Always question why a "free" nation had slaves.

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2017)

The civil war, the issues of slavery in America and the life of Abraham Lincoln have been told many times, through books, plays and movies, and I say, "Keep writing the books and plays, and keep making the films. Remind the world forever that freedom is the only way to allow the world to rotate around the sun, that man's inhumanity to others will not be tolerated, and that corruption in the government should be vanquished the moment it is discovered. For this story of the last year in the presidency of Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day Lewis in his third Oscar winning role), the fight to get the 13th amendment passed is covered.
Supporting Lewis in a very true to life visual is Sally Field as first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, as strong and determined as her husband, even as she deals with several family crisis while her husband works himself nonstop to bring the war to an end as long as slavery is abolished. Tommy Lee Jones gives a mesmerizing performance as Lincoln's main rival, with a wise performance by Hal Holbrook as Blair, Lincoln's main adviser. Having played Lincoln a number of times himself, his participation is a great tie-in together.
Lewis is never anything but Lincoln in this film, determined with every depths of his soul to achieve his goals. His humanity, humor, self depreciating view of his looks and seemingly clumsy manner are apparent throughout. Lincoln has serious discussions with black soldiers, fighting for the north, paid servants in the white house, and ensues upon his offspring the very ideals that both got him elected and divided a nation in the first place. But as he finds supporters of freedom, that doesn't mean that these people are for the blacks being considered equal, obviously wanting to keep them "dumb" and "voteless" like women.
Technically brilliant, this is basically a simple plotted story of a great man, focusing on events and issues in an episodic manner. Some important historical characters are either just mentioned or seen briefly, and I wonder if this could have been made with more detail at even three and a half hours and be just as good as this version. An important film, it is the crowning achievement of director Steven Spielberg's later years, as important and socially significant as 'Schindler's List".