Lincoln (2012)

"Nothing ever made the British shit like the sight of George Washington" (Abraham Lincoln -quoting Ethan Allen)

"You're telling one of those stories aren't you.  I won't have it. NO! No no." (Edwin M. Stanton)

The movie Lincoln was an interesting piece of history. It was well acted, well directed, and clearly relevant to our culture today.  However as a film, I found it to be underwhelming.  The movie failed to capture my interest in that I never reasonably doubted the success of our hero. In order for it to have had impact, Lincoln would have required a great deal more manufactured stressors.  One might also be tempted to see Lincoln as a bio-pic/platform-pic for the prodigious talent of Daniel Day-Lewis.  I appreciate that interpretation, but for that to ring true Lincoln would have to take on a more broad stoke approach to the life of Abraham Lincoln and not just the back story to the passage of the 13th amendment.

I would like to pause a moment and consider that Tommy Lee Jones is possibly an underrated actor.  I know that might be strange to comprehend, but the concept is growing on me.  His performance as Thaddeus Stevens was remarkable.

On a non-film specific note, I learned something interesting from watching Lincoln. On close inspection, I noticed that there is an less often remarked but nontheless talented generation of character actors that need to be appreciated for their abilities to fill in roles with flourish and yet never take on the mantle of leading a movie or show.  My thought is that when the producers of Lincoln were in pre-production the call went out for white actors of merit and gravitas from 40 to 80 who were capable enough to hold their own scenes, but not necessarily good enough to upstage anyone.  Seriously, Lincoln required at the least 35 character actors that could not be schlubs and had to be able to passably look the part of a U.S. Senator, Congressmen, or General in 1965.

Enter our true heroes of Lincoln:

David Staithairn (Most recently on this blog in Godzilla) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000657/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t3

Hal Holbrook http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001358/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t6

Jackie Earle Haley http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0355097/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t9

Bruce McGill (The incomporable D-Day from Animal House) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569226/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t10

Jared Harris (Mad Men and Fringe) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364813/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t13

John Hawkes http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0370035/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t8   

Tim Blake Nelson ( O' Brother where art thou) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0625789/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t11

Boris McGiver http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569409/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t20

and the youngster of the group

Lee Pace (King Thranduil himself) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569409/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t20

Oh and I think of James Spader as a leading man...but he makes an amazing lobbyist in Lincoln

On a scale of a law to an amendment, I give Lincoln 3.6 stars out of 5/