After an auspicious limited release in only seven locations across the nation, (Seattle and Los Angeles were the only West Coast cities included in the preview) the movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis in the titular role pulled in over $944,308 or $85,846 per screen according to Indiewire.com. “Lincoln” now has to prove that it can bring in the audiences during the domestic (USA and Canada) general release starting this week and in the various 2013 overseas releases starting with Chile on January 3 and continuing through the April 2013 release in Japan. The critics and early preview audiences are raving about the movie calling it "Oscar-worthy" on many levels.
Although Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is loosely based upon seventy-one pages of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s 2005 best seller Team of Rivals: the political genius of Abraham Lincoln; the movie only covers the last few months of Lincoln’s Presidency, starting with events in January 1865 and ending with his assassination.
Even with this “snapshot in time,” two-time Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis works wonders in his reverential portrayal of our 16th President, using the president’s familiar mannerisms, actual quotes from letters and eyewitness accounts and regional vocal inflections to convincing fill out the role of the man who saved the Union. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who spoke about her book Team of Rivals at the Oregon Historical Society’s Hatfield lecture in Feb 2009, declared in a recent interview that the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis was nothing short of miraculous. “Here I was imagining him (Lincoln) for decades…and suddenly he comes to life, “she said.
“Lincoln” has been gaining momentum ever since the surprise premiere of the movie at the New York Film Festival back on October 8. It comes as no surprise that a movie directed by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, using a screenplay written by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tony Kushner ("Angels in America") paired with the lush cinematography of Janusz Kaminski and accompanied by the evocative soundtrack of composer John Williams with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra would immediately attract the attention of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
The movie was filmed on a budget of 65 million dollars, and at the movie preview I attended on Nov 1; it is evident that no expenses were spared in the production. From the period costumes (including Thaddeus Steven’s irregular hairpiece) to the White House and Congressional chambers sets to the recreation of the war telegraph office down to the desk where Lincoln read the transcribed letters from his generals (the location where in October 1861, the grief-stricken president first learned of the death of his friend, Oregon Senator Edward Dickinson Baker at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff) and the Petersen House death scene, authenticity is present in every detail.
Opening with the trademark Spielbergian battle scene and its aftermath, "Lincoln" has a brief, near-hagiographic moment as the President visits the encampment to talk to his troops, including veterans of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Kushner’s dramaturgical hallmark becomes apparent, as Lincoln humbly ponders the meaning to the Greek chorus-like recitation of his Gettysburg Address as memorized by war weary soldiers. The stage is thus set for the final weeks of the Civil War, and includes Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address: "With malice toward none; with charity for all."
The main focus of "Lincoln" is on the struggle (depicted in the tones of a political thriller) to amass the votes needed to pass the 13th Amendment in Congress to forever abolish slavery. The movie continues on a somber note with the surrender at Appomattox, swiftly followed by Lincoln’s inevitable martyrdom at the hands of assassin John Wilkes Booth.
The expertly staged recreation of the Second Battle of Fort Fisher (where Oregonian and Civil War Naval hero Roswell Lamson was grievously wounded) brings much needed attention to the January 1865 joint assault by Union Army and naval forces against the military installation, outside Wilmington, North Carolina. The action battle scenes allow Spielberg to display on a smaller scale, his mastery in depicting the universal horrors of war that were major parts of “Saving Private Ryan” and “War Horse.”
For all the inspirational scenes and historic events and insights that “Lincoln” delivers, there are a few errors and omissions, and that is to be expected in a movie with a running time of over two hours and thirty minutes. In at least two areas, “Lincoln” falls short of fulfilling Spielberg's intent to provide a balanced historical view of the times.
The promise of the movie’s second scene with Lincoln actively listening to the justifiable complaints of two USCT soldiers about inequalities in pay and promotions soon gives way in the remainder of the movie to the long corrected yet persistent stereotypes showing African Americans as not taking an active part in securing their own freedom.
Gloria Reuben as the First Lady's dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley has a symbolic expository conversation about the prospect of life after Emancipation with the President in one scene, but William Slade (as played by Steven McKinney Henderson) is restricted to the role of an (almost) invisible servant. A larger effort should have been devoted to depicting Lincoln’s relationship with black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, or with a visit by Lincoln to one of the federal contraband camps set up in the Washington City environs.
The movie also continues the tradition of unfavorably stereotyping First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln (as portrayed by Sally Fields). It’s ironic that a movie based upon Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, neglects to take an actual page from that playbook where in the chapter entitled “We are in the Depths”, Goodwin describes in detail how it was the custom of the First Lady to bring a carriage full of “baskets of fruit, food and fresh flowers” on her visits to the sick and wounded soldiers languishing in Washington’s government hospitals.
Goodwin describes a typical visit by Mary as a part of her own personal war relief efforts. After distributing lemons and oranges as a prevention for scurvy, Mrs. Lincoln “sat by the side of lonely soldiers, talked with them about their experiences, read to them and helped them write letters to their families at home.” According to Goodwin, “Mary decided to carry on her work discretely…” so as to avoid disrupting the already harried routine of the hospitals.
Even Lincoln’s assistant secretary William Osborn Stoddard noted Mary’s frequent preparations “for her regular round of hospital visits” and wondered at her refusal to inform the press about her work behind the scenes. “This, more than anything," Stoddard surmised, would “sweeten the contents of many journals” including the New York Independent that was described as being “relentless in its attacks upon Mary.”
The big, all-star cast in "Lincoln" includes David Strathairn as William Seward, Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Lincoln, and Bruce McGill as Edwin Stanton. Jared Harris stars as Ulysses S. Grant and Christopher Boyer as Robert E. Lee. Other members of the cast include Gulliver McGrath as Tad Lincoln, James Spader as W.N. Bilbo, Lee Pace as Fernando Wood, Richard Topol as James Speed, and S. Epatha Merkerson as Lydia Smith. "Lincoln" has the unique distinction of being the only movie in history to include in its cast two actors besides Daniel Day-Lewis, who can include the line “experience in portraying Abraham Lincoln” in their resumes.
Veteran character actor Hal Holbrook is featured in the role of Francis Preston Blair in “Lincoln” and he won an Emmy for his portrayal of President Lincoln in the 1974 miniseries of the same name. Holbrook’s version of Lincoln was also added to the cast of another mini-series “North and South” which aired in two parts in 1985 and 1986. David Strathairn, the actor playing Secretary of State Seward in “Lincoln” portrayed the 16th President in the 2008 stage production of Norman Corwin’s “The Rivalry”- a play based upon the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
Lincoln is being distributed through Touchstone, and according to the website Fandango.com, the earliest opening day showings of “Lincoln” in Portland on the morning of November 16 take place at 10:15 am at the Century Clackamas Town Center and Century 16 Eastport Plaza theaters and at the Regal Bridgeport Village Stadium 18 and Imax starting at 10:30am. ”
"Lincoln" is rated PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language. For more information on Lincoln movie times and locations check out the movie listing web page at OregonLive.com or at the fandango.com website for location and times and to purchase and print out your tickets for “Lincoln
