Lincoln

 

Steven Spielberg has long been a bipolar filmmaker. On the one hand there's the blockbuster king whose Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. take matinee fun to stratospheric heights. Since the '80s however, there's also been the serious director tackling difficult historical topics: The Color Purple, Schindler's List, Munich. Spielberg's been accused of simplification, grandstanding and sentimentality, and not without justification. It's difficult, if not distasteful, to make a popular Holocaust film. Sticking to killer sharks and dinosaurs is safer.

Spielberg finally found the perfect adult topic with Lincoln. Loosely based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, this cerebral epic mixes biopic and political thriller into an uncharacteristically complex movie. At its center is Daniel Day-Lewis, who brings our 16th President to extraordinary life.

Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) hopes to start his second term by passing the 13th Amendment to outlaw slavery. But Lincoln faces numerous Congressional obstacles. The Radical Republicans led by Thaddeus Stephens (Tommy Lee Jones) distrust Lincoln for his apparent equivocation over slavery and conciliatory attitude towards the South. Moderates led by Preston Blair (Hal Holbrook) urge the President to seek a negotiated peace with the Confederacy. And Democrats are uniformly opposed. Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward (David Straitharn) use hook and crook to pass the amendment, while trying to close out the war.

Lincoln proves constantly engaging in spite of its 150 minute length. Munich scribe Tony Kushner gives a caustic, often funny look at 19th Century politics. Secretary Seward employs a trio of fixers (James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson and John Hawkes) to bribe and cajole wavering Congressmen, while the Democrats have their own backdoor methods. Floor debates turn into verbal jousts, with Fernando Wood (Lee Pace) calling Lincoln a tyrant while Republicans demand Wood's head on a pike! At the last second the vote is nearly postponed until Lincoln saves things with just the right half-truth.

Lincoln's greatest achievement is showing the President's handling of slavery. Lincoln has been accused, variously, of being too abolitionist, not abolitionist enough or just a cynical politician who seized slavery as a PR measure. Yet Spielberg shows Lincoln's remarkable restraint reconciling feuding factions in a war-torn nation. Lincoln eloquently explains why immediate abolition is impractical: it would drive Maryland and Kentucky to the South, anger Democrats and divide the Union amongst itself. Yet he also refuses an offer to end the war with slavery intact. Whatever his convictions, Lincoln is not a dictator but must achieve abolition through tortured compromise.

This leads to another thorny area. Lincoln has extraordinary powers as a wartime President, unilaterally raising militia, suspending habeas corpus and outlaw slavery in rebellious states. Are these justifiable emergency measures or the actions of a tyrant? Lincoln himself acknowledges the dubious legality of his actions, but argues the extremity of a house divided necessitates them. This leads to a classic political dilemma: do ends justify means, even when abolishing slavery or winning a war? When does the chief executive overstep his bounds? Rarely has a Hollywood film addressed these matters so cogently.

Honest Abe's personal life isn't ignored either. His marriage with Mary Todd (Sally Field) is fractious yet loving: she's still distraught over son Willie's death and leans on her husband for sanity. The scene where she tells off Stevens at a dinner party is a beautiful moment. Son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) desperately wants to join the Union Army, feeling he should contribute to the war. Lincoln can disarm most opponents with earthy charm ("Not another story!" bellows one cabinet member) but can't control his family. Spielberg weaves these domestic problems into the story without overemphasis.

Daniel Day-Lewis is flawless. From Lincoln's mannerisms and reedy voice to his penchant for homespun homilies, Day-Lewis is credible in a way no other Lincoln actor (Henry Fonda, Raymond Massey, Sam Waterston) is. It's a brilliant, three-dimensional characterization, equal parts crafty politician, brilliant lawyer and sensitive humanist. Day-Lewis's layered performance captures them perfectly: he's not an icon, but a man.

Spielberg surrounds Day-Lewis with a rich supporting cast. Tommy Lee Jones nearly steals the show, with a snappy quip and burning glower for every occasion. James Spader proves hilarious as Seward's gleefully amoral fixer. David Straitharn's crafty Seward provides perfect balance to his flamboyant co-stars. Sally Field gets several effective scenes but Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems almost an afterthought. Hal Holbrook's cantankerous party elder, Jackie Earl Haley's glowering Confederate Vice President and Lee Pace's obnoxious Copperhead get standout scenes.

Lincoln suffers only modest flaws. Spielberg and photographer Janusz Kaminski go heavy on the iconography, all brooding shadows and angelic shafts of light. There are many cloying moments, from the underwritten black characters who mostly point up Lincoln's virtue to John Williams' portentous score. And the movie could ditch the last 10-15 minutes without suffering much. But then modest Spielberg excess provides only a slight gloss on a remarkable film.