Vidor wrote:
it bugs me when a critic will rip a movie for not being something that the creator never intended it to be.
Agreed. Movie was a character portrait of Lincoln via the political battle of the 13th amendment.
I'm not a historical expert, but I suspect there weren't a lot of black characters to put in this story with any historical accuracy. The limited to no political role that blacks played in amendment for their own freedom/citizenship perhaps speaks more to the desperate hardships of slavery, than juxtaposing a significant empowered black character into the script. A large attempt to chronicle slavery in this movie would have failed and trivialized it. IMO, the two black soldiers meeting with Lincoln at military camp at the beginning of movie was just that. (though the black soldiers transporting the Confederate "diplomats" was pretty good).
There is record of Lincoln and F Douglass interactions, but not sure if any relevant to 13th amendment episode.
This is why these massive historical movies like this just don't excite me at all. I'm sure Lincoln is a great movie, but there are just too many angles, interpretations, people and stories that simply get left out. A lot of times they just raise more questions than they answer. Heck, half the time Hollywood can't even properly adapt a fictional book to the screen. So how successful can they be at adapting something like the passing of the 13th amendment?
The best "true story" films are the ones that take a very specific event that involved maybe a small town or a small group of people and focus in on it in great detail. Or maybe a film about a specific person and their story. They probably tried to do this to some extent with Lincoln, but they had a steep challenge. Lincoln is probably the most-studied President of all time.
Haven't seen Lincoln yet, but as it is based in part of Team of Rivals, which is the politics of the Lincoln era, I agree with what you all are saying.
The war is discussed from that point of view so it's not meant to be a detailed chronicle of the war or the abolitionists or the slaves struggle. They are incorporated into the story as part of the overall theme.
From reading the book, I was amazed by Lincoln's political savvy and even more so by his seeming complete lack of ego, something that is completely lacking in today's political environment (on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue). He just wanted what was best for the country. Example is not accepting Salmon Chase's resignation even though the guy was running against Abe for the '64 nomination because he felt the country could not afford his absence as Treasury Secretary. Makes me wonder how he would've handled the McChrystal situation.
pioneer98 wrote:The best "true story" films are the ones that take a very specific event that involved maybe a small town or a small group of people and focus in on it in great detail.
Well, that's what "Lincoln" is, really. Most of the film is two or three weeks in January 1865.
The Raid mostly sucked. It was like a real life version of one of those zombie modes on a video game. Some of the gore and martial arts were well done but it just got repetitive. I guess action junkies would like it but I want at least a little story with my violence. Some points of the movie were just complete nonsense.
Also, do we really need it dubbed over in English voices? And why do those voices never attempt to match the actual emotion of the scene? So annoying.
I also thought it was really boring. Yay, guns and gore and stupid [expletive]. It had so much hype as some triumphant action flick, but I thought it was like a John Woo flick, only worse. Yeah, I said it. John Woo movies are stupid. I got a copy of the Raid, watched the first 15 minutes or so, then kept clicking ahead a few minutes at a time until it was over. I don't think I wasted more than a half hour of my life on it, though, so I'm not upset.
In current movie news, I'm sad at how many crappy reviews Gangster Squad has been getting. I didn't expect it to be a classic flick, but with that cast and the flashiness, I figured it'd be pulpy fun, and I'd been looking forward to it for a while now. I have hardly seen a single fan or critic review that made me want to actually go pay for it. Oh well.
