Lincoln (2012)

.........See This Movie at FLY27 COM

OK Go see a Great Great Movie Silver Linings

Kushner's plodding, pedantic screenplay and Spielberg's usual sentimentality makes for one boring history lesson. At least Day-Lewis shows some... raint this time. Spare the De-caf if you want to stay awake. Full Review

WHY IS IT WHEN SPIELBERG'S NAME IS APPENDED TO ANYTHING CINEMATIC, IT IS PROCLAIMED AS GREAT? I SAT THROUGH THIS DRIVEL OF A MOVIEFOR OVER TWO HOURS... PRAYING FOR IT TO END. IT PORTRAYS THE ONE ISSUE OF THE CIVIL WAR AS THE PASSAGE OF THE AMENDMENT FOR EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES. THE WAR WAS NOT FOUGHT BECAUSE OF SLAVERY. IT WAS FOUGHT TO PRESERVE THE UNION. EMANCIPATION WAS ONLY A LAST DITCH MEANS USED TO COLLAPSE THE SOUTH'S ECONOMY. DAY'S PORTRAYAL OF LINCOLN WAS STILTED AND DROLL. iT IS DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE ANY PRESIDENT ************ TO CRITICISMS WITH NOTHING BUT WITITY STORIES.IT IS EVEN MORE DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE THAT DAY DESERVES AN ACADEMY AWARD FOR HIS PERFORMANCE. TOMMY LEE JONES WAS FAR BETTER AS WAS HAL HOLBROOK AND SALLY FIIELD. IF SPEILBERG'S INTENT WAS TO DELINIATE HISTORY, HE FAILED MISERABLY. Full Review

Spielberg's Lincoln is overtly and subtly inaccurate, and for that reason it is insidious and dangerous. To John Q. Public, who probably has a... ry knowledge concerning Lincoln and the Civil War, this film will reinforce the biased Union perspective that is generally taught in secondary education. The skewed prism that Spielberg looks through in making this film is an anathema to any historian who has done a scintilla of research concerning the war. In the opening scene of the film two black soldiers are speaking to Lincoln in the pouring rain. Lincoln is perched atop a wagon, visiting troops in the field. Spielberg cleverly positions the camera behind Lincoln, so that the viewer doesn't immediately recognize his voice or visage. The two soldiers engage Lincoln about the Gettysburg Address, and Lincoln quips as to whether they were in Gettysburg and were able to hear his speech. One of the soldiers than proceeds to recite, verbatim, Lincoln's speech. What's ludicrous about this situation is that most blacks of the period possessed a limited, rudimentary, knowledge of the English language. The likelihood that any soldier, much less a black soldier, could accurately recite Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is improbable. Additionally, what makes this scene purely a Spielberg fantasy is that there were no black units in Gettysburg when Lincoln gave his oratory. The centerpiece of Spielberg's Lincoln involves the political machinations concerning the passage of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution. To Spielberg's credit he paints William Seward and Lincoln as the conniving politicians they both were. Their “ends justify the means” approach to the passage of the amendment is depicted without any remorse concerning the morality of buying off potential undecided votes. It is Seward who conspires with Lincoln suggesting that they employ the services of W.N. Bilbo, and others, to corrupt the process and pass the amendment. Basically, Lincoln finds himself twenty votes short for passage of the amendment. Through the auspices of Bilbo and his band of rogues, they systematically bribe each undecided Congressman before finally obtaining the requisite number required for passage. Spielberg's Lincoln is very passionate about the 13th Amendment. But does this passion actually jibe with what transpired during the war? Lincoln's famous quotation to the New York Tribune on August 22, 1862 would seem to contradict Spielberg's curious passion of 1865. The final meeting with the Confederate comissioners aboard the River Queen was also fictious. The real argument between the two sides did not concern slavery, but was about reunification. (Lincoln offered 400 million as compensation to Southern slaveholders) Spielberg's Lincoln is poised for deification, the real Lincoln could have, and should have, prevented the needless slaughter of 600,000 of his fellow count Full Review