Lincoln

[InTylerWeTrust]

So, that's the voice? Oh my God. I was expecting Daniel Plainview's Grandpa for sure, but what more can you expect from the chameleon DDL.

The voice in the trailer is NOT Daniel-Day Lewis.....

It's the voice of the black soldier. He is quoting the address in the shot where he is turning from Lincoln.

[Pubrick]

A trailer for a trailer... I think we can blame Prometheus for this recent trend.

"hangout"?

hahaha..

and since this proto-trailer gives no clue as to what Joseph Gordon-Levitt has to do with the movie, the offer of chatting with him at this "hangout" (hahaha) is just baffling. it's like "hey kids come talk to your hero Steven Spielberg and world renown Lincoln historian JGL."

[Pozer]

this had to be DDL's response to Spielberg when he hit him up to be a part of it ...

"hangout"?

fuck outta here with that, Steve.

[HeywoodRFloyd]

The Lincoln Trailer!

[picolas]

my one complaint: not enough fading to black.

[polkablues]

I can see why the promotional strategy up to this point revolved around hiding his face.  That makeup job is more distracting than JGL's Bruce Willis face in Looper.  Dig the voice, though.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I hope the trailer music is not indicative of the movie's actual score.

And am I right to observe that he has an H.W.?

[©brad]

Eek so much schmaltz. I hope this has some bite to it. Looks beautiful for sure.

my one complaint: not enough fading to black.

Seriously!

[RegularKarate]

But what end-of-year trailer for a Spielberg movie has not been exactly like this? It's not exactly indicative of what the actual movie will be like... other than it will be Spielberg.

[Alexandro]

I'm pretty sure Day-Lewis can do this role justice. Spielberg is always worrisome when he tackles these subjects because his worst tendencies usually take the spotlight, as this trailer suggests. No one seems to be talking like a normal human being in all of it. Everyone is making statements. I have more hope invested in the fact that Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay. Yes, characters in Angels In America also talk as if they're making speeches all the time, but the piece finds it's own flavor and when you see it complete, it's not bothersome at all.

Spielberg's best films (or if you may, the interesting ones) have always been those where he is working in unique universes/genre mashups.

From the first half of his career there's all the classics: the suburban existence permeated by fantastic elements of horror or wonder he used in Jaws, Close Encounters, E.T. and all those other films he did not direct which were nevertheless emblematic of his sensibility: Poltergeist, The Goonies, Gremlins. Ditto the update to serials into the action genre with the Indy films.

From his "mature" phase: The faux documentary/pollack school/character study of Schindler's List; the hyperrealism of war/postcard americana homage to WW2 veterans of SPR; the science fiction/fairy tale (and Kubrick sensibility) of A.I.; the caper/comedy/drama of Catch me if you Can; the sf futuristic neo-noir of Minority Report; and the use of the international spy thriller aesthetic in an indictment of fundamentalist reactions to terrorism of Munich. Even War of the Worlds, with it's use of 9/11 imagery in the midst of an alien invasion adventure. These twisting of conventions have freed him to do some strange things, explore his dark side, and ultimately be a more effective craftsman and storyteller. The exception would be War Horse. Every single time he plunges into something "serious" in a straight manner (Amistad, Color Purple, Empire of the Sun) he falls short.

This seems to be one of those.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I'm honestly not sure I buy the DDL Lincoln voice yet. I can already hear a lot of his native accent creeping in. I suppose you'd get used to it in the full movie.

[samsong]

new trailer

the first 45 seconds are unconscionable.  whoever's behind putting these together should be castrated.  two of the worst trailers i've seen in some time.  this one makes ddl's performance more a selling point and makes it look like gladiator the way the last trailer made it look like forrest gump.  some new footage though and that's all i'm really interested in.  i've been fairly obsessed with this movie and can't wait to see it.   

[©brad]

I didn't think it was that bad. Gave me goosebumps at the end there. I'm a little worried about this article I stumbled upon last week on NYMAG though. I can't find it now but they mentioned a bad screening of the film in Jersey of all places. The only quote I remember was people thinking it was really boring.

[MacGuffin]

I'm a little worried about this article I stumbled upon last week on NYMAG though. I can't find it now but they mentioned a bad screening of the film in Jersey of all places. The only quote I remember was people thinking it was really boring.

Oscar Watch: Spielberg's 'Lincoln' test screens in New Jersey
Lou Lumenick; NY Post

I'm told that Steven Spielberg's much-anticipated "Lincoln" -- which, sight unseen, is the front-runner in Oscar's Best Picture race with 11-2 odds at Gold Derby -- had a test screening Tuesday night at the AMC Garden State Plaza 16 in Paramus, N.J.

Which surprises me quite a bit, since Steven Spielberg is on the record as being vehemently opposed to test screenings, going all the way back to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind,'' which received a premature pan in a national publication of a far-from-final version out of a Texas test screening 35 years ago. And he's long had the clout not to do them.

"The movies I personally direct I don't test,'' Spielberg once told an interviewer "I haven't tested a movie since 'Hook' in 1991. I think tests are deceiving. Even though the critical community vilified me and trounced that film, the test scores were some of the highest that had ever been gotten by a movie...If I've earned anything [as a filmmaker] it's the right to say to studios, 'Please don't even ask' [for test screenings]."

So what did the person who altered me to the existence of this screening -- after they saw it -- think of this work in progress? Please keep in mind that changes -- possibly substantial ones -- can be made right up until its world premiere at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Nov. 8, the day before "Lincoln'' opens wide in theaters. So take this with at least a grain of salt.

"The performances of Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, and Hal Holbrook were great,'' wrote this person, a passionate moviegoer who is not connected with the film industry, who flatly predicts that Day-Lewis will get a Best Picture nomination in the title role. "Sally Field was miscast as Mrs. Lincoln, Joseph Gordon Levitt as Lincoln's eldest son was OK but he really didn't add anything to the story.

"My biggest issue with the film as a whole was, it was boring,'' this civilian viewer wrote. "With the film centering on the vote for the 13th amendment, ending slavery and the Civil War, you'd think Spielberg would have made a more exciting, riveting film. So much of the story takes place in small, smoky dark rooms with Lincoln talking to one or two people, that my mind began to wander. It felt claustrophobic.

If he had shown the horrors of slavery and the Civil War, it might have evened out the story. They pretty much kept the film centered around the politicians.''

I'm a big Spielberg fan, and I hope "Lincoln'' works. If there are indeed problems with "Lincoln'' -- and, keep in mind, this is one nonprofessional's opinion -- Spielberg has seven weeks to try and fix things like, say, the pacing. And as Spielberg notes, test screenings can be deceiving. "Close Encounters'' certainly worked out OK.

[©brad]

That's it. And nevermind, that person sounds like an idiot.