Lincoln

Daniel Day Lewis becomes President Lincoln, and Sally Fields is his beloved wife, Molly, in one of the best movies I’ve watched in 2012 – and there have been some fine films this year.

The actors absorb the audience into the story, making the audience participants in a bloody civil war the likes of which nearly tore the country apart permanently. Daniel Day Lew is low-key as Lincoln, allowing the scenes to unfold, especially when telling one of his endless repertoire of homey folk tales that help underscore a point. Many other actors would have oversold the story, losing the point of it in the telling, but Lewis lets the story speak to the issue at hand. Fields captures perfectly a flawed woman, one whose personal demons create a barrier between her and husband and children, as well as the attendees at White House functions. She, and Lincoln, have suffered grievous personal loss, but Lincoln is more able to accept the past, live in the present, and keep moving toward the future. It is amazing to see Lewis’s character age and become a victim of his time and circumstance during the course of the two-hour film.

What is interesting to me is that the audience was solely comprised of grey-haired seniors, the demographic that will understand the content of the film because we were taught the background important to the film. I clearly remember not just memorizing math “times tables,” but also great speeches throughout the course of America’s history, including the Gettysburg Address and the preamble to the Constitution. This film brings the history to life, but if the audience doesn’t already have a nodding acquaintance with that history, much of the content of the dialog, as well as the historical settings, will be lost.

This film develops the story visually, showing the gritty reality of a bloody civil war and saving the words for direct interaction between characters. The epic debate in Congress is raw, gritty, passionate, nothing like the carefully engineered press conferences that pass for political convictions these days. How much better it would be to allow politicians to “fight it out” on the floor of the Congress, rather than talking it to death on the couches of the late night entertainment shows. The scenes of the fighting underscore the urgency of Lincoln’s need to pass his important Amendment, to assure that all of the Negroes who fought and died for this country did not do so in vain. With the conviction of his belief, Lincoln goes to the people who can effect change and challenges them to do so with passionate conviction and persuasive rhetoric.

All in all, I like this movie; I really like this movie. Both Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Field should be nominated for Academy consideration, as well as the finished film. If we could teach American history, or speech and debate, with fine films such as Lincoln, our younger generation would understand the legacy of those who have come before them in a country that is committed to its principles and willing to fight to the death to defend them from enemies both domestic and foreign.