Movie Review | Lincoln: Argumentative Abe

Portrait of 16th president focuses on his efforts to abolish slavery

By For The Columbus Dispatch  • 

The greatest U.S. president, the most commercially successful filmmaker and the most immersive actor intersect in Lincoln.

Despite the title, director Steven Spielberg doesn’t provide an inclusive biography of the 16th president. Instead, the script by Tony Kushner (Angels in America) — “based in part” on the 2005 book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin — emphasizes his efforts in early 1865 to ensure approval of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, in the House of Representatives.

The Senate had adopted the amendment the previous year, but the House had rejected it. Lincoln is determined to have a second, successful vote before the end of the war, fearing that his Emancipation Proclamation will be overturned and the issue will be permanently shelved.

The focus is surprising, considering that the events in the movie take up just four pages of the 900-page Goodwin book and that one of the most colorful characters, fiery abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens, isn’t mentioned in connection with the vote at all.

Spielberg probably recognized the pitfalls in creating a sweeping epic of the Lincoln presidency and trusted Kushner to reduce the scope to a single dramatic struggle that had lasting influence.

Granted, the film squeezes in more than a small political drama: Lincoln interacts with his difficult wife and two surviving sons, goes to the battlefield and meets with a Confederate delegation to talk about a nonmilitary end to the war. The last day of his life is included, although his murder happens offstage.

Most of Lincoln, though, involves a series of contentious arguments in small rooms and attempts to buy or coerce affirmative votes from reluctant congressmen. It presents a lot of talk, not all of it obvious, in a messy battle of backroom politics. The authenticity of the scenes (from many sources beyond those of Goodwin) isn’t in doubt, but the dramatic effect is choppy and uneven, and Lincoln is off-screen too much in a movie named for him.

Making the effort nonetheless intriguing is the smart, thorough portrayal by Daniel Day-Lewis as a savvy political master who surrounded himself with contrary men, gleaned their wisdom and steered events toward the results he was convinced were needed.

In keeping with contemporary descriptions of the president, Day-Lewis offers a Lincoln with a high-pitched voice, a weakness for raucous laughter and a physical presence almost wobbly when he isn’t absorbed in grave thought.

Sally Field adds a vivid performance as first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, incorporating her shrewd political insights, tendencies toward vendettas and indulgence, and lingering agony over the death of son Willie.A blistering argument between the spouses represents the dramatic highlight.

Many familiar actors file through in luxuriant beards, but Tommy Lee Jones seems most indelible as Stevens, a cantankerous Lincoln foe pressed into an alliance.

Moviegoers who are drawn to Lincoln for patriotic majesty and simple hagiography might be confused or disappointed. Yet the meticulous re-creation of the time and place, and the deeply humanized performance of Day-Lewis should inspire many to learn more about the leader they know mostly as a marble statue.