain events and moments are merely hinted at or brushed over. It is important for a film like this where every scene is essential to understanding the story that the script, the direction and the acting does a good enough job to involve us in the narrative and explain to us who each person is and what each event means and what consequence it has to both the characters and the overall story. But unfortunately 'Lincoln' fails to take the time to do this, despite being the best part of two and half hours. The screenplay is written by Tony Kushner who also co-wrote Spielberg's  'Munich' and the dialogue is just as frustratingly pretentious and overly dramatic, feeling intentionally speech-like, as if each sentence said could be hammered into tablets and placed on the facade of the White House. The entire screenplay lacks any sense of realism or verisimilitude and this just detaches us that little bit more from the characters and the narrative.

While his performance is very good indeed, Lewis' turn as Lincoln doesn't stand out very much; especially when compared to his incredible portrayal of the greedy and corruptible oil trader Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson's simply astonishing 'There Will Be Blood'. Now of course the dynamics of the two characters are completely different, one is a raging money hungry psychopath and the other is a noble and influential political figure. But his performance in 'Lincoln' doesn't really give him the chance to show his true acting talents; we get lots of slow laborious shots of him sitting in chairs pondering about the future, lots of shots of him standing in front of light to intentionally cast a statue-like shadow which emphases the almost deific attitude Spielberg has towards to the president and long tracking, seemingly never ending scenes of one or two men quietly talking in a room, intermittently shouting to keep our attention. It does frustrate me that Lewis won the Oscar for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln because there were so many other worthy performances that should have won instead. Hugh Jackman wowed us with his musical portrayal of Jean Valjean in Tom Hoopers daring adaptation of 'Les Miserables', Bradley Cooper gave a career best and unexpected performance in David O. Russells 'Silver Linings Playbook' and Joaquin Phoenix was absolutely mesmeric in Paul Thomas Andersons 'The Master'. All of these were easily capable of winning the Academy Award, but sadly Lewis secured his name in the gold envelope as soon as he took on the role for many different reasons. The main reason is that he is portraying the most important American president of all time and if the Academy love anything, it is a bit of patriotism. It also tells the story of the end of slavery, which is a topic that seems to be popular  for directors right now, it stars an actor who already has a knack for winning Oscars and it is directed by one of the most influential and more importantly, profitable directors of our time. All the signs pointed to Oscar glory and of course on the night, Daniel Day Lewis would indeed win the Academy Award for Best Actor In A Leading Role. As I say, it's not a bad performance at all and it would be ignorant and incredibly stupid and narrow minded of me to say otherwise. But I do wish that the AMPAS would have at least considered the other nominees rather than going for the obvious choice.

The supporting cast is a smorgasbord of some of the greatest actors and actresses around and just like Daniel Day Lewis, they all give good performances. But once again, nothing special. Sally Field gives a reliably strong turn as Lincoln's doting wife Mary, but as mentioned earlier, the script doesn't really do much to allow her to develop a character or personality. Tommy Lee Jones plays as it were the antagonist of the movie as Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, a vehement abolitionist who worries that Lincoln would turn his back on emancipation. Once again, for his performance Jones was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor but lost to 'Django Unchained's Christoph Waltz and I am glad of this because even though his portrayal of Stevens is good, it's not as accomplished or as cinematically engaging as Waltz. The rest of the cast includes such stalwarts as David Strathairn, Jared Harris, Bruce McGill, Hal Holbrook and James Spader as well as newer established actors such as Joseph Gordon Levitt who plays Lincolns son Robert.

I really, really wanted to love 'Lincoln'. Spielberg is a director whose work I love and Daniel Day Lewis is an actor whose ability is rarely matched by others. But despite looking authentically beautiful thanks to the fantastic production design and cinematography, the film is a crushing disappointment. I can certainly see why American critics fell in love with the movie and Spielberg does a great job of portraying just how important Abraham Lincoln is in the history of The United States Of America. But thanks to a running time that rivals that of Peter Jackson's 'The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey', 'Lincoln' is a slow moving, tedious and dialogue heavy snoozefest.