Lincoln

source: Lincoln

I love the movies-- our American art form-- but I'm afraid the last 15 or so years have been dismal! I just saw Lincoln-- and what a bore! 2 1/2 hours of boring, inaccurate talk, talk, talk!! Anyone who tells you differently either is lying, politically correct, or worshiping at the pagan altar of Abe Lincoln ( who was really a tyrant and a war criminal who killed 600,000 people and fought a total war against noncombatants over economics and against the Jeffersonian principle of the right of sovereignty and self-determination--and not- not about slavery! Lincoln was a racist, and despite publicity to the contrary, never freed one slave!) And while I'm at it, Spielberg is a bad director-- manipulative and sentimental and Tony Kushner is a bad writer-- manipulative and political. In this movie the music is too subdued, the cinematography is too dark, the art direction is too drab and the acting is too mediocre. Even Daniel Day Lewis' extolled performance is merely just--OK-- and not the masterpiece we have been told to expect. And that's the truth. Can you handle the truth? If you want to see a good biopic watch Lawrence of Arabia. If you want to see good acting watch A Streetcar Named Desire. If you want to see good directing watch The Graduate. If you want to hear good dialog watch The Apartment. If you want to see a good Civil War picture watch Gone with the Wind. If you want an interesting plot watch Chinatown. If you want to know the truth about dishonest Abe read The Real Lincoln by Thomas Di Lorenzo. Alas, American movies, and American culture are, I fear, in a spiraling decline.

Together with some decent blockbusters, Spielberg has spent a portion of his career making propaganda films. That's fine, of course. He has a right to his opinion and he has the muscle and talent to express this opinion through movies. This particular movie is simply boring. It has other faults but there is no way around its lack of depth and capacity to engage. Historically, it is a mess. United States was the penultimate slaver country to abolish slavery (Brazil was the last one). Worry not, my dear fellow American, I believe Spielberg told us through another of his propaganda movies that slavery is to be blamed on Spain. The bottom line is that Spielberg is a republican and this one movie is meant to satisfy that particular itch.

I had greatest expectations with "Lincoln", a movie that had twelve nominations to the Oscar, winning two of them and another fifty-seven wins and one hundred and two nominations. Unfortunately "Lincoln" is one of the most boring (if not the most) movies I have tried to see, since I slept after 60 minutes running time. "Lincoln" may be interesting for American people and students of history since the biography of Abraham Lincoln is part of the history of that country and the movie seems to be very accurate about the efforts of this president to approve the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution by the House of Representatives. It may be also interesting for students of cinema since performances, cinematography and costume design are top-notch. But for a common viewer like me, it is painful to watch. I prefer Spielberg making science-fiction movies. My vote is one. Title (Brazil): "Lincoln"