This week a few friends and I decided to go see the new movie “Lincoln.” We all had high expectations for this film due to its all-star cast, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the fact that it was directed by Stephen Spielberg. This movie began toward the end of the Civil War and in the midst of when Lincoln was fighting for the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. The film focuses more so on the struggles Lincoln faced in Washington with different representatives and members of his own cabinet, rather than the bloody battles that were taking place. “Lincoln” illustrated the fact that the President was forced to make several sacrifices and difficult choices in order to get the amendment ratified.
With all of this included throughout the film, “Lincoln” definitely lived up to my expectations. This film was able to not include much action at all and yet thrust its audience into a not so often shown part of the Civil War. I really liked the fact that this film simply began towards the end of the Civil War. In my mind, this showed that there were a great deal of intricacies and details of it that could not realistically be included in one film; the fact that this film was almost three hours long definitely illustrates this.
In the end, I really enjoyed this film; however, it is definitely not for everyone. I am a history major, so I was already really interested in this subject. Due to this, I think that, if you are not really all that interested in this period of history — or history at all — “Lincoln” is probably not for you. Although I would encourage everyone to see this great movie, I am a realist and understand that not everyone is all that interested in history, and can therefore say that those who are interested will be greatly entertained, while those who are not will most likely be bored.
