Lincoln

[funthing29]

Wow, that was masterfully done. Spielberg showed more subtlety here than in War Horse and the result is so much more powerful.

DDL was sensational, completely inhabiting the character, as is his trademark. There was a strong ensemble cast, and notably excellent performances from Field and TLJ. I found the film both thrilling and emotional, and the final hour just flew by, with a wonderfully paced script. 9/10.

[Ms Thrifty]

I found this very disappointing and unsatisfactory. I agree that it looked good, but inevitably there was such a huge cast of characters that there was no room for any backstory to explain their behaviour or interactions and as for their motivations, apart from those who were bribed or pressured into voting a particular way, this was another huge hole in my opinion. No doubt the film was true to life in portraying people as wavering, calculating or duplicitous, but I found that made it hard to follow and engage with. But then it was in effect a costume drama and I usually avoid those.

[SocialFlutterBy]

Thoroughly enjoyed this today, great cast .. superb perfomance's from Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones and so many other's, Agree with MG with regard's to the comparison between politics then and politics now, some fantastic dialogue too a very gripping movie despite it's lack of action, my favourite film of the year so far 9/10

[Yinster]

Saw this with SocialFlutterBy and OH in a very busy screen. Seems the majority of the punters were the blue rinse brigade and actually thought some could have been alive during Lincoln. Though it was full and people trying to find seats in the dark, there were a few times people looked at our row and turned back again even though there were three empty seats beside me. Ach well

Well this was long but I have endured a couple of shorter films this year where they seemed twice as long as this. True there are lots of big names here and we don't really know the background of them unless you are up to date with your American history. But that is ok as it is called Lincoln and not Lincoln and the other wig wearing politicians. Daniel Day Lewis was brilliant as Lincoln and at times it was hard to see DDL but felt that was Abe Lincoln. I felt more for him than Denzel's Whip. Personally I had to focus a wee bit more as they used big word dialogues to fully understand what was going on as I am not used to the language used. But that is a good thing as this was never a simple or easy thing. 7/10

P.S Also discovered by using my Odeon Premiere card Odeon £5 Tuesday becomes £3.75. And no we didn't p*y as SocialFlutterBy had a gift card.

[Cinemame]

I found this very disappointing and unsatisfactory. I agree that it looked good, but inevitably there was such a huge cast of characters that there was no room for any backstory to explain their behaviour or interactions and as for their motivations, apart from those who were bribed or pressured into voting a particular way, this was another huge hole in my opinion. No doubt the film was true to life in portraying people as wavering, calculating or duplicitous, but I found that made it hard to follow and engage with. But then it was in effect a costume drama and I usually avoid those.

I totally agree with your observations. I found this film to be depressingly dull and unnecessarily overlong. Felt like removing myself from the almost empty screening after about 40 minutes. There are some great films nominated in the Best Film category for the Oscars and this is certainly not one of them, in my opinion.

4/10

[johnrmartin@btinternet.com]

The only good thing in this film was Daniel Day-Lewis, other wise the film was long and slow and I think also historically incorrect

[brettie]

bit cumbersome..

[weirdfilms33]

Surprised to find this thread lounging around on the second page, something to do with there not being previews perhaps? I saw it with my dad and really liked it. A couple of weeks prior to seeing it I had just started to watch The West Wing and certainly there's a connection in terms of the politics and the way it is played - I was gripped from start to finish and thought there was never a dull moment. I guess I'd have to read up more on Lincoln to get a totally rounded portrait of the man (which one of those fifteen thousand books about him should I start on?) but I thought Spielberg did a fairly balanced job in terms of portraying him. As a visual experience and as a drama led by a pretty astounding cast, I thought it was one of the best films that has Oscar attention this year that I've seen.

Review here: http://jacobthehobnob.wordpress.com/201 ... w-lincoln/

9/10

[beardy2]

I wrote a review of it for my blog http://bakingbeardy.wordpress.com/2013/ ... y-cookies/

My biggest disappointment was how they completed whitewashed the existence of Union slave states!

[sikmansam]

Finally got to see this, and i was more than impressed. Daniel Day-Lewis is of course superb, and Spielberg has made the simple act of passing a bill captivating. Great support from Tommy-Lee Jones and Sally Fields, and just good direction in general. I'd read the Team of Rivals beforehand expecting their to be lots of coverage from that, and though that wasn't the case i was gripped from start to finish.

9/10

Review will come soon!