Lincoln(2012)- User Reviews

As someone who has seen every Steven Spielberg movie, I was sorely disappointed in this film, even Indiana Jones 4 was better than this film! Sure, Daniel Day-Lewis is an amazing actor, and yes he looked and sounded like you would believe Lincoln would look and sound... BUT... this film was NOT about Lincoln, it was about the 13th Amendment.

It is a sad joke to call this movie "Lincoln" and have over half of the picture dedicated to arguments in congress (with a very strange laughable frumpy-wig sporting Tommy Lee Jones) about the 13th Amendment. Yes, we know Lincoln wanted to end slavery (supposedly as the movie states). Wow. The movie has two good scenes, which honestly in about 4 months time you can rent, then fast forward to 1) the argument between Lincoln and his wife over their dead son and 2) when he attempts to get Robert to not sign up for military service. A grand total of maybe 15 minutes (max including fast forwarding to the scenes).

The real problem with this film is zero plot. The characters (with the exception of one congress person) are entirely flat. This flatness of character makes everything not move one iota the entire time you are watching it. Good acting cannot make up for a lack of plot or forward momentum.

The rest of the movie was sleep-inducing, slow (to the point of death- I think snails stuck in bubble gum move faster), and poorly edited. The movie was also insanely dark, I'm not sure if they were going for an "atmospheric" look in a vain attempt to contrast it with some lack of morality, or what the deal was, but it was rather painful to watch. The worst part of the film comes when Lincoln is shot, or well, we think we are going to see him get shot (which at this point in the picture is almost a relief because you just want the whole movie to be over with already!) but you never actually see his assassination. There isn't even any postscript that I can recall. The last thing you see in this film is (again) frumpy Tommy Lee Jones and his lover. (yawns). Really Spielberg, I expected a LOT better.

Instead I felt the only use for this film may be to US history teachers in high school and colleges, who wish to torture students on a rainy day. It was far too much like a badly done Ken Burns film with actors re-enacting scenes, but minus the narration that actually makes Ken Burns documentaries watchable (and the music).

So if you want to find out about Lincoln and the 13th Amendment, look elsewhere... This is no "Gone With the Wind" or even "Civil Wars." I'd rather have to watch "Cold Mountain" 3x in a row than sit through this again.