Movie of the Week: Lincoln

Alexa: Much of the conversation about “Lincoln” typically revolves around Daniel Day-Lewis’ impeccable performance, but to gloss over the many other elements that make this such an outstanding film would be an injustice to all the tremendous talent involved. Day-Lewis is, of course, exceptional. Few actors completely disappear into their roles quite like he does. From his voice to his mannerisms, every choice he makes in his performance is deliberate, and the end result is an effortlessly layered character. No matter how many times you may have studied Lincoln in school, Day-Lewis’ portrayal makes you feel like you’re getting to know this man on such a personal level. Add on top of that the phenomenal work of the movie’s hair, makeup and costume teams and Day-Lewis isn’t just playing Lincoln here; he becomes him. The film is stuffed full of other powerhouse performances, particularly supporting turns from Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones and brief but memorable appearances from Michael Stuhlbarg and David Oyelowo. It seems every minute the movie goes on you see another familiar face doing great work (Kylo Ren! Rorschach! Ronan the Accuser! Gale from “Breaking Bad!” Peter Gregory from “Silicon Valley!”). Together, every piece of this movie creates such a rich world. The production design is impressively detailed. Steven Spielberg’s direction is remarkable. It’s a no-frills approach that lets the depth of the story speak for itself. And with a razor-sharp focus on the last few months of Lincoln’s life, the passing of the 13th Amendment and the end of the Civil War, it’s story that’s as much about America’s past and present politics as the titular character himself.

Joel: When you talk about Spielberg’s Lincoln, the conversation has to start with the portrayal of the sixteenth president by Daniel Day-Lewis. Day-Lewis is an actor famous for throwing himself fully into each role, but in this movie he may have truly outdone himself. Never before has a portrayal of Abraham Lincoln felt so much like an actual look at the real man. It’s not just that it’s easy to see the character instead of the actor; at a certain point in the movie it becomes almost impossible to see Day-Lewis at all on the screen as all that is left in Lincoln himself. Day-Lewis won his third academy award playing this role and it might be his most deserved one. Of course the costume and makeup work in the movie help a great deal in bringing the movie to life. For that matter, the production quality throughout the entire movie deserves to be commended. The other Oscar the movie won besides the best actor award was the one for Best Production Design, and it’s easy to see why. Each room, each set, each scene is lovingly crafted with a painstaking attention to detail. Visually, each moment of this movie is impressive as the specific month of history that is covers is brought to life, through the costumes, and the sets, building on an impressive repertoire of acting. Yes, Daniel Day-Lewis needs to be lauded for his performance here, but he’s backed up by a fantastic group of actors all on their A-game for this movie. It seems that almost every role in the movie is brought to life by someone who is  giving the performance of a lifetime, even those who only are in a handful of scenes.
In many ways Lincoln feels like one of those “very important” movies. It’s the most prolific director of all time, directing one of the greatest actors of his generation, in a career defining role of one of the most important presidents in history working on what would go on to help define his legacy. It’s easy to see how this movie could feel like it was good, if nothing else because a movie like this is “supposed” to be good. But that is doing the movie and the audience a disservice to view it that way. Lincoln is a movie that earns it gravatas. Yes it feels like it should be an important movie, but it makes sure it backs up that feeling, by genuinely being an incredible piece of filmmaking. This movie is the result of a group of people who are masters at their craft, all at the top of their game, coming together to create something that is truly remarkable.

Chris: There’s a reason Daniel Day-Lewis is the only man to have ever won the Academy Award for Best Actor three times (trailing only Katharine Hepburn who has four Best Actress awards) and it’s largely due to his ability to completely disappear in whatever role he’s in and, as Alexa said, considers every last detail long before it’s ever time to shoot. As much of a DDL fan as I am, I sometimes wish there were more movies of his to see but I also understand that with his process, he can’t just pick up every movie that comes his way. Lincoln as a movie was a ton of small successes adding together for one large victory and the decision to focus on such a specific time of Abraham Lincoln’s life was a bold one to make. This could’ve easily been a biopic of Lincoln’s entire life but the problem with that is that the audience would get a more broad story squeezed into one movie. However, Spielberg went with the option to focus on the passing of the 13th amendment, an amendment everyone is familiar with but had never seen the story play out on screen before. I’m glad this route was taken because we’re always told how great a man/president Abraham Lincoln was but now this movie shows a very specific reason why that is the case. This movie made me want a West Wing style miniseries on the Lincoln presidency.

Jason: Steven Spielberg is one of the most prolific and influential film directors of the last four decades. His movies span all genres and timelines and they always turn out as masterpieces. Lincoln is no exception. However, it was not the director alone that make this a great film. There are so many things that came together to make this one destined to be classic. The script is exceptional, the costumes and sets are all nearly period perfect, and that cast is overflowing with talent. But even that doesn’t cover it all. The story told here could have been much broader. Originally, Spielberg wanted to do a biopic depicting key moments from throughout Lincoln’s whole life. It was only after reading a book by author Doris Kearns Goodwin about the ordeal surrounding the 13th Amendment that he narrowed his focus. This was a perfect decision. Abraham Lincoln’s life was chock full of adventure and great deeds but his true legacy lies in the advancement he helped ignite in this country. That spark was the 13th Amendment.

Watching this, it of course made me think about the country the US has become. It’s amazing how little politics has changed in a century and a half. The game is still nothing more than who has money and who wants money. It’s old men arguing about what others do and do not deserve. Sure, the terms “Republican” and “Democrat” have flipped since then, but the politicians are still fighting the same battles today.

Anyway, I’ll climb down off my soapbox before I get too heated. This is a phenomenal movie and was a classic the moment it was released. On a related note, this film was released within 6 months of another movie about Abe’s life and, upon rewatching this one for the first time in a while, there were scenes that I remembered being in this one but aren’t actually. Like the climactic axe-fu battle atop a burning train. Guess that was Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter after all...