Now This Film Belongs To The Ages

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2013)

A film of such greatness rarely reaches a mass audience and touches the soul so deeply. There are those reviewing the film here who are ignorant enough of history to say this motion picture is inaccurate. There are those here who found it boring and to explain that, one must consider the source. Those who do not appreciate this motion picture do not deserve our contempt but only our pity. They are empty shells who are sadly blind to beauty and truth and love. Is the Pieta, Mona Lisa, or Parthenon falsely conceived or boring? For this is a film of such power that only the thoughtful among us, those of us self-reflective and open enough to appreciate the truly artful attempt by this director and screen writer to make a historical icon flesh and blood to the extent we can feel his very breath upon our upturned faces. Daniel Day-Lewis is nothing less than brilliant and in a matter of seconds becomes the Lincoln he portrays. He is stunning in a performance unequaled in the history of cinema. The supporting cast is magnificent as well, especially Tommy Lee Jones in a performance that sets the screen afire, rips one's heart from their chests, and returns it to them renewed. What a triumph for these two screen giants! Although Sally Fields is indeed excellent as Mary Todd Lincoln, one can only wish that another true artist of Emily Watson's caliber would have had the opportunity to give the character a bit more depth and life. Ms. Watson was incredibly unforgettable in The Boxer, a film in which she shared the screen with Day-Lewis and together they created a chemistry that was almost nuclear in its explosiveness. Perhaps that would have been more than an audience could bear, her eyes too soulful that they might overwhelm us, rendering us senseless. For there is only so much artistic greatness that can be absorbed from a single cinematic experience of this kind. Lincoln is a film that will enhance the world's view of an American president who is too often thought of in ways that great statues are appreciated and honored. Lincoln brings the man to life and in so doing, it reaches for the heavens and hands us a handful of stardust. There are truly no words to describe a film that touches our very hearts and souls and leaves us changed forever. It is an experience that one must gift themselves with, as those who have given so much of their being to create a cinematic gift, a creative labor of such exquisiteness that it will forever shine throughout time. Not only has motion picture greatness been given eternal definition through this film, it is the cinematic equivalent of an epic poem that echoes through the ages of humanity.