Was it a movie for Freshmen high school students?

Rating: 9/10 (13 December 2012)

I give it a 9.2; I expected 10+.
How did I feel watching one part of the movie: uncomfortable How else am I supposed to feel in a racially mixed audience when actors are portraying people who are protesting that the 13th amendment would "N word-ize" the union?
One really gets a feel for the Lincoln family. Beautifully done.
The movie didn't move me emotionally at all. The biggest emotional reaction I had to the movie was feeling uncomfortable being Black in a racially mixed audience, in a red state, in a county that voted red.
The movie didn't have an epic treatment and, as a result, did not call for or get an epic soundtrack.
It didn't pull on heart strings or on the neurons of the brain.
The scene where Mary Lincoln was in her most beautiful dress seemed like an obligatory scene for a costume award nomination. The scene had strong writing but we didn't have the context of why she was in her biggest and most beautiful dress.
Why the movie didn't have any scenes in B&W is a good question I'd like to ask--if I ask so myself. More than 10 years ago, I was at 5th Avenue and 93rd or 94th Street in Manhattan where the International Center of Photography used to be. I saw B&W photos of Abraham Lincoln. Why Spielberg didn't choose some artistic rendering in that direction makes me wonder. He did show Daguerreotypes (I believe) of slaves for sale.
Maybe I grew up on Gandhi, Amadeus, The Last King of Scotland, The Last Emperor, Elizabeth, All the King's Men (hardly no comparison but still more engaging). Lincoln did not fill both of my hands--it didn't give me a handful. It was chosen to be that way. Case in point, unlike All the King's Men where Sean Penn has to give an emotional speech, we get in Lincoln a speech that is two sentences: I'm here to raise the flag. Let's raise the flag. (Lincoln is finished reading from the paper taken out of his hat.)
Was it a movie for a 9th grade American History class?