A movie that shouldn't be missed!

Rating: 10/10 (19 November 2012)

Lincoln begins rather abruptly, with an absolutely gruesome battle scene that makes you feel you are truly witnessing it, hundreds of men in hand-to-hand combat with knives, bayonets, and swords in a muddy field. Fade to black. Then we see Lincoln sitting in a roughly built battlefield pavilion where he discusses the war and life in general with 2 black soldiers, followed by two white soldiers. Many do not like that part of it, but it didn't bother me. (It's always been the personal side of historical events and people that interests me, not battle strategy or what size of corn cob was used for cleanliness in encampment latrines.)
Spielberg decided to narrowly focus on the final four months of Lincoln's life and his desperate push to get the 13th Amendment through the House BEFORE the end of the war. That narrow focus is the cause of some of the controversy surrounding this movie. However it is a very pivotal part of American history and I believe it deserves that narrow focus.
Daniel Day-Lewis is stellar as Lincoln, but many think Tommy Lee Jones as the thunderous abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens steals the movie. Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln is also very Oscar-worthy. If Lincoln doesn't garner several Oscars, it will be a travesty.
And that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it!