The Thirteenth Amendment

Rating: 9/10 (30 April 2020)

Yet another historical subject directed with the same fussy photography and at the same stately pace one expects from Spielberg when dealing with Olden Times and Big Subjects. The title - as so often - suggests a biography but in fact deals only with a short period of the subject's life; in this case the labours in the face of failing health and domestic discord to steamroller the 13th Amendment through Congress in January 1865.
Fascinating if exhausting, with a towering performance from Daniel Day-Lewis as an equally exhausted Lincoln working hard against the clock to secure his legacy; for which history - if not his contemporaries - remains grateful.