Clueless Movie Reviews: “Lincoln”

Let any doubts you might have had be put to rest: Lincoln is all but a shoe-in for multiple Oscar nominations. It’s packed full of lyrical writing from screenwriter Tony Kushner (Munich), memorable performances from talented character actors, and many opportunities for Daniel Day-Lewis to once again show why he’s the premier method actor of his generation. He simply becomes Abraham Lincoln, and by the end of the film, his charismatic performance makes believable the reverence that his friends and supporters held for him, particularly during this period of time, near the tragic end of his life.

It’s January, 1865. The Civil War is in its fourth year, and though there is a sense that the Confederates are simply running out of men and bullets and the conflict is winding down, its cost weighs heavily on newly-re-elected President Lincoln. However, unlike his devoted friend and Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn) and the other members of his cabinet who simply want him to seek an end to the war, Lincoln is looking beyond the war’s end, seeking a way to make his emancipation of the slaves legally binding for all time. His solution is the passage of what would be the 13th Amendment, but he faces a seemingly-impossible battle to get it passed in the House of Representatives.

The amendment had failed to pass in the House when it passed in the Senate the previous year, and there was well-founded anxiety among Lincoln’s inner circle that another effort to get it passed before an end to the war would end in not only defeat, but also the loss of political capital gained through Lincoln’s re-election. Outside of Lincoln’s cabinet, however, are abolitionist Republicans led by the fiery, outspoken Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones), who has spent his entire life speaking in support of full racial equality and fears that Lincoln’s administration would do nothing to support emancipation once the war is over. And on the other side of the aisle are the Democrats, still smarting from their loss of 50 seats in the House, eager to paint any legislation Lincoln and the abolitionists put forth in the name of equality as “upsetting to the ‘natural order’, and thus deal their political enemy a crushing defeat of his own.

Lincoln knows that the amendment can’t wait for the end of the war, and so he commits to using every means at his disposal, including keeping in the dark or outright deceiving some of his staunchest supporters in key moments, to get the 120 votes the amendment needs for passage.

So a popular president, fresh off of re-election, facing a battle in Congress to push through unpopular legislation that many in the nation believe Americans either aren’t ready for or don’t want at all, ready to use up any and all political cache he might have to get the job done because he knows that it’s necessary. Sound like a familiar story, maybe like one we’re all living through right now?

In all fairness, the film’s script, as adapted by Kushner from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, doesn’t feel like it’s going out of the way to create parallels between the political landscape Lincoln faced 150 years ago and the one we as a nation face today. Rather, the film is a study of political gamesmanship during a dark chapter in our history, and an intensely sympathetic portrait of Lincoln as a statesman and a father navigating those treacherous waters. As if the political challenges weren’t enough to make life difficult, the president contends with the return of his eldest son, Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who wishes to leave law school behind and enlist in the Union Army. The Lincolns had already lost a son, Willie, three years earlier, and thus they both have no wish to see Robert go off to war, much more so Mrs. Lincoln (Sally Field), who still at times loses herself to her continuing grief for Willie and leaves care of their youngest son, Tad, to Abe. The battles that ensue between the Lincolns over Robert’s future prove to be as difficult as any political wrangling featured in the film.

Through it all, Daniel Day-Lewis makes Lincoln at all times human and accessible. This isn’t the icon with the remote expression that we see on the five dollar bill or the rock face of Mount Rushmore, but a flawed, feeling man who knows he’s near his limits, but is determined to push on with his course because he knows it’s right and it must be done, regardless of the tactics he must employ or how dirty his hands must get. He’s weary, certainly, and the many agendas of his cabinet members, the members of the House, and even his own wife weigh upon him physically, to the point where he walks through the halls of the White House with slouched shoulders and slow, deliberate strides. When political pettiness or lack of vision among his advisers threatens to derail his efforts late in the game, palpable exasperation creeps into his bearing, but the only time we see him really crack is in the face of Mary, whose tearful tirades and accusations of sending Robert off to his death in the war cut deeper than anything else he faces.

But it’s not all weariness and sadness for Day-Lewis to bring to life here. The script demands that he show audiences who Lincoln was among his friends and subordinates, what he did to inspire the loyalty among them that he did, and in those scenes he’s just as effective. Whether he’s meeting with his Cabinet, with wounded soldiers back from the front, with constituents seeking his help in struggles beneath his office or with a single telegraph operator waiting for a critical message that could determine the course of the war, the president is always ready to share a story, a wan smile, a light touch on the shoulder. That touch at times looks frail, but the strength it conveys is clear on those around him. You always have the sense that those who he came in contact with would remember that contact for the rest of their lives.

Spielberg also draws powerful performances from the supporting cast, in particular Sally Field in her emotionally-charged portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln, and also Jones as the firebrand Rep. Stevens and James Spader as smarmy political operative William H. Bilboe, a drinker and a scoundrel who along with two others is tasked with a clandestine role in getting the amendment passed that they’ll never get official credit for. Those performances, along with meticulous detail in production design and Spielberg’s trademark flair for staging and pacing, result in a film that convincingly immerses you in that time and place. This is not stodgy, textbook American history, but a living, breathing setting populated by real people, and a film experience that should not be missed, whether you know the story or not.

Score: 4.5 out of 5

Lincoln
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, and Tommy Lee Jones. Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Running Time: 150 minutes
Rated PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language.