LDD will probably get his customary Oscar nomination and Steven and maybe a few others but I don't feel the film has that much merit. It is not "movie of the year" but will surely be nominated. Hey, it's LDD AND Spielberg!
LDD gave a very steady and consistent characterization and Fields must have been good because she got on my nerves just like she got on Abe's. The rest were flies around the pie buzzing in and out for their bites and bits.
Not being a history student I can only guess this is close to the reality of the Union at the time. We get the inside skinny on Lincoln's secret negotiations with the Confederacy, his motivation for The Emancipation Proclamation, his logic of pushing the 13th before the end of the war, and the Republicans last minute shift to "equal under the law" rather than "racially equal".
This film could easily offend black people with its emotional rants and language and is tedious to sit through due to its length. Spielberg knows how to pull tawdry emotion and does it with soap opera regularity in this one.
Well, they are off to the Oskies but my ballot won't include them due to the mixed bag of emotional tricks.
PS. This was obviously timed for an after the election release. A lot of people might have confused today's republicans for Civil War republicans.
