Lincoln

I went to see the Lincoln film yesterday at the cinema and enjoyed it very much, but started off wondering for a moment if the battle at the beginning was supposed to be one of the ones from Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter where the Confederates were vampires, I was sure that I saw someone ramming a metal spike of some sort that had broken off something, into the chest of one of the victims of the mud in this film.

However I got lost most of the time about who was supposed to be who, and who was supposed to be against or for the abolition of slavery in the film, but now I realise it looks as if Spielberg's script writer wasn't actually sure himself.

I thought that the Lincoln character was very pleasing and the brief dream sequence near the beginning of the film was very interesting to see and so I wondered because of that what sort of direction the movie would take but it didn't go any further with that sort of thing at all. However I thought that Daniel Day-Lewis held the film together very well

But I might even buy the DVD for the quick dream sequence in the Lincoln movie and not bother to watch the rest of it. I suppose they could have cut out a good chunk of what was filmed in Lincoln and give it some better form rather than forcing viewers to trudge through endless scenes where possibly very little was actually taken in from the dialogue. 

I received a text message this morning from a friend named Peter who wrote "Brief note. Discussing truth v. 'Artistic licence'- or LYING -in films, this morning on Radio 4, a film critic said that, though both Argo & Lincoln distort history- for instance the congressmen-or do I mean senators- from Connecticut did NOT apparently vote against the 13th amendment- All four voted in favour -and a current representative for Connecticut was extremely angry that his predecessors were portrayed as opposing abolition (of slavery); -it seems that neither film will suffer at the Oscars as a result,- while Zero Dark Thirty, with its contention that Bin Laden was tracked down due to information by torture, is as a consequence likely to have its haul of awards diminished. Maybe the message is that if you distort history in a way which which doesn't offend too many American's self-righteousness, that's OK; but present, in your movie, Americans being as vicious, ruthless, cruel and corrupt as people of other nations, then you'll be punished by the academy awards committee". 

However I also very much liked the shots of the dimly lit room with the net curtains and the light pouring through those windows.