Lincoln (2012): One long boring speech

In two weeks we will finally know who went home with some brand new Oscar statuettes, are you excited yet?! Although I haven’t seen every single movie yet (only 2 more to go though) I can already tell you I’m hugely disappointed in the movies that were nominated for Best Picture. So far, I’ve only really liked two out of the 7 I’ve seen. Mind you, I still have to see Zero Dark Thirty and Amour.

Let’s start with letdown number 1: Lincoln. As this movie received the biggest amount of nominations this year, I honestly thought this would be an epic movie,but in truth, it was one of the most boring and pointless movies I’ve ever seen. I had a hard time trying to stay awake throughout the whole thing. How this movie ever got nominated for 12 awards is beyond me, but either way, here is the list of its nominations: Actor In a Leading Role (Daniel Day-Lewis), Actor In a Supporting Role (Tommy Lee Jones), Actress In a Supporting Role (Sally Field), Best Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Music (Original Score), Production Design, Sound Mixing, Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

The never ending speeches and debates

There’s not a lot to say about the story in this movie as it is a rather easy tale:
Back in 1856 America’s president Abraham Lincoln was trying to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would abolish slavery. At the same time, the Civil war between the United States (The Union) and some Southern slave states (The Confederacy) was coming to an end. If the war ended before the amendment was passed, Abe knew there was no chance whatsoever the amendment would pass. On top of that, to be able to abolish slavery, the republican party of Lincoln has to convince some Democrats to vote for the passing as well, which is not an easy task.

Although it’s obviously a very important point in the history of the United States, this movie was just dull from beginning to end. The main reason why I don’t like this movie at all, is because it’s just one very long speech, apart from two scenes. One very short scene on the battlefield and the part where they are voting on the amendment.

Sure, Daniel Day-Lewis plays his role tremendously and he really looks like Lincoln, but that’s about the only positive thing about this movie and is in fact the only reason why I even continued to watch the movie until the end, along with the other great acting performances by Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones and others. The camerawork is not bad, there are some nice sceneries but none of it matters, since you never really connect with the story at all. 90% of the movie consists of politicians talking and debating and half the time you won’t even be able to make sense of it and you’ll just end up wondering what the hell they were talking about.

The movie really would’ve been so much better if they had cut it down a bit (seriously, 150 minutes??) and if it had more action and emotion in it. On top of that, it didn’t even show Lincoln’s demise! Not only would his assassination have provided a way better dramatic ending to this movie but it would’ve also made it a lot more interesting if they had focused on the assassin and his co-conspirator throughout the entire movie.

I really think that Spielberg has missed so many opportunities to turn this story into a really interesting movie and I really hate to say it (I really wanted to like this movie you see), but I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone.. unless you’re having trouble falling asleep.