Accurate Portrayal of History

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2012)

Like many others, Lincoln is one of my favorite U.S. Presidents. His role in the abolition of slavery was vital to the country.
In a movie like this, historical accuracy is important for the simple reason that people don't like inaccuracies. There was no sacrifice of precision for entertainment purposes in this film and I was pleased with that fact.
This movie was not about the life of Abraham Lincoln, it was pretty much exclusively about his life during the civil war. In fact, the movie is more about the 13th Amendment than it is about Lincoln himself. This kind of surprised me as Lincoln was quite the interesting man even prior to his presidency. He was known for being very persistent as he ran for office many times and lost. His life is also the perfect story of rags to riches. Anyhow, Spielberg chose not to include these things in the movie for his own reasons.
I consider myself an educated man and I can honestly say I learned a few things from this film. Unless you are an avid fan of Lincoln, you will learn something while watching this film, some may even be shocked.
However, this film was not perfect. I was quite disappointed that the film did not include some key events that happened in Lincoln's presidency such as Willy's death and Lincoln's death was not shown first hand. The man hunt of John Wilkes Booth was even left out.
I did enjoy the movie though as it features incredible acting from Daniel Day-Lewis and the supporting cast.