Lincoln

As soon as the first promotional photo of Daniel Day-Lewis playing Abraham Lincoln was released, it became pretty clear he was the front runner for the Best Actor trophy at the Oscars. Now, I don’t believe I’ve ever met Lincoln, but from what I gather the resemblance is pretty uncanny. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Lincoln follows the final six months of the President’s life. During this time he deals with growing pressure to end the Civil War, along with his attempt to pass the Thirteenth Amendment in the House of Representatives. The amendment, which outlawed slavery, ends up being the film’s main conflict.

While I’m no Lincoln scholar, I know that the film presents the icon through a strictly supportive method. The issue that outlawing slavery was also important to collapse the Confederacy’s economy even in the face of their rejoining the Union is glossed over. Also, the use of corruption to secure the House votes is presented as a clever and positive way to do so. I understand Washington is a shifty place, but the flawed portrait of Honest Abe the film promises never comes to fruition. But what is presented is highly entertaining and dramatic. The audience has a built-in support for such an important figure, who was instrumental in freeing millions and is generally pretty likeable. The script takes advantage of that.

The film’s look continues where Spielberg’s last film, War Horse left off. With an eye on giving the gruesome conditions of war a bit of realism among highly stylized elements, the audience, which consists of more demographics than I’d expect, can handle seeing scenes such as the President riding through a field of soldier corpses. After this, Day-Lewis can probably make the best case for being the best actor in the world. While a look through his filmography may make one think otherwise, I believe that he will continue to win Oscars every time he takes on a role. Some of the other “contenders” seem plain silly compared to Day-Lewis. The supporting cast does very well also, led by Sally Field, David Strathairn and Tommy Lee Jones. But the difference is they give good performances, the actor with his name above the title gives one of the best performances ever.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.