The Worst Film Spielberg has ever made

Rating: 2/10 (21 December 2012)

Wow, what a bad film. This is a two and a half hour long colossal bore that reeks of self-importance, but comes off as indulgent and lacking the gravitas it so obviously aspires to. I can't remember when I've ever seen a film when I felt so aware of the well-known actors playing the roles  look, there's Tommy Lee Jones in a wig, and there's James Spader playing a rascal, Daniel Day-Lewis as the big man, and OMG, Sally Field as Mrs. Lincoln (look at those wrinkles!). There's David Straithairn, and that's old Hal Holbrook --- guess he actually still is alive and working after all. It's a reunion of many of my favorite actors from the 70's and 80's. And I'm bored, really bored; how long is this film again? I noticed that this film was nominated for multiple Golden Globe Awards, including the awful, verbose screenplay by Tony Kushner, and the virtually non-existent musical score from John Williams, as well as Spielberg for Best Director, Day-Lewis for Best Actor, and Field and Jones for Best Supporting Actress and Actor. Are you kidding me? Did any of the voters actually sit through this film? All of these people have done some incredible work over the years, but no, not in this film. The best of the performances is from Day-Lewis, but even he can't completely pull off bringing the mythical Lincoln alive for those of us who grew up relating to the man as the face on our pennies, five dollar bills, and Mount Rushmore. This is no biography of Lincoln; this is a short snippet of time in the waning days of the Civil War, when Lincoln was using every political dirty trick in the book to advance the noble cause of the passage of the 13th Amendment in the House of Representatives, the amendment that abolished slavery once and for all. The House of Representatives was every bit as dysfunctional in 1865 as it still is in 2012, an interesting facet of history that frankly comes off as depressing. The most amusing character in the film is the one played by James Spader, the Machiavellian vote buyer who promises defeated Congressmen future jobs as Postmasters and Revenue Collectors in exchange for their votes to pass the Amendment. Jared Harris is also amusing as Ulysses S. Grant, who wants to seize all Southern farms from their traitorous owners and turn the farms over to the newly freed slaves. Ultimately, I think what Spielberg needs to realize is that a documentary filmmaker like Ken Burns can and does make better films about major historical figures like Lincoln, who are so much larger than life that no actor in a historical drama could ever adequately portray them on screen in a believable way.