The Lincoln Movie

Johnny Booth - ignored by Spielberg

The weirdest part about the Lincoln movie is that towards the end of it (and the film is REALLY long, by the way), Tommy Lee Jones takes off his wig and hobbles into bed with the black police lady from Law & Order. I started laughing. The folks nearby in the theater seemed none too pleased.

The 2nd weirdest part of the Lincoln movie is that Sally Field plays Mary Todd Lincoln. The movie is set in early 1865. Mrs Lincoln would have been 46 at that time. She had a son who was born in 1853. Sally Field was born in 1946. Thus, she's 66 years old. That's a 19 year difference. I found it totally unbelievable that moviegoers are supposed to buy into the premise that Sally Field could have given birth at 54 years of age. I couldn't suspend my disbelief. Couldn't Spielberg have hired an actress closer in age to Mrs Lincoln? Is that asking too much? Maybe it's because Spielberg was also born in 1946 and thinks he and Ms Fields are spring chickens. I have no idea.

Did I mention the Lincoln movie is REALLY long? It went on for what seemed like 4 hours. I would have left at some point before it ended, but it was so suspenseful I just couldn't do it. I needed to know that the 13th Amendment was passed in the House of Representatives, the Union won the war, and Lincoln was assassinated. I'm glad the movie covered all of that ground because I had no clue until the last 20 minutes of the thing that history turned out that way. Did anyone know any of this before seeing the Lincoln movie? I, like many other ignorant folks, thought that slavery was still legal, the South won the war, and Lincoln lived a happy life to the ripe old age of 92. Thank you for setting me straight there, Spielberg.

The most disappointing thing about the Lincoln movie is that Johnny Booth never made an appearance. The scene I waited around the theater 4 hours for never was shown. I wanted to see Booth jump at Lincoln, yell "Sic semper tyrannis," shoot him, and race off into the spring evening. But for some reason Spielberg didn't show the assassination. Maybe he wanted to leave the audience wanting more???

I was so disappointed that Johnny Booth never showed up, that when the movie finally ended, I bolted up from my seat and said "Where the hell was Johnny Booth?" Alas, none of my fellow moviegoers laughed...

I'd heard from about a dozen folk the past 2 months that the Lincoln movie was very good and that I really should see it. I feared it would be typical Spielberg propaganda. I admit I was wrong about that. Spielberg did present the other view of Lincoln, that he was little more than a petty, power grabbing, tyrant. So, I appreciated that. In fact, the best character in the movie is some ex-mayor of New York City who gets up on the floor of the House of Representatives and rips into Lincoln. I enjoyed that immensely. Instead of a piece of antagonizing propaganda, Spielberg delivered a slow moving story that everyone knew the end of. Pretty pointless.

The 3rd weirdest thing about the Lincoln movie, while I'm thinking of it, was the way Daniel Day-Lewis walked. His gait as Lincoln was reminiscent of a horse who pulls up lame just after breaking the starting gate at Belmont...

The best acting in the movie, and this should come as no shock, was done by James Spader. He was hilarious. Although, as always when I see James Spader, I kept hoping he'd deliver his best line from Pretty In Pink, "That girl was, and will always be, nada."