Lincoln

Daniel Day-Lewis Director: Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg

Overview

Steven Spielberg helms his long-in-the-making biopic of Abraham Lincoln for DreamWorks and Touchstone Pictures. Daniel Day-Lewis portrays the former head of state in the Tony Kushner-penned adaptation of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of Rivals, which chronicles the President's time in office between 1861 and 1865 as he dealt with personal demons and politics during the Civil War. Sally Field leads a co-starring cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Academy Award nominee John Hawkes.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/26/2013
UPC:	0786936833140
Original Release:	2012
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Walt Disney Video
Region Code:	1AB
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound]
Time:	2:30:00
Sales rank:	17,149

Special Features

Disc 1 - Blu-ray feature film + bonus; The journey to Lincoln - Steve Spielberg and his collaborators discuss the challenges and excitement of bringing this story of a complex and very human president to the screen; A historical tapestry: Richmond, Virginia - Steven Spielberg and team discuss the historical significance of Richmand, Virginia, and why they chose to shoot the film there; ; Disc 2 - DVD feature film + bonus; The journey to Lincoln

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Daniel Day-Lewis	Abraham Lincoln
Sally Field	Mary Todd Lincoln
David Strathairn	William Seward
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Robert Lincoln
James Spader	W.N. Bilbo
Hal Holbrook	Preston Blair
Tommy Lee Jones	Thaddeus Stevens
John Hawkes	Robert Latham
Jackie Earle Haley	Alexander Stephens
Bruce McGill	Edwin Stanton
Tim Blake Nelson	Richard Schell
Joseph Cross	John Hay
Jared Harris	Ulysses S. Grant
Lee Pace	Fernando Wood
Peter McRobbie	George Pendleton
Gulliver McGrath	Tad Lincoln
Gloria Reuben	Elizabeth Keckley
Jeremy Strong	John Nicolay
Michael Stuhlbarg	George Yeaman
Boris McGiver	Alexander Coffroth
David Costabile	James Ashley
Stephen Spinella	Asa Vintner Litton
Walton Goggins	Clay Hawkins
David Warshofsky	William Hutton
Colman Domingo	Private Harold Green
David Oyelowo	Corporal Ira Clark
Lukas Haas	First White Soldier
Dane DeHaan	Second White Soldier
Carlos Thompson	Navy Yard - Shouting Soldier
Bill Camp	Mr. Jolly
Elizabeth Marvel	Mrs. Jolly
Byron Jennings	Montgomery Blair
Julie White	Elizabeth Blair Lee
Charmaine Crowell-White	Minerva--Blair's Servant
Ralph D. Edlow	Leo - Blair's Servant
Grainger Hines	Gideon Welles
Richard Topol	James Speed
Walt Smith	William Fessenden
Dakin Matthews	John Usher
James Ike Eichling	William Dennison
Wayne Duvall	Senator Bluff Wade
Bill Raymond	Schuyler Colfax
Michael Kennedy	Hiram Price
Christopher Boyer	General Robert E. Lee
Christopher Cartmill	Leonard Grover
Robert Peters	Jacob Graylor
John Moon	Edwin LeClerk
Kevin O'Donnell	Charles Hanson
Jamie Horton	Giles Stuart
Joseph Dellinger	Nelson Merrick
Richard Warner	Homer Benson
Elijah Chester	Union Army Officer
Dave Hager	Captain Nathan Saunders - River Queen
Sean Haggerty	Officer in Peace Commissioners Exchange
Michael Shiflett	Senator R.M.T. Hunter
Gregory Itzin	Judge John A. Campbell
Stephen Dunn	Petersburg Siege Lines - Confederate Officer
Stephen McKinley Henderson	William Slade
Chase Edmunds	Willie Lincoln
John Hutton	Senator Charles Sumner
Robert Ruffin	Major Thompson Eckert
Drew Sease	David
John Lescault	Gustavus Fox
Scott Wichmann	Charles Benjamin
Adam Driver	Samuel Beckwith
William Kaffenberger	John A. Casson
Gregory Hosaflook	John F. McKenzie
Larry Van Hoose	John A. Casson
Joe Kerkes	Andrew E. Finck
James Batchelder	Howard Guillefoyle
Asa-Luke Twocrow	Ely Parker
Lancer Shull	Union Soldier - Bodyguard
George Turman	Military Hospital Doctor
C. Brandon Marshall	Rufus Warren
Kevin Kline	Wounded Soldier
John Jones	Wounded Soldier
S. Epatha Merkerson	Lydia Smith
John Bellemer	Faust
Mary Dunleavy	Marguerite
Christopher Evan Welch	Clerk - Edward McPherson
Alan Sader	Sergeant at Arms
Gannon McHale	Aaron Haddam
Ken Lambert	Augustus Benjamin
Tom Belgrey	Arthur Bentleigh
Ted Johnson	John Ellis
Don Henderson Baker	Walter Appleton
Raynor Scheine	Josiah S. "Beanpole" Burton
Armistead Nelson Wellford	Nehemiah Cleary
Michael Ruff	Harold Hollister
Robert Shepherd	Dr. Joseph K. Barnes
Edward McDonald	Daniel G. Stuart
Christopher Alan Stewart	Sergeant-Grant's HQ
Teddy Eck	Corporal-Grant's HQ
Todd Fletcher	Walter H. Washburn
Charles Kinney	Myer Strauss
Joseph Carlson	Joseph Marstern
Michael Goodwin	Chilton A. Elliot
David Graham	House of Representatives-Rebel Shouter

Technical Credits

Tony Kushner

Steven Spielberg	Director,Producer
Curt Beech	Art Director
Ben Burtt	Sound/Sound Designer
Lois Burwell	Makeup
Rick Carter	Production Designer
Leo Corey Castellano	Makeup
David Crank	Art Director
Leslie Devlin	Makeup
Scott Herbertson	Set Decoration/Design
Jim Hewitt	Set Decoration/Design
Joanna Johnston	Costumes/Costume Designer
Michael Kahn	Editor
Janusz Kaminski	Cinematographer
Avy Kaufman	Casting
Kathleen Kennedy	Producer
Jonathan King	Executive Producer
Kristie Macosko Krieger	Co-producer
Tony Kushner	Screenwriter
Daniel Lupi	Executive Producer
Stuart McCowan	Sound Editor
Leslie McDonald	Art Director
Riccardo Muti	Musical Direction/Supervision
Jeff Skoll	Executive Producer
Adam Somner	Asst. Director,Co-producer
Susan Stepanian	Makeup
Michael H. Ward	Set Decoration/Design
John Williams [composer]	Score Composer

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Lincoln
1. Opening Titles
2. Lincoln's Dream
3. A New Amendment
4. War Powers
5. The House Debate
6. Getting Out the Vote
7. Seeds of Time
8. Grand Reception
9. The Fallen at Wilmington
10. No Sixteen-Year-Olds Left
11. Equality Under the Law
12. Robert's Ambition
13. Bipartisan Support
14. Fairness and Freedom
15. The Morning of the Vote
16. This is History
17. Celebration
18. Petersburg Battlefield
19. Now He Belongs to the Ages
20. Credits

Menu

Disc #1 -- Lincoln
   English
      Play
      Bonus Features
         The Journey to Lincoln
         Credits
      Scene Selection
      Set Up
         Languages
            English 5.1 Dolby Digital
            English 2.0 Descriptive Video Service
            Français 5.1 Dolby Digital
            Español 5.1 Dolby Digital
         Subtitles
            Subtitles: None
            English for the Hearing Impaired
            Français
            Español
         Register Your DVD
      Sneak Peeks
   English Descriptive Video Service
   Français
   Español

Editorial Reviews

Steven Spielberg has talked for years about doing a film on Abraham Lincoln, but it turns out that when he finally got around to doing it, the finished movie feels less like his than it does the screenwriter's -- Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. The movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president, focusing on the last few months of Lincoln's life as he tries to manipulate Congress into passing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which would allow people to vote regardless of race and officially end slavery. Simultaneously, he attempts to bring about a peaceful end to the Civil War. These two goals appear to be mutually exclusive, a point established in an early scene where Lincoln confers with his most trusted political advisor, Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn). The film is so focused on the political process -- the horse-trading, deception, and arm-twisting Lincoln and Seward perform to achieve their goals -- that it feels not unlike an extended episode of The West Wing. However, instead of Aaron Sorkin's ping-pong, Mamet-inspired patter, we are treated to Tony Kushner's almost Shakespearean dialogue. The characters speak in a formal yet often flowery vernacular that's invested with both remarkable imagery and witty insults, and Spielberg has assembled a flawless cast who each bring out the music in Kushner's words. First among equals is, of course, two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, an actor of uncommon skill who manages to evoke Lincoln in all his honor and glory without once making him appear like a wax figure. This is a living and breathing human being who yearns to do the right thing in every instance, but is ripped to shreds emotionally when he has to deal with his emotionally high-strung, grieving wife (Sally Field). To rally people to his cause at different points during the film, Lincoln delivers a Christlike parable about some historical event or an anecdote from his own life, and Day-Lewis spins these yarns with such folksy authority that the audience in the theater is sucked into his rhetorical magic just as inevitably as the characters he's speaking to onscreen. We hang on his every word, just as we do a commanding performance in live theater. The whole ensemble is arguably one of the greatest casts ever assembled. Tommy Lee Jones gets some of the best lines as an irascible congressman who has fought his whole career to give slaves both freedom and full citizenship -- it's the kind of performance that gets people nominated for Supporting Actor awards. James Spader steals all of his scenes playing a libidinous, extroverted political middleman responsible, along with a pair of cronies played by Tim Blake Nelson and John Hawkes, for making the deals with politicians Lincoln can't be seen doing himself. Each time any of the actors open their mouths, you marvel at how right they are for the part, and how gloriously they put across Kushner's lines. In large part because the dialogue is both so good and so plentiful, Lincoln is closer to a play than a movie, and this doesn't always work to Spielberg's strengths as a director. With words this beautiful, very little is needed to augment them, so most attempts to underscore the dialogue with say a symbolic thunder clap or overdone strings feel like a mistake, though he never smothers the movie in melodrama. The single biggest flaw is that they don't stick the landing. There's a superb shot that the movie should end on, but the film goes on for another ten minutes giving us scenes that we thankfully don't expect, yet, at the same time, we don't really want. Spielberg and longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski light the performers in ways that accentuate their earnestness, underscoring the filmmaker's obvious reverence for the material without turning these legendary figures into simple symbols of good. All of the characters remain troubled, three-dimensional people, and that turns out to be the best element of the movie, because Kushner manages to invest us in these people and their desires. What could easily have become a dry civics lesson is in fact loaded with laughs, inspiring triumphs, a subtle but undeniable awe for one of the country's defining figures, and some of the richest language you can find at the movies. It's a superior achievement for Kushner, and makes for one of the best of Spielberg's "serious" movies.

All Movie Guide - Perry Seibert