By Brian Park
Executive In-Depth Editor|
As soon as the film started, soldiers from both confederate and union side were battling it out with mud all over their faces and uniforms. People were stabbing each other, stomping faces to the muddy ground, punching and yelling– basically it was awesome for about the first three minutes.
However, the very first scene was very deceptive because the film is not like that at all.
The plot of the film was actually not based on Lincoln’s entire biography; however, it focused most of its attention to the process of passing of the 13th amendment in the House of Representatives when the American Civil War was drawing to a close.
Lincoln and his supporters work to abolish slavery and end the Civil War quickly by demanding surrender from the Confederates– just like actual history in the year 1985.
Actor Daniel-Day Lewis does a great job at portraying Lincoln because he looks just like him. The beard, the hat, his composure, his facial expressions and his height made him so alike to Lincoln. I kind of wondered if the producers traveled back in time to snatch Lincoln in time for their own movie.
So as I walked in the theater, I heard the announcement that the Lincoln showing I would be watching was sold out, which gave me confidence that I would learn something about history and be inspired from the film. This was the reason I chose to watch “Lincoln” in the first place.
I had been expecting great emotional scenes with great music as well as some action, but what I saw 99 percent throughout the movie was old white politicians with bow ties and tall hats talking about stuff I didn’t understand in dimly lit rooms or arguing in a debate.
While that was happening, I was secretly turning my phone on and off inside my pocket to check how much of the two and a half hour film I had watched and how many more minutes I had to sit through this painstaking boredom without falling asleep (forgive me, I am a teenager).
With recent action-packed movies such as Skyfall and the Twilight Series coming out, us teens are diverging away from movies genres like history and drama directed towards an older audience and find ourselves more entertained when a train explodes than when a crucial amendment is added to the U.S. Constitution.
For example, there were some parts in the movie where the politicians would try to be funny or be joking,  but I wouldn’t understand the reference or how it was funny when other people in the theater were cracking up.
By analyzing the descriptive script I mostly tuned out, I would definitely recommend this movie for history/political buffs with very through (I mean beyond the classroom) knowledge of Lincoln and the Civil War as well as to an older audience, not normal teenagers.
But don’t get me wrong, I love Lincoln and he was a great president by reuniting the North and the South– one of the greatest presidents of all time. It’s only that the film dragged on the story of how slavery was abolished for too long, where in a normal biography of Lincoln, the story would fly by because there is so much else to know about Lincoln and the Civil War.