Before I went to see the movie Lincoln, I honestly did not think much of it. I didn’t exactly expect it to contain any action, or humor. But after I watched the movie, I immediately changed my opinion towards it: it turned out to be a rather good movie filled with emotions and a bit of suspense as well. I would also like to say that I thought Daniel Day-Lewis did an excellent job in portraying Abraham Lincoln (I found out that he won an Oscar for that later). I could definitely see the wear and the tear in Lincoln’s face through his makeup and the expressions and emotions that were conveyed.
I thought the beginning of the movie started out a bit slow, but then I believe it climaxed at the scene with the House of Representatives all casting their votes on the amendment. Steven Spielberg definitely dragged out that scene for a long time, which made it a lot more suspenseful. There were also plenty of amazing actors in the movie, such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Tommy Lee Jones. Each of them played their parts very well. Another aspect of the movie that I particularly enjoyed was how they portrayed Lincoln’s character and his personal traits. I noticed how they attempted to do so by showing Lincoln’s personal interactions with his wife, his children, and with his cabinet individually as well. Mary Todd Lincoln, Lincoln’s wife, also played a lot larger role than I expected her to. Although I thought that she acted like she was sort of against Lincoln’s decision regarding the 13th amendment for quite a while. One line of hers I thought was very powerful: it was along the lines of “Never has anyone been so respected as you. Please don’t risk that by trying to do the impossible: enacting the 13th amendment”. I really thought that line highlighted the conflicts that Lincoln constantly experienced with himself, whether to enact the 13th amendment and possibly lose all his support or to quickly focus on solely ending the war. The amount of opponents to Lincoln definitely made the film a lot more suspenseful, and I even thought that the amendment wouldn’t be enacted in the end (enough though I know it did).
Overall, I would definitely recommend the movie to anyone that is fond of history, or would be interested to learn more about Lincoln’s life. He seemed like a very interesting character to play out, and they sure did it well.