Lincoln

February 26, 2013
By Oliver Layco

I’ve never had any preconceived notion of how our 16th President would be as a person, father, and leader. In the recent film by Steven Spielberg, we get to see the hardships that Lincoln, played by Daniel Day Lewis, had to face in the closing days of the Civil War while trying to pass the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. There are strong performances throughout from the other stars; Sally Field as Mrs. Lincoln, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Lincoln, and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens. Each one of them gives a convincing role as to who they were trying to portray. The weakest of them being Joseph Gordon-Levitt; but that may be due to his lack of screen time; and his character came off as the whiny kid who didn’t want to do what his dad told him to do. As for Daniel Day Lewis, he will be my standard for future Lincoln portrayals as much as Robert Downey Jr. will be the standard for Tony Stark. He was so convincing as the type of father and leader Lincoln would be that I could see why he won Best Actor. As for the pace of the film, it seemed to flow on with little to no snags along the way. When the Republicans were trying to buy votes, it was a nice break from the main point in the story. While I’m sure it wasn’t 100% factual, I had no problems with how things were portrayed in 1860’s America. The costumes were believable, the sets were believable, and everything about it was just great. Spielberg really knows how to draw his audience in. Should it have won best picture? Until I see Argo and the other nominated films I will withhold judgment; but for now, it was a fully enjoyable film about the last few months of President Lincoln’s life.

9 out of 10 Bigblue Leaps!!

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Nutshell Reviews is a collection of very short reviews of the most significant movies, books, music, and video games, from both the present day and days gone passed.