The Constitution of the United States of America: The foundation upon which this nation was built and continues to stand as a symbol of democracy and freedom. It is also the oldest living document in the world, meaning it's still the basis for which our democracy and politics are derived, and can be changed by a certain number of votes. There is an amendment in our Constitution which many consider to be one the most important amendments in the history of this country: The 13th Amendment. It was written and signed into law by what many consider to be one of, if not the greatest President this country has ever seen: Abraham Lincoln.
The film opens two years after the Battle of Gettysburg. Abraham Lincoln(Daniel Day-Lewis) has written the Emancipation Proclamation, and has now proposed a radical "13th" amendment to the Constitution. An amendment which he hopes will abolish slavery and end the American Civil War. Technically, the film opens on a battle between colored Union soldiers against the Confederate army. The war doesn't take the reigns of this movie. This film is about Abe Lincoln and his fight to abolish slavery, and he is met with staunch opposition by the Democrats. This is a dark time in our history, when we were at war with each other, and one of the big things that we were fighting about was the right to own slaves.
The big selling point of this picture was Daniel Day-Lewis as President Lincoln. Watching this movie, he IS Lincoln. Day-Lewis got every detail about the man, right, right down to his mannerisms. He portrays a man is constantly battling opposition not just from the Democrats but from people within his own party who feel that the proposed 13th amendment would lead to disaster for the country. Daniel Day-Lewis absolutely steals the show as the 16th President. He just disappears into the role as a compassionate yet steadfast man who feels the weight of the world bearing down on him, waiting for the passage of what many consider to be one of the most important amendments to the Constitution. Some of the other actors of note are James Spader as N.W. Bilbo and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stephens. Both are excellent while Tommy Lee Jones is fairly humorous as Stephens.
Directed by Stephen Spielberg, this film is extremely compelling as an historical drama. With Lincoln's back-and-forth banter among soldiers and his fellow politicians, the film never fails to entertain. You even get to sense Lincoln's exasperation at certain things not going his way and his confrontation with his wife and eldest son not helping any. For a film that really has no action in it, it's still fairly exciting, because you get to see the political process as it was back in the 19th century. It was loud, boisterous and full of squabbling delegates, not unlike today, but far more....open about what they believed was in their best interests. Even after the passage of the 13th amendment and the end of the Civil War, Lincoln still had compassion for the people who fought for the South, he wanted the soldiers to get back to their families and farms.
One of the things I haven't mentioned yet was the assassination of President Lincoln at the Ford Theater. It doesn't really receive much attention, because the bulk of the film was about the President fighting to get his amendment passed. While it's an important part of American history, Spielberg didn't linger too much on the assassination for fear it would dilute the rest of the film's power. And powerful it is. This is one of the best movies that Steven Spielberg has directed in a long time. Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing as Abe Lincoln. I have no problems giving this film a perfect 10/10. I loved it. It's a movie about one of the most important events in human history and I highly recommend this movie to everyone.
I'm going to conclude this review with the Gettysburg Address. Why? It was written two years prior, but is still considered to be the most important speech that Abe Lincoln gave during his time as President.
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
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