Well-made but strangely unmemorable

Rating: 8/10 (7 February 2013)

I had been looking forward to seeing 'Lincoln' for many months but found myself feeling let down after actually watching it. It is beautifully set and photographed and the acting is excellent (although I found Daniel Day-Lewis's performance less compelling than David Strathairn's cynically pragmatic Seward).
And yet... the film left me empty. This was signalled in the opening scene where a black soldier questions Lincoln very closely and even aggressively about his policies towards black people. Lincoln refuses to be drawn into any debate, he keeps his own counsel rather than make any declaration of principles. We have to remember Lincoln was a politician, and a very clever one. Everything he did was timed for maximum effect. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 turned the war from maintenance of the Union to a moral crusade which undercut the 'Peace Democrats' in Congress. The 13th Amendment was a similar proposition.
The film treats slavery is treated as an abstract legal and political issue. I think 'Django Unchained' says more about the reality of Southern slavery than 'Lincoln' does.
Ultimately, I felt the film took a far too reverential view of Lincoln himself (no mention of his views on Native Americans, for example), and had too much of that annoying self-regard Americans have: that they always act from the highest motives and from a morally superior position. History, as we all know, shows this is not always the case.
Update 29 June: Just watched the film again on DVD. Maybe my first viewing was disturbed by reading the subtitles in a Portuguese cinema. I apologise to Daniel Day-Lewis, he deserved his Oscar. However my overall impressions remain. If you are not fascinated by political procedure and finagling this is not the film for you.