Lincoln
Reviewed by
Sam Adams
Sam Adams’ articles
seem aimed at particular types of readers: those whose vocabulary is
extensive, and those who enjoy learning new words. He has an arsenal
of fancy words that are unleashed in every review he writes that,
when combined with his snarky and sarcastic attitude, may seem like
he’s condescending to the average reader. (Personally, I appreciate
the effective use of ten cent words, even if I do need to break out
my trusty dictionary app for them.) I don’t think he is talking
down to people so much as he is just writing something he would want
to read himself, but I could understand if someone just looking for a
basic review got a bit frustrated with his analysis.
That said I think Adams’
critique of this movie is quite insightful. Despite his wordy style,
he does paint a clear picture of his thoughts on the movie. He
explains that this movie details how Lincoln went about affecting the
future of our nation rather than relating what kind of man or leader
he was. I got the feeling that Adams saw
Lincoln as a glorified two and a half hour
block of CSPAN that took away from the solemn, pensive, and
unflappable Abraham Lincoln we learned about growing up, instead
portraying him as what he really was: a politician. I will give kudos
to Adams for his line about Lincoln’s “copper-bright image”
though, because that seriously made me chuckle.
Adams’
graded Lincoln a B+,
which is not something you would expect to be given to a movie with
12 Academy Award nominations, but he does make some valid points
about the not-so-realistic aspects of the film. His digs at Steven
Spielberg’s directorial decisions and Daniel Day-Lewis’
performance lead me to believe that he is either an Abraham Lincoln
fan who didn’t appreciate how the movie deviated from the well
known tales of the 16th
President, or just someone who likes to disagree with most anything
coming from big time Hollywood players. I’m willing to bet that
it’s a bit of both.
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