Perhaps the film should have been called "Abe Lincoln and the 13th Amendment".

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2013)

When "Lincoln" began, I was very, very surprised. I had assumed the film was a traditional biography of the man, but instead it started late in the Civil War--only months before Abe Lincoln's assassination. That's because despite the title, the film really is about Lincoln and his attempts to push the 13th Amendment through the House of Representatives. Apparently, its passage was very, very difficult--even with a Congress made up exclusively of states that were not part of the Confederacy. The film shows, step-by-step, how the behind the scenes machinations (some of which were of dubious legality--such as offering bribes) led to its passage.
So is this a good film and who is the audience? Well, it's actually an exceptional film in many ways. The acting by Daniel Day-Lewis is wonderful but more wonderful is the care to historical details. The film shows, for the first time, that Lincoln was a very human man--very astute and tricky in politics, prone to depression and anger and not the saint-like guy you usually see in films. It also shows that, at least for the North, that the war was NOT about slavery--and even when the war was all but won, many still would have had no problem allowing slavery to continue. These are very important as they help give a truer picture of the man and the times. The only thing that didn't ring particularly true was the little speech Mary Todd Lincoln made late in the film. The comment about how the future will view her seems ridiculous, as people just don't talk that way. And, whether she was clinically insane or not, she did have serious problems with depression, erratic behavior and all around nastiness! I don't know why the film tried so hard to clean up her image. Still, from the standpoint of an ex-American history teacher, it was a delight. Unfortunately, I really am not sure how much the average non-history buff would view the film--as it is slow and lacks a lot of action. Still, it is a really exceptional film.
By the way, I really loved seeing Secretary Stanton freak out when Lincoln was about to tell another one of his stories! Watch the film--you'll see what I mean.