2012 Ranked
Non-2020 First Time Watches Ranked
Directors Ranked: Steven Spielberg

Film #66 in my 100 Degrees, 100 Movies Challenge

Common actor from previous film: Hal Holbrook

PREVIOUS FILM: The Fog
NEXT FILM: Wall Street

Admittedly, I put this film off for a while as I don't really have an interest in American history. However, I am also on a quest to smash out as many complete filmographies of film directors as I can. With Spielberg being arguably the grand daddy of film directors, I knew I had to get onto this one, and while I didn't think it'd be bad, I found myself getting sucked in more than I thought I would. I'd say that was down to the performances in this film too.

Everybody carried their weight in this one, but one thing I'll say is I saw Tommy Lee Jones instead of Thaddeus Stevens or I saw James Spader instead of WN Bilbo. But I didn't see Daniel Day-Lewis. I saw Abraham Lincoln. It is insane just how much DDL embodied this role. More often than not in biopics, the actor overshadows the role. But that isn't the case here. I'm not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best performances I've seen in a film.

I also liked the focus of this being purely on the 13th amendment stuff, arguably Lincoln's greatest battle. Also, full credit to the writing team as they didn't lean to a side RE Democrats or Republicans, they just lent to anti-slavery then gave somewhat convincing arguments from each side (I mean that in a historical sense, not in the "maybe I see the benefits in slavery sense :P).

I think the main problem with this film is pacing. It's very talky, which is fine, but the second half kinda drags, which is a shame as the first half is fantastic. But overall, this is well worth a watch, even if maybe American history isn't your thing.