No Jefferson Davis

Rating: 7/10 (20 March 2013)

No song and dance in this movie. What am I doing, reviewing a drama? Sounds boring as heck. Anyhoo, I shall proceed. Yes, there is singing in this movie, but not my favorite Broadway kind.
Jefferson Davis is missing. In his place is dorky Jackie Earle Haley, whom I remember as having played a goof-ball would-be-rapist in the movie Little Children, where a major scene is of Patrick Wilson and Kate Winslet "visiting" each other, in the altogether, over-top equipment in a laundry room. That said, upon Wiki research I find Jackie did an excellent job in portraying the physical looks of the real Confederate vice president. Who would have played old Jeff Davis? Hmmmm, let me see, maybe -- oh yes, a good one, in the craggy anorexic male department -- might be Harry Dean Stanton -- he of Big Love fame as the scary, creepy faux-LDS patriarch.
Going to the end, Tommy Lee Jones, bald, in bed, with his housekeeper/lady friend, was quite interesting. This was quite an interesting denouement to the movie.
I DID think of Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher, during the Lincoln movie, Bill of Gangs of New York. In GONY, Day-Lewis went mano-a-mano into his own fighting and even butcherings and torturings. In the end, Leonardo DiCaprio made mincemeat out of Day-Lewis (spoiler). You can see Bill when you look at Daniel as Lincoln. Ironically, GONY takes place during the Civil War Draft Riots, where tons of men did not want to go fight Lincoln's war, and they were all YANKEES.
Mary Todd Lincoln was not crazy. Her detractors, jealous as they were, spread these nasty rumors. Even her oldest son bought into the mayhem, locking her up in an institution. That he had Mary's maiden name as his middle name, later showed his unappreciation for Mama's loving upbringing.
No John Wilkes Booth, Mrs. Surratt, Dr. Mudd, Laura Keene, Julia Dent Grant and others remotely or directly associated with the assassination? Of course, that was a totally different story. All of a sudden, in this movie, President is shot, with no back-story of that particular incident. I realize that, yes, days earlier the Civil War had actually been drawn to a peace. Laura Keene ran the theatrical company playing at Ford's Theatre during the fateful evening. General and Mrs. Grant had also been invited to the show at Ford's, but did not attend. Many of the cabinet members shown in the Lincoln movie had ALSO been assassination targets, but due to multiple ineptitudes of Booth's motley crew of assassination doofuses, our dear Mr. Lincoln was the only one who lost his life.
The kid who played Robert Lincoln looked like Heath Ledger, although I knew that would not be possible. The boy who played Tad Lincoln was very good, and the character appeared to be very intelligent and caring.
Sally Field did a great job as Mary. Remember, Mary predicted Lincoln would be president. This may have been from a premonitional dream, and I think also that another premonitional dream predicted his assassination. Like other women of the day, Mary became involved in séance activity, especially after the death of her dear son Willie. Death was a way of life in those days, not just on the battlefield but during women's childbirth, children's pre-adolescent diseases, etc. Surgical washing of hands was not even practiced until after the Civil War. A woman could have 12 children, and have 5-6 live to adulthood.
Lots of African Americans making their entrance into the congressional chamber was very heartening. Seeing African American soldiers in the Civil War was very good.
I will research other Lincoln movies, including the one with Henry Fonda.