Quest for Oscar... "Lincoln"

A movie so inaccurately named, it's not even funny.

The Story:

President Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) has just been re-elected.  The Civil War is still raging, and Lincoln is on a mission.  He needs to pass the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, once and for all.  He fears that while the Emancipation Proclamation was a great idea, it was issued during a time of war, and once war ends, which seemed to be imminent, slavery would simply return.  He had to convince Congress to get behind the measure and push it through...by any means necessary.

Seriously, this movie should have been called... "Amendment" or... really, anything other than Lincoln.

The truth of the matter, the movie really deals with the political mechanics of getting the Amendment pushed through Congress.

I cannot vouch for the validity of the claims, but it seemed like Lincoln's goal was to make sure the Amendment went through before any chance of peace with the South was broached.  He knew the war was coming to an end, and wanted to ensure slavery was abolished legally forever.

By far, the interest and intrigue comes in the movie by Lincoln's dealing with Congress and his cabinet.  And Congress dealing with each other and Lincoln.

Tommy Lee Jones once again takes center stage and you lean to him to see the real story unfold.

In fact, the weakest part of the story, or at least for me, the part I really could care less about was Lincoln and his family.  When the focus shifts to Mary Todd Lincoln (Sally Field) or worse still, Robert Lincoln (Joseph Gordon-Levett)... for me the movie shifted into snooze control for a few moments.

But when it shifts back into the debates, the movie fires on almost all cylinders.

The other issue with the movie: Spielberg didn't know when to say "cut".

He had the perfect ending for the film... but because he slapped the name "Lincoln" on it, he felt the need to follow through with the assassination.

Mistake.

It wasn't needed, nor was it executed (no pun intended) very well.  There was nothing added by any scene after Lincoln walked down the hallway when the movie SHOULD have ended.

I'm giving the movie a final grade of B-, and I'm being generous because there were easily enough things that didn't click to drop this to " C level ".

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Zero interest in needing to see this again.