Tuckerscreator
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
12/31/2012 00:00:00
Great review. I too felt that I had been fully pulled into the era of the Civil War. The detail and acting made the world seem convincing. And I especially liked that the movie wasn't solely about Lincoln, but also his allies like Thaddeus and Robert.
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Just a troper's thoughts.
I am not a movie buff, let me clarify. I saw Lincoln from a combination of my own self-interest and the suggestions of the group I went with. I enjoy non-fiction, though I was well aware, when I was entering the theater, that a combination of literary and TV Tropes knowledge has the capability to ruin a good film. In the case of Lincoln, it did not.
Lincoln focuses on the nuances of the characters during the Civil War, pulling them toward the strange concept of reality many biopics seem to forget, instead of restating the known legacy of America’s sixteenth president. The trailer lay the script down for those who have taken a class on American history; the Thirteenth Amendment would be passed under the guidance of the great Abraham Lincoln, a hero for equality and peace, right? Well... it only takes a slightly more in-depth understanding of the Civil War to reveal how many facets of passing the amendment Lincoln had to rein in and how much of a struggle the man had to face in midst of politics and morals. All of this is revealed through not quite a plethora of dialogue and choice of focus in Lincoln’s life—leading to what one may surmise from a story of Lincoln’s last days in office.
The portrayal of nineteenth-century American politics this film is top-notch, Artistic License aside, but there was one part of the film that broke that illusion. The 'drama' part of historical drama created lengthy pauses between lines of script, giving me plenty of time to collect my thoughts and realize, "Woah, this is acting." I was surprised on how consistently the actors could keep me in the realm of this film. That was one bastion that I had that did not have preconceptions of from reading TV Tropes.
By the end of the film, Lincoln had become a real person, and it was painful to suddenly have him vanish into history after I had learned much about him in a way history textbooks never could reveal (how sentimental). Cinematography has a strange power over people, even when such people are well aware of the tropes used to compose the film itself.