Film Comment: Lincoln...

 ...wherein Daniel Day-Lewis gives us a moment's fright early on as his characterization of the 16th president flirts with parody. Are those cornpone anecdotes heading somewhere or is the great actor channelling a heretofore unknown love of SCTV?

No need to worry. DD-L, screenplay writer Tony Kushner, and of couse Steven Spielberg know what they're doing. The seemingly off-topic stories--parables, if you will--always come to the heart of the issue at hand.

The issue is the 13th Amendment. Lincoln wants an amendment outlawing slavery ready to sign before his second inaugural. The Democratic Party just took a lickin' in the election but instead of softening their absolutist views they had become more rigid. Secretary of State Seward, and a talented trio of patronage-jobs-offering oddballs desperately try to secure the votes. Lincoln's concern is that the Emancipation Proclamation was only a war-time measure, and that come the end of hostilities black people who had been free--indeed, who had joined the Union army to fight for their freedom--would be forced back into slavery.

It's difficult not to flinch at the anger-slash-fear of those opposed to the amendment, their dread of the country absorbing 4 million free blacks, 4 million people hell-bent on revenge and ready to snatch and grab from decent, God-fearin' folk. What next, they ask? The franchise for black men?

Secretary of State Seward was played by the wonderful David Strathairn (who probably could have played a first-rate Lincoln, too). A plumped up James Spader shone as one of the get-the-vote trio, totally unafraid of DD-L. Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens was a marvel, really giving us a taste of the days when people spoke beautifully as opposed to our "like, you know" caliber of political discourse. (Nice last scene with him, too. Was Kushner being creative or is fact more fascinating than fiction?)

While the up for anything Joseph Gordon-Levitt did what he could with the small part of Lincoln's son Robert, Sally Field's Mary Todd Lincoln didn't really work for us. Yes, the real-life woman was rumored to be "tetched", but the wimpering and scenery chewing and the googly eyeballs and pursed lips...it was a wee bit too much. We realize she knew heartache but as a modern person would say, "It's all about you, isn't it?"

We sat anxiously as the votes were cast, even knowing the outcome.

In the second inaugural Lincoln wondered if the horrific cost of the war - 600,000 dead, eight month's worth of 9-11's - was due to the moral sin of slavery. Was every drop of blood equal to the blood drawn from the lash? A reasonable question, posed by an extraordinarily reasonable, creative and bright man.

Recommend Plus.