Lincoln (2012)

Not just for history buffs, this story of the 16th President's fight for the constitutional abolition of slavery is a tour de force for Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, and a cast of hundreds (four Screen Actors Guild nominations and seven for the Golden Globes so far). Great care is taken with production design, wardrobe, and lighting as well, and I imagine they won't be overlooked by the Academy either. Day-Lewis (first came to my attention in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), was Oscar-nominated for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Gangs of New York (2002), won for My Left Foot (1989) and There Will Be Blood (2007); I also liked A Room with a View (1985), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Stars and Bars (1988), The Age of Innocence (1993), Nine, and especially The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005), which was directed and written by his wife Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Henry) developed a special voice as well as stooped posture to suggest that he is the President's 6'4" rather than his own 6'1". Field (her own two Oscar wins are in her profile in The Amazing Spider-Man) apparently begged for the role, and she has already been rewarded, as the passionate Mary Todd Lincoln. Jones (last in Hope Springs) steals all of his scenes in his dreadful wig (it's supposed to be). Dozens of the actors are recognizable--everybody wants to work with Steven.

Spielberg (most recently War Horse) loves his war movies and this is a good one, developed for about 12 years, bringing in facts from Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals in the middle of the process and then hiring Tony Kushner (the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, mini-series, and TV movie Angels in America and Munich (2005), the latter of which earned him and Eric Roth an Oscar nomination).

Director of photography Janusz Kaminski's (covered in War Horse) images are breathtaking and show production designer Rick Carter's (won the Oscar and his guild's award for Avatar, Oscar-nominated for Forrest Gump (1994) and War Horse, also designed the TV series Amazing Stories (1985-86), Back to the Future Parts II (1989) and III (1990), Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequel (1997), Cast Away (2000), War of the Worlds (2005), and Munich) sets and Joanna Johnston's costumes (Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), same two Back to the Futures, Forrest Gump, French Kiss (1995), Contact (1997), The Sixth Sense (1999), About a Boy (2002), Love Actually (2003), War of the Worlds, Munich, Valkyrie, Pirate Radio, War Horse) to good advantage. When I commented to Jack that Lincoln and many of the men wore shawls, he said, "The White House was drafty!" Also, he said, the scene of Lincoln's second inauguration is a careful recreation based on photographs.

John Williams, Spielberg's usual composer, once again delivers, with muted horns and strings of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Listen to the whole thing here if you can (I've had technical difficulties with youtube this evening but finally got it to work on my third and final browser, Firefox).

We saw this a whole month ago, but I remember to tell you that you must see it before the Oscars and you won't regret it. Allow plenty of time, though, because it's two and a half hours long.