It has taken me
5 days to come around to writing this review.
Primarily because I was trying to play back the entire movie in my head as
many times as I could. I may have been
better off going back to watch the movie again when I think about it. I guess better sense takes its time to
prevail.
One of the
reasons that I took a while as well, was the stunning performance from one
Daniel Day Lewis. With 2 Oscars under
his belt already (My Left Foot / There Will Be Blood), DDL is probably best
placed to go one ahead of everyone else for being the actor with maximum awards
in the “Best Actor” Category. He will,
however have to wait a little longer to emulate Katherine Hepburn who has 4.
Lincoln is based
on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography – Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of
Abraham Lincoln. It covers the last 4
months of Lincoln’s term as the most powerful man in the world. For those who expect a long drawn full
biography of Lincoln’s life, you will need to reset the expectation.
The movie brings
to the fore several characteristics that led Lincoln to be one of the most
favoured Presidents of the United States of America. His capability to go down to the level of the
common man and speaking to them like they are his friends is probably
unmatched. Like the movie starts with
him making conversation with a couple of corporals who are fighting for The
Union.
I cannot say if what
has been recounted by history and in the book is the whole truth or not because
I am no expert. But what you see is
something that leads you to be convinced that Lincoln was not just one loved by
the people but also one who knew his way around on how to get Thirteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the House of
Representatives.
Lincoln is a
slow movie. In fact, like most of Steven
Spielberg’s previous period dramas like Schindler’s List OR Amistad. There is a
lot of painful attention to detail and to make matters challenging for the
normal movie fan – it is nearly 2 hours 40 minutes long. So you will need to have a good amount of
patience.
But what makes
it easy on the eyes are the stunning performances that have earned 3 acting
nominations. Sally Fields (First Lady
Mary Todd Lincoln) and Tommy Lee Jones (Thaddeus Stevens) get nominations for
Supporting Roles. Their performances are
truly up there. Spielberg’s usual
suspects also get nominations – Janusz Kamiński (Cinematography), Michael Kahn
(Editing) and John Williams (Original Score).
A total of 12
nominations makes Lincoln the lead runner for the Academy Awards this
year. I am definitely banking on Daniel
Day Lewis. But cannot say for sure
because I have only seen Hugh Jackman’s performance in Les Misérables. Are the others releasing before? Don’t know. For now, 8 on 10 for Lincoln.
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