Lincoln movie review

Story: A biographical movie adaptation of the U.S.'s 16th president.

Review: It is not long ago when mash-up movie adaptation Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was shown in cinemas. For those who know the history will find the vampire lore fictional. Although the mashed-up story what Lincoln stood for, you will see in this movie what The Gettysburg Address meant even though most of us were too young to understand when we used it for declamation contests in our elementary school days.

What would the relevance for Lincoln be in a context of a Filipino? You may say 'Not a thing. so what?' But we can draw insights from him. President Lincoln live on the same era when Filipinos fought for revolution. At least on the same century. Even though he fought for the 13th amendment, what he stood for is what we Filipinos struggled for. Equality. Even though we were never independent after Spain, we were on the same wavelength as Lincoln even though timezones apart.

There was two battles Lincoln is facing during this time. One was the American Civil War and the other was the approval of the 13th Amendment at Congress. The American Civil War is not any regular war. It almost cost the Americans to have two separate countries. In duration of this period of time, the rebel states made their own government. The Confederate States Of America with Jefferson Davis as their president. In the case of the American Civil War, it was not a battle between good and evil. It is about which side stood for. But it also costs many lives.

 In the "battle" in the Capitol for the 13th Amendment, Honest Abe also had help. There was William Seward, his former rival turned trusted supporter and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens.

It also makes me wonder if there were such person like Lincoln that is also "clothed with immense power" here in the Philippines, there might be a chance that the bloodshed the revolution brought just to gain independence from Spain could be avoided.

Daniel Day-Lewis did a great performance as Lincoln even though he is an English actor. His impression of a Yankee accent is flawless that he can pass off as American. Unlike the Vampire Hunter, he did much closer to likeness to Abraham Lincoln himself like he was cloned from the archived photos.  Lincoln production designer Rick Carter shares "I haven't gotten over the first time I saw him. Daniel Day-Lewis was not who I saw in front of me. I saw Abraham Lincoln. I didn't see any distinction or gap between them."

Sally Field was a great choice for the role of Mary Todd Lincoln. She bare resemblance to her photos and her performance was great enough to get good reviews. Mary Todd-Lincoln was really ahead of her time. She is very intelligent and headstrong for a woman living in the 20th century America. Tommy Lee Jones did amazing performance as Thaddeus Stevens.

Steven Spielberg is now doing great doing historical and biopic movies. He may not have anything Sci-Fi or Fantasy adventure but anything Spielberg movie is a must-watch. Lincoln is released by 20th Century Fox and distributed by Warner Bros.