Lincoln

[cinemanarchist]

The first and last scenes were definitely the worst. I think it was on Filmspotting where one of the hosts stated that they were afraid the first scene was how the whole movie was going to play out. It feels like what you might imagine a Spielberg movie about Lincoln would be like. Eye-rolling.

That said, I really liked the rest of the movie.

[samsong]

Loved it too. Movie of the year. It's just people talking in rooms, it's great. There are moments in the innocuous piano score that tease you to think "oh christ here it comes, that swelling Speilliams score!" but it thankfully never gets too mawkish, save a few unfortunate moments at the end (this movie was in dire need of some Greenwood or Brion). Make no mistake this is Spielberg at his most restrained. There aren't even that many sweeping crane shots.

Loved this! A magnificent chamber drama. Vastly superior to the biopic I feared it would be. Illuminating and thrilling. One dumb scene. Ten minutes longer than it needed to be, but whatever.

which scene are you talking about? 

semiSPOILER

the unnecessary denouement has become/always been one of spielberg's more dubious hallmarks, and while i don't think those last ten minutes are integral to anything i kind of get the sense that, for him, it was unbearably sad to end the film simply on that devastating, elegiac shot of him walking down the hall on his way to ford's theatre (and that gorgeous last line: "now i must go, though i would rather stay.")

This to me is not really a fatal flaw but flaw nonetheless. It would have been sooooo much better to end on that remarkable hallway shot with that last line. In fact when I watch it again at home I'm stopping it right there.

i'll gladly recognize it as a flaw, but it's also distinctly spielbergian in nature and i can't help but be endeared.  it's like the rainbow at the end of E.T., or the need to show the family reuniting at the end of war of the world, or everything that happens after cruise gets put in jail in minority report.  the guy just can't end his movies on a negative note.  it isn't in his dna as a filmmaker, for better or usually worse.  the closest thing that resembles an upsetting ending from him is munich, and given that that was kushner as well, i have to think that maybe the ending that exists in lincoln came at spielberg's behest.  ending it with that shot of the hall seems more up kushner's alley.  either way i'd still go so far as to call this movie a masterpiece.  i think it's that great.

maybe it's because i read about it before seeing the movie but that early scene with the soliders wasn't as problematic for me as it is for everyone else.  it's one of the few instances a black character is given an opportunity to have real presence and i kind of enjoyed the arbitrary, even facetious inclusion of the gettysburg address.  it's on the nose as shit but it does set tone in terms of establishing lincoln's cadence and presence throughout the film, as well as the lightness (grace?) that pervades the entire film.  and the battle scene that precedes it is pretty fucking brutal. 

[Ghostboy]

which scene are you talking about? 

The last scene with Tommy Lee Jones - the dolly into-a-two-shot reveal had a jokeiness to it that betrayed the sweetness of that moment.

[samsong]

lincoln on third viewing > the master on third viewing

[modage]

NO.

[Stefen]

It was boring as fuck.

I'm never giving Spielberg a chance again. He done went full on sentimental, even if it comes at the expense of having something, anything, happen in his movies.

Spoilers...

I waited 2 and a half hours to see something happen and then Lincoln finally gets to the theater and I'm like, right on, here we go! But instead of showing him getting merked by Booth, it just skips the money shot and cuts to Lincoln on his deathbed.

"Audiences don't want to see the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. They want to see people crying in slow-motion over the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Showing it is pointless and unnecessary."

Get lost, Spielberg. Asshole.

[samsong]

here we go...

waiting for p to see this and shit all over me.

[socketlevel]

I kind of want to shit on him for letting the cat outta the bag on how Spielberg handled the actual assassination. Come on man, a little warning please.

[Alexandro]

yeah, what the fuck?

[Stefen]

I didn't consider it a spoiler, but I can see how others might. I'll edit it.

[polkablues]

All in all, pretty great movie. Spielberg proves again that he's no longer capable of ending a movie at its natural ending, but he otherwise manages to restrain the lesser devils of his nature. And god, what a cast. The greatest collection of That Guy actors ever assembled.

[jenkins]

I thought this was really good, but I liked it less than both War Horse and Tintin. It seems fucking insane that Spielberg made suspense out of the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment -- I was sitting there thinking both "this passed, duh, historical fact" and "WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN??" That seems amazing.

[Kellen]

That shot of Lincoln giving his final speech in the middle of the candle flame was super cheesy.  I thought Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones were good.  Joseph Gordon Levitt seemed like an afterthought, The John Hawkes + friends sections seemed like comedic relief.  I was really hoping that I would love this but it just wasn't the case.

[Alexandro]

SOME SPOILERS

I guess it was ok, but for a film with these ambitions, ok is not enough. Yes, it was restrained for Spielberg, but this made the few corny moments stand out even more than usual. John Williams and his damn solemn trumpet, the official music cue of american cinema for every single time a historic character says something important ruins every potentially emotional moment. As usual, the subplot involving Lincoln being a distant father to his older son seems crammed in. Can't Spielberg leave that shit out just once??? It was just distracting here. As a matter of fact if he was so intent on dealing with that subject again, Lincoln's monologue about his own father was sufficient and it made more sense in the context of the story being told.

The film has some very strong points and the cast is amazing and everyone is great in it, but it lacks a certain something, which I guess is a little bit of malice. Although it shows the way politicians were negotiating the future of slavery in a humorous way, a bit more of cynicism (i'm thinking those same scenes in the hands of someone like Scorsese) would have been welcomed.

I didn't mind the first scene that much but it certainly wasn't the best way to start the movie. 20 minutes in I was still waiting for the film to come alive, and after a while I just accepted that this was the way it was going to be. the last scene, however, is terrible. Not only in dramatic terms but aesthetically, it looks like shit. Lincoln seems weirdly small surrounded by giants. Very weird shot and poor judgement call, that reminded me of the digital morphing of Matt Damon to old man in Saving Private Ryan, probably the worst choice ever made by Spielberg in anything.

I just think the reverential tone that Spielberg feels he needs to have towards the subject matter gets in the way of making it a more dynamic experience.