From: blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu (Brian L. Johnson)
Subject: REVIEW: LINCOLN
Reply-To: blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu (Brian L. Johnson)
Organization: ?
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 21:51:36 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies
Summary: r.a.m.r. #01662
Keywords: author=K.Johnson

                                  LINCOLN
                       A film review by Ken Johnson
                        Copyright 1993 Ken Johnson

195 min., not rated, Documentary, 1992, Made-for-television
Director: Peter W. Kunhardt
Voices of: James Earl Jones, Jason Robards, Glenn Close, Dabney Coleman,
           Stacy Keach, Ossie Davis, Richard Dreyfus, Rod Steiger,
           Richard Widmark, Arnold Schwarzenegger, E.G. Marshall,
           Richard Thomas, Fred Gwynne, Eli Wallach, Oprah Winfrey,
           Burgess Meredith, Ned Beatty, Barnard Hughes,
           Cliff Robertson, Maureen Stapleton, Frank Langella,
           Henry Morgan, Keith Carradine, Blythe Danner, Robert Vaughn,
           Philip Bosco, Jim Dale, Jill Clayburgh, Robby Benson,
           Gordon Parks, John Shea, Laurence Luckinbill,
           Stockard Channing

     This is a documentary on one of America's greatest presidents,
Abraham Lincoln (voice of Jason Robards).  The documentary is narrated
by James Earl Jones and covers Lincoln from his start in politics to his
assassination by John Wilkes Booth (voice of Frank Langella).

     LINCOLN was made much in the same way that the PBS film THE CIVIL
WAR was made, using pictures of Lincoln and the other people featured in
the film.  I never saw the PBS film THE CIVIL WAR, so I can't say
whether this one came out better.  I think however, that LINCOLN was
very well done, and worth seeing if you get the chance.  If you missed
LINCOLN when it aired on television, it is also available on video
cassette, which runs for 45 minutes longer than the film did on
television.  On a scale of zero to five, I give LINCOLN a four.  LINCOLN
contains nothing that I think anyone would find objectionable.

     The voice talent for LINCOLN, I felt, for the most part is very
good.  I think that fact that the film had experienced actors for the
voices helped the film considerably.  Instead of one monotone voice
throughout the film, there were several different voices, which had some
emotion to them.  I think that it is good that the film had more than
just a narrator, because hearing the same voice for the entire length of
the film would get rather boring.  I feel that only one of the voices
was miscast, that was Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He is great in his action
films where he doesn't have much of a speaking role, and he was even
able to pull off KINDERGARTEN COP.  As just a voice talent, however, I
don't think that his voice makes it.  He doesn't have good diction, and
I feel that voice could have been better cast.  [Moderator's note: The
character he spoke was Bavarian-born, and probably had the same accent.]

     I liked how there were color shots of the buildings in the present
day mixed in with the portraits from the time.  That technique added
some variety to the film and kept all the old photographs from wearing
on the viewer.  The photographs were well picked and were well placed in
the film so that they fit in.

     The only other main problem that I had with the film is that I
think that it could have run for television time of two and a half to
three hours, instead of the four that it ran.  Even though the four
hours were well done, the film after a while seemed to be going on
forever.

--------
Ken Johnson
blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu

Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews