Lincoln

Lincoln Information

Lincoln is a 2012 American historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as United States President Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. The film is based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, and covers the final four months of Lincoln's life, focusing on the President's efforts in January 1865 to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the United States House of Representatives.

Filming began October 17, 2011, and ended on December 19, 2011. Lincoln premiered on October 8, 2012 at the New York Film Festival. The film was released theatrically on November 9, 2012, in select cities and widely released on November 16, 2012, in the United States by DreamWorks through Disney's Touchstone distribution label in the U.S. The film was released on January 25, 2013, in the United Kingdom, with distribution in international territories, including the U.K., by 20th Century Fox.

Lincoln received widespread critical acclaim, with major praise directed to Day-Lewis' performance. In December 2012, the film was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture " Drama, Best Director for Spielberg and winning Best Actor (Motion Picture " Drama) for Day-Lewis. At the 85th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for twelve Academy Awards including Best Picture; it won for Best Production Design and Best Actor for Day-Lewis. The film was also a commercial success, having grossed more than $260 million at the box office.

Plot

Lincoln recounts President Abraham Lincoln's efforts, during January 1865, to obtain passage for the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in the United States House of Representatives, which would formally abolish slavery in the country. Expecting the Civil War to end within a month but concerned that his 1863 Emancipation Proclamation may be discarded by the courts once the war has concluded and the 13th Amendment defeated by the returning slave states, Lincoln feels it is imperative to pass the amendment by the end of January, thus removing any possibility that slaves who have already been freed may be re-enslaved. The Radical Republicans fear the amendment will merely be defeated by some who wish to delay its passage; the support of the amendment by Republicans in the border states is not yet assured either, since they prioritize the issue of ending the war. Even if all of them are ultimately brought on board, the amendment will still require the support of several Democratic congressmen if it is to pass. With dozens of Democrats having just become lame ducks after losing their re-election campaigns in the fall of 1864, some of Lincoln's advisors believe that he should wait until the new Republican-heavy Congress is seated, presumably giving the amendment an easier road to passage. Lincoln, however, remains adamant about having the amendment in place and the issue of slavery settled before the war is concluded and the southern states readmitted into the Union.

Lincoln's hopes for passage of the amendment rely upon the support of the Republican Party founder Francis Preston Blair, the only one whose influence can ensure that all members of the western and border state conservative Republican faction will back the amendment. With Union victory in the Civil War seeming highly likely and greatly anticipated, but not yet a fully accomplished fact, Blair is keen to end the hostilities as soon as possible. Therefore, in return for his support, Blair insists that Lincoln allow him to immediately engage the Confederate government in peace negotiations. This is a complication to Lincoln's amendment efforts since he knows that a significant portion of the support he has garnered for the amendment is from the Radical Republican faction for whom a negotiated peace that leaves slavery intact is anathema. If there seems to be a realistic possibility of ending the war even without guaranteeing the end of slavery, the needed support for the amendment from the more conservative wing (which does not favor abolition) will certainly fall away. Unable to proceed without Blair's support, however, Lincoln reluctantly authorizes Blair's mission.

In the meantime, Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward work on the issue of securing the necessary Democratic votes for the amendment. Lincoln suggests that they concentrate on the lame duck Democrats, as they have already lost re-election and thus will feel free to vote as they please, rather than having to worry about how their vote will affect a future re-election campaign. Since those members also will soon be in need of employment and Lincoln will have many federal jobs to fill as he begins his second term, he sees this as a tool he can use to his advantage. Though Lincoln and Seward are unwilling to offer direct monetary bribes to the Democrats, they authorize agents to quietly go about contacting Democratic congressmen with offers of federal jobs in exchange for their voting in favor of the amendment.

With Confederate envoys ready to meet with Lincoln, he instructs them to be kept out of Washington, as the amendment approaches a vote on the House floor. At the moment of truth, Thaddeus Stevens decides to moderate his statements about racial equality to help the amendment's chances of passage. A rumor circulates that there are Confederate representatives in Washington ready to discuss peace, prompting both Democrats and conservative Republicans to advocate postponing the vote on the amendment. Lincoln explicitly denies that such envoys are in or will be in the city "? technically a truthful statement, since he had ordered them to be kept away "? and the vote proceeds, narrowly passing by a margin of two votes. When Lincoln subsequently meets with the Confederates, he tells them that slavery cannot be restored as the North is united for ratification of the amendment, and that several of the southern states' reconstructed legislatures would also vote to ratify.

After the amendment's passage, the film's narrative shifts forward two months, portraying Lincoln's visit to the battlefield at Petersburg, Virginia, where he exchanges a few words with General Grant. Shortly thereafter, Grant receives General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.

On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln is in a late-night meeting with his cabinet, discussing possible future measures to enfranchise blacks, when he is reminded that Mrs. Lincoln is waiting to take them to their evening at Ford's Theatre.

That night, while Tad Lincoln is viewing Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp at Grover's Theater, a man announces that the President has been shot. The next morning his physician pronounces him dead. The film concludes with a flashback to Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address.

Cast

Lincoln household

Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln

Producer Kathleen Kennedy described Day-Lewis's performance as "remarkable" after 75% of the filming had been completed, and said, "Every day you get the chills thinking that Lincoln is sitting there right in front of you." Kennedy described Day-Lewis's method acting immersion into the role: "He is very much deeply invested and immersed throughout the day when he's in character, but he's very accessible at the end of the day, once he can step outside of it and not feel that " I mean, he's given huge scenes with massive amounts of dialogue and he needs to stay in character, it's a very, very performance-driven movie." His performance as Abraham Lincoln earned him his third Academy Award for Best Actor.

Sally Field as First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln

Field was first announced to join the cast as early as September 2007, but officially joined the cast in April 2011. Field said, "To have the opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis and to play one of the most complicated and colorful women in American history is simply as good as it gets." Spielberg said, "she has always been my first choice to portray all the fragility and complexity that was Mary Todd Lincoln". Her performance as Mary Todd Lincoln earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Gloria Reuben as Elizabeth Keckley

Keckley was a former slave who was dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln

Robert Lincoln had recently left his studies at Harvard Law School and was newly named a Union Army captain and personal attendant to General Grant. He returned to the White House on April 14, 1865 to visit his family. His father was assassinated that night.

Gulliver McGrath as Tad Lincoln
Stephen Henderson as Lincoln's valet William Slade
Elizabeth Marvel as member of the public petitioning Lincoln, a Mrs. Jolly

White House

David Strathairn as Secretary of State William H. Seward
Bruce McGill as Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton

Stanton took charge of the investigation of the assassination plot

Joseph Cross as John Hay
Dakin Matthews as Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher
Jeremy Strong as John George Nicolay
Richard Topol as United States Attorney General James Speed

House of Representatives

Tommy Lee Jones as Radical Republican Congressional leader Thaddeus Stevens, a fervent abolitionist, Stevens feared that Lincoln would "turn his back on emancipation" His performance as Thaddeus Stevens earned him an nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Lee Pace as Democratic Congressman and fiery orator Fernando Wood
Peter McRobbie as Ohio Democrat, U.S. Representative George H. Pendleton, leader of the Democratic opposition
Bill Raymond as Schuyler Colfax; Colfax served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1863 to 1869
David Costabile as Republican Congressman James Ashley
Stephen Spinella as radical Republican Congressman Asa Vintner Litton
Michael Stuhlbarg as Kentucky Democratic Congressman George Yeaman
Boris McGiver as Democratic Congressman, Alexander Coffroth
Walton Goggins as Ohio Democratic Congressman Clay Hawkins, a composite character based on the 16 Democrats who broke with their party to cast decisive votes in favor of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery.
David Warshofsky as Congressman William Hutton, whose brother died in the war

Republican Party

Hal Holbrook (who won an Emmy portraying Lincoln in a 1976 mini-series) as Francis Preston Blair

Blair was an influential Republican politician who tried to arrange a peace agreement between the Union and the Confederacy

James Spader as Republican Party operative William N. Bilbo

Bilbo had been imprisoned but was freed by Lincoln, and then lobbied for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Tim Blake Nelson as lobbyist Richard Schell
John Hawkes as Republican operative Colonel Robert Latham
Byron Jennings as Conservative Republican Montgomery Blair
Julie White as Elizabeth Blair Lee: Lee was the daughter of Francis Preston Blair, and wrote hundreds of letters documenting events during the Civil War
S. Epatha Merkerson as Lydia Smith: Smith was Thaddeus Stevens's biracial housekeeper.
Wayne Duvall as Radical Republican Senator Benjamin "Bluff Ben" Wade

Confederate States

Jackie Earle Haley as Confederate States Vice President Alexander H. Stephens

Stephens had served with Lincoln in Congress from 1847 to 1849. He met with Abraham Lincoln on the steamboat River Queen at the unsuccessful Hampton Roads Conference on February 3, 1865

Gregory Itzin as John Archibald Campbell

Campbell was a former Supreme Court Justice who had resigned at the start of war and then served as Assistant Secretary of War in the Confederate government. He was also a member of the Confederate delegation that met with Lincoln at the Hampton Roads Conference.

Michael Shiflett as the third Confederate delegate to Hampton Roads, Senator Robert M. T. Hunter
Christopher Boyer (non-speaking role) as Robert E. Lee

Union Army

Jared Harris as Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant
Colman Domingo as Private Harold Green
David Oyelowo as Corporal Ira Clark
Lukas Haas as First White Soldier
Dane DeHaan as Second White Soldier
Adam Driver as Lincoln's telegraph operator, historically Grant's operator, Samuel Beckwith

Production

Development

While consulting on a Steven Spielberg project in 1999, Goodwin told Spielberg she was planning to write Team of Rivals, and Spielberg immediately told her he wanted the film rights. DreamWorks finalized the deal in 2001, and by the end of the year, John Logan signed on to write the script. His draft focused on Lincoln's friendship with Frederick Douglass. Playwright Paul Webb was hired to rewrite and filming was set to begin in January 2006, but Spielberg delayed it out of dissatisfaction with the script. Neeson said Webb's draft covered the entirety of Lincoln's term as President.

Casting

Liam Neeson was cast as Lincoln in January 2005, having previously worked with Spielberg in Schindler's List. In preparation for the role, Neeson studied Lincoln extensively. However, in July 2010, Neeson left the project, saying that he had grown too old for the part. Neeson was 58 at the time, and Lincoln, during the time period depicted, was 55 and 56. Co-star Sally Field, in a 2012 PBS interview, intimated that Neeson's decision was influenced by the loss of his wife less than a year earlier. In November 2010, it was announced that Day-Lewis would replace Neeson in the role.

Tony Kushner replaced Webb. Kushner considered Lincoln "the greatest democratic leader in the world" and found the writing assignment daunting because "I have no idea [what made him great]; I don't understand what he did any more than I understand how William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet or Mozart wrote Così fan tutte." He delivered his first draft late and felt the enormous amount written about Lincoln did not help either. Kushner said Lincoln's abolitionist ideals made him appealing to a Jewish writer, and although he felt Lincoln was Christian, he noted the president rarely quoted the New Testament and that his "thinking and his ethical deliberation seem very talmudic". By late 2008, Kushner joked he was on his "967,000th book about Abraham Lincoln". Kushner's initial 500-page draft focused on four months in the life of Lincoln, and by February 2009 he had rewritten it to focus on two months in Lincoln's life when he was preoccupied with adopting the Thirteenth Amendment.

Filming

While promoting Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in May 2008, Spielberg announced his intention to start filming in early 2009, for release in November, ten months after the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. In January 2009, Taunton and Dighton, Massachusetts were being scouted as potential locations. Spielberg arranged a $50 million budget for the film, to please Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey, who had previously delayed the project over concerns it was too similar to Spielberg's commercially unsuccessful Amistad (1997). Spielberg had wanted Touchstone Pictures " which agreed to distribute all his films from 2010 " to distribute the film, but he was unable to afford paying off Paramount, which DreamWorks had developed the film with.

Filming took place in Petersburg, Virginia. According to location manager Colleen Gibbons, "one thing that attracted the filmmakers to the city was the 180-degree vista of historic structures" which is "very rare". Lincoln toured Petersburg on April 3, 1865, the day after it fell to the Union Army. Scenes were also filmed in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Virginia Repertory Theatre's November Theatre which represented Grovers Theatre and at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, which served as the Capitol of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln visited the building on April 4, 1865, after Richmond fell to the Union Army.

On September 4, 2012, DreamWorks and Google Play announced on the film's Facebook page that they would release the trailer for the film during a [[Google+]] hangout with Steven Spielberg and Joseph Gordon-Levitt on September 13, 2012 at 7pm EDT/4pm PDT. Then, on September 10, 2012, a teaser for the trailer was released.

Music

The soundtrack to Lincoln was released by Sony Classical on November 6, 2012 in the United States and was recorded by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Chorus.

Release

Marketing

Several companion books and ancillary literature were released in anticipation of the film, including A President for the Ages, Lincoln: A Cinematic and Historical Companion, Harold Holzer's How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America and Disney Publishing's Lincoln: A Spielberg Film " Discover the Story.

Home media

Lincoln will be released on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on March 26, 2013 from Touchstone Home Entertainment. The release will be produced in three different physical packages: a 4-disc combo pack (2 Blu-ray disc, DVD and digital copy); a 2-disc combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD) and a 1-disc DVD.

Disney will donate DVD copies of the film to more than 37,100 secondary schools in the United States, after Spielberg received letters from educators requesting to incorporate the film into their curriculum.

Reception

Box office

As of March 17, 2013, the film has made $181,548,491 in North America from 2,293 theaters and $79,363,000 overseas for a total of $260,911,491, well exceeding its $65 million budget. The film had a limited opening in 11 theaters with $944,308 and an average of $85,846 per theater. It opened at the #15 rank, becoming the highest opening of a film with such a limited release. The film opened wide in 1,175 theaters with $21,049,406 and an average of $11,859 per theater. Due to the widespread success of Lincoln, Disney had to produce additional prints of the film to accommodate theater demand.

Critical response

Lincoln received worldwide critical acclaim. The film currently holds a 89% approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 86 (out of 100) based on 44 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim", thus making it Spielberg's highest rated film on the site since Saving Private Ryan.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 4 out of 4 stars and said, "The hallmark of the man, performed so powerfully by Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln, is calm self-confidence, patience and a willingness to play politics in a realistic way." Ebert went on to name it as the third best film of 2012. Glenn Kenny of MSN Movies gave it 5 out of 5 stars stating, "It's the most remarkable movie Steven Spielberg has made in quite a spell, and one of the things that makes it remarkable is how it fulfills those expectations by simultaneously ignoring and transcending them."

Colin Covert of the Star Tribune wrote, "Lincoln is one of those rare projects where a great director, a great actor and a great writer amplify one another's gifts. The team of Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis and Tony Kushner has brought forth a triumphant piece of historical journalism, a profound work of popular art and a rich examination of one of our darkest epochs." It was praised by Charlie McCollum of the San Jose Mercury News as "one of the finest historical dramas ever committed to film." Despite mostly positive reviews, Rex Reed of The New York Observer stated, "In all, there's too much material, too little revelation and almost nothing of Spielberg's reliable cinematic flair." However, the reviews have been unanimous in their praise of Day-Lewis's performance as Abraham Lincoln. A. O. Scott from The New York Times stated the film "is finally a movie about how difficult and costly it has been for the United States to recognize the full and equal humanity of black people" and concluded that the movie was "a rough and noble democratic masterpiece".

Scott also stated that Lincoln's concern about his wife's emotional instability and "the strains of a wartime presidency... produce a portrait that is intimate but also decorous, drawn with extraordinary sensitivity and insight and focused, above all, on Lincoln's character as a politician. This is, in other words, less a biopic than a political thriller, a civics lesson that is energetically staged and alive with moral energy."

In the Middle East, Lebanese popular film critic Anis Tabet gave the film a positive review, giving it a 3.5/4 rating.

As reported in Maariv newspaper, on February 3, 2013, Israeli PM Netanyahu and his ministers discussed Spielberg's film, which several of them saw in Israeli cinemas. They debated whether the end of abolishing slavery justified the means used by Lincoln, and also compared Lincoln's predicament with their own complicated situation in the confused aftermath of the 2013 Israeli elections

Historian response

Eric Foner (Columbia University), a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the period, claimed in a letter to The New York Times that the film "grossly exaggerates" its main points about the choices at stake in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment (November 26, 2012). Kate Masur (Northwestern University) accuses the film of oversimplifying the role of blacks in abolition and dismissed the effort as "an opportunity squandered" in an op-ed for The New York Times (November 12, 2012). Harold Holzer, co-chair of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation and author of more than 40 books, served as a consultant to the film and praised it but also observed that there is "no shortage of small historical bloopers in the movie" in a piece for The Daily Beast (November 22, 2012). Barry Bradford, Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization Of American Historians, offers a balanced view of the film's historical strengths and errors. David Stewart, independent historical author, writing for History News Network, described Spielberg's work as "reasonably solid history" and told readers of HNN to "go see it with a clear conscience" (November 20, 2012). Lincoln biographer Ronald White also admired the film, though he noted a few mistakes and pointed out in an interview with NPR, "Is every word true? No." (November 23, 2012). Historian Joshua M. Zeitz, writing in The Atlantic, noted some minor mistakes, but concluded "Lincoln is not a perfect film, but it is an important film." Following a screening during the film's opening weekend, the Minnesota Civil War Commemoration Task Force held a panel discussion in which Dr. David Woodard of Concordia University remarked, "I always look at these films to see if a regular person who wasn't a 'Lincoln nut' would want to read a book about it after they watched the movie. I get the impression that most people who are not history buffs will now want to read something about Lincoln."

Accolades

See List of accolades received by Lincoln (2012 film) for more information