The Lincoln Letter

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2016)

First, you gotta watch this one the big screen, preferably the one with the overture, 12 minutes longer runtime, and the 12 minute intermission. Old. School.
Second, you're unlucky if you live in a scissor-happy society, like I do.
So, in spite of that, I trudged to the local cinema, a screen little bigger than the average home cinema, with a good friend, and proceeded to try and enjoyed what was left of the movie.
All actors are phenomenal in their roles, a testament not just to their acting talent, but also to their recognition as such, and the casting that the writer/director did, at the time of conceiving the flick.
This also has to be one of the best scored Ennio Morricone movies, ever, and I do hope he gets the Oscar statuette he so deserves. This guy's been scoring for years now, and most of his work has been iconic, including Sergio Leone's 'Man with no name' trilogy in the 60s, all the way to this one. It's definitely been 1 heck of a journey.
Unlike what some have been saying, the twists that begin playing out in one of the final acts, spanning over the last hour/so, is kept grounded, and is all the more impactful for that, not just due to the (Tarantino-esque) bloodletting and gore that happens, even though there's less of that locally. Also, I did not get to hear most of the colorful language spouted by typical Tarantino characters, and my impression of the movie is still a good one in spite of everything (sigh).
Most of the players are those who've worked with QT earlier (Sam L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Zoë Bell, James Parks, Dana Gourrier...with Roth and Madsen almost re-living the g(l)ory days of their being Reservoir Dogs?), but the one who's been given a plum character with one of the strongest arcs ever put to film has to be that belonging to (his new male muse?) Walton 'Justified' 'Shield' Goggins, and I've been waiting for this actor to sink his teeth into a meaty role like the one he's been gifted by QT in this master-work. Demián Bichir, Bruce Dern (shame on you if his filmography is new: 'Nebraska', 'Last man standing', 'Silent Runnings', 'Coming home', 'After dark, my sweet', 'The cowboys' and many, many more....) and other new actors to QT's table also acquit themselves perfectly, with the first actor who's really good in almost anything he does, hidden behind one hell of a beard and accent (but is good nonetheless).
Another character with one hell of an arc belongs to one among a total of 4 female characters in the movie (at least the one with most run-time among them), enacted by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and this has to be one of the best performances this actress has ever given, in spite of the fact that her repertoire (not of late, sadly) has included some of the toughest female characters ever committed to film. She's more than up to this task, and completely owns every frame she's in, and due to the unpredictability of what she might do, even whenever she's with the mighty ensemble, our eyes stay riveted on her actions, kinda like waiting for the other shoe to drop, to describe the whole situation mildly.
The photography by Robert Richardson (Hugo, Inglourious Basterds, Shutter Island, Django unchained, Kill Bill, U Turn, A few good men, JFK, Platoon - for my money, the greatest living DOP we have, and I'm so looking forward to his upcoming work in Ben Affleck's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's 'Live by night') has to be some of the best ever committed to film, and wish this one had had an IMAX version of sorts ( that I'd got to watch the roadshow theatrical version sometime). This deserves multiple viewings, on the biggest screen there is.
Now, obviously, this is a QT movie, so it is not for those with weak stomachs. Seriously. Even the chopped version, since what's in your head, during those missing frames, might actually be worse than how it was actually filmed. I still do not know how it was actually filmed, and while that's not a good thing, I'm sure you get my drift. If ppl wanna judge this work of art based on the violence (and the language, and the threat of violence, and the feigned violence...) that they (get to) see, or not, on the big screen, obviously, they're welcome to, but, if that's their sole focus, they might just be missing the entire point of this subliminal work of QT's which, for all its obvious, and almost childishly gleeful pretentiousness (the title cards tout this being QT's 8th work...really, QT? Like we wouldn't know already?..anyhoo) ranks among the best he's ever done. Plus, all the racist slurs against both African-Americans and Latin-Americans seem, to me, to be intended to portray the period as it must have been, warts and all, though a case might be made for overuse of various slurs. Long story short, in my humble opinion, everything that is there in the flick seems intended to propel the narrative and not for any other self- effacing reason, though the case has been made by most QT haters that its the latter and not the former.
This one harks back to his writing for 'Inglourious Basterds', closer to that spiritually, than anything else QT has ever done, perhaps with a sprinkling of 'Django Unchained', which is still being underrated by most, especially since '12 years a slave' released in a neighborly fashion. However, I can't help feeling that he might have been in a hurry to wrap things up, a feeling I did not ever get during 'IB', perhaps since I watched that the way it was meant to be viewed, on glorious XD, show after show after show....