Lincoln is a movie, not a non-fiction text or documentary

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2015)

This is a film directed by Steven Spielberg. There will be spoilers ahead:
This film is based in part on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. It is not a historical documentary, it is not a non-fiction history text. It is a film made for entertainment purposes first and foremost. Therefore not all events depicted should be expected to be the absolute and complete truth.
You have a two and a half hour film trying to cover a period in history four months long. Did two black and two white soldiers speak to Lincoln, with one black soldier berating Lincoln about the treatment of Negro soldiers and then have two of them recite portions of the Gettysburg Address back to him? Probably not as depicted. But Lincoln spoke with troops regularly, particularly in the field. Could a soldier, particularly a Negro soldier have recited the Gettysburg Address, in whole or in part roughly a year after its delivery? Most certainly, given that the memorization of speeches was common in those days, the speech was reprinted in newspapers in its entirety and soldiers got newspapers in the field.
Getting to talk to the president back then was much easier than it is now, in part because, up until Lincoln, no one had ever shot one. Lincoln was literally besieged by office seekers, because the president did, in fact, hand out patronage himself. Lincoln did walk down the street, he did cut a comic figure in the saddle, he did haunt the telegraph office and his cabinet was often hostile.
Members of the House did, indeed, call each other buffoons, idiots and so on-on the House floor. After Preston Brooks caned Charles Sumner on the Senate floor, House members began carrying guns and knives on the floor. So much of what you see here is a realistic depiction of behavior at the time. End of sermon.
The film itself is really an actor's movie. Daniel Day Lewis shines, but I must confess that Tommy Lee Jones stole the film as far as I'm concerned. Thaddeus Stevens was actually a much meaner and much less charming and affable as he appears here. Jones softens him somewhat and does a magnificent job. Sally Field is marvelous as Mary Todd Lincoln and David Strathairn delivers a magnificently understated performance as William Seward. Lee Pace does admirably as Fernando Wood, a New York Congressman and "Copperhead" (a Democratic politician sympathetic to the south).
The vote in the House is dramatized and most likely a bit too long, but fairly accurate for the most part, with some compression.
This film is available on DVD and Blu Ray, with Blu Ray looking marvelous. Recommended.