Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 22 – Thu 28 Feb
Steven Spielberg / USA / 2012 / 150 min
Rather than being sentimental about Abraham Lincoln‘s (Daniel Day-Lewis) personal life, as you might expect with the subject matter, Steven Spielberg focuses on the smallest aspects of Lincoln’s arguably greatest political achievement. Starting four years into the Civil War, Lincoln explores the president’s re-election and his unpopular plan to pass the Thirteenth Amendment through the House of Representatives and on into United States law.
Day-Lewis throws out a detailed performance; every movement, facial expression or lilting phrase so compelling he effortlessly draws you into the narrative, emanating a presidential air all the way. Spielberg takes great pains to temper the icon, showing him reeling off anecdotes or playing with his son, contrasting the gravity of the political situation. Humour is brought in through Tommy Lee Jones’ long-winded insults, balancing the more serious themes while Sally Field further humanises Lincoln by emphasising his role as husband and father.
Spielberg’s concentrated focus on the abolition of slavery is sometimes overwhelming, eclipsing many of other issues that surrounded the American Civil War such as the Union’s reticence towards a dual sovereign state with the Confederates. Lincoln’s children are also present but their relationships feel somewhat skirted over. Robert Lincoln’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) desperation to join the army works well to exemplify the difficulties the President faced out of the office, but doesn’t get the screen time it needed.
By intricately surrounding the passing of the amendment with other engaging elements; language, costume and Day-Lewis’ performance, Spielberg has managed to create a sense of intrigue and drama that make this a powerful film, leaving us to ponder the real star of the picture: the legal process of achieving freedom which set the raised the bar in the long and continuing struggle for true black and white equality.
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