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Lincoln Play Trailer

Lincoln (2012)

tomatometer

89

Average Rating: 8/10
Reviews Counted: 242
Fresh: 216 | Rotten: 26

Daniel Day-Lewis characteristically delivers in this witty, dignified portrait that immerses the audience in its world and entertains even as it informs.

96

Average Rating: 8.7/10
Critic Reviews: 46
Fresh: 44 | Rotten: 2

Daniel Day-Lewis characteristically delivers in this witty, dignified portrait that immerses the audience in its world and entertains even as it informs.

audience

84

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 136,347

My Rating

Movie Info

Steven Spielberg directs Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln, a revealing drama that focuses on the 16th President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come. -- (C) Walt Disney

PG-13,

Drama

Mar 26, 2013

$182.2M

Dreamworks Pictures - Official Site External Icon

Cast

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All Critics (242) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (220) | Rotten (26) | DVD (4)

'Lincoln' works as a snapshot of a great man without ever slipping into a portrait of sainthood.

January 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is movie magic -- history coming to life, before our eyes.

January 8, 2013 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
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It's the most remarkable movie Steven Spielberg has made in quite a spell, and one of the things that makes it remarkable is how it fulfills those expectations by simultaneously ignoring and transcending them.

November 19, 2012 Full Review Source: MSN Movies
MSN Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Lincoln paints a powerful and compelling portrait of the man who has become an icon. We don't need to see more of his life to understand how rare a figure he was - this window is more than sufficient.

November 18, 2012 Full Review Source: ReelViews
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Lincoln offers proof of what magic can happen when an actor falls in love with his character. Because as great as Day-Lewis has been in his many parts, he has never seemed quite so smitten.

November 16, 2012 Full Review Source: Denver Post
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film masterfully captures the dual dilemmas facing the president in the final months of his life: how to bring the war between the states to an end, and how to eradicate slavery, once and for all.

November 15, 2012 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This Blu-ray release feels a bit cold and aloof. Beautiful packaging but the picture quality doesn't really "sing" and the extras are fairly "non-existent." If you like the movie, this is a fine Blu-ray to pick up.

April 21, 2013 Full Review Source: Eclipse Magazine
Eclipse Magazine

A bit like watching the West Wing played by Amish People. Desperately needed 40 minutes cut out of what is essentially quite a beautifully made movie.

April 8, 2013 Full Review Source: Triple J
Triple J

Day-Lewis...wears well the weariness of the office and Lincoln's puckish yet subdued sense of humor, scaling the man closer to life-size than Mount Rushmore monumental. [Blu-ray]

April 2, 2013 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews
Groucho Reviews

The lame extras are disappointing, but Steven Spielberg's quietly subversive political comedy receives an otherwise superlative transfer.

March 27, 2013 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

Whenever other actors hear Daniel Day-Lewis is making a movie, they can pretty much give up any hopes that they'll win an Oscar that year.

March 26, 2013 Full Review Source: COEDMagazine.com
COEDMagazine.com

A poignant portrait of Lincoln's last days, time spent as a marked man making his appointed rounds en route to his rendezvous with destiny.

March 25, 2013 Full Review Source: Sly Fox
Sly Fox

Spielberg's 'Lincoln' gives us the fullest portrait of the man on the five dollar bill that Hollywood has produced.

March 24, 2013 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

Pushing this film as merely 'Lincoln' is something of an injustice to the man himself, as if audiences wouldn't have any interest in the actual story of the film.

March 23, 2013 Full Review Source: MovieCrypt.com
MovieCrypt.com

Somewhere in there, Lincoln will call upon [his administration's] faculties and better sense, and the film about him will ask something similar of us.

March 18, 2013 Full Review Source: Movies With Butter

A spellbinding performance and a beautifully nuanced film about statesmanship, quiet contemplation and - above all else - principle.

March 3, 2013 Full Review Source: Concrete Playground
Concrete Playground

Once you settle in, this is an educational and enlightening epic. Yes, it can be ponderous, but for the most part, Lincoln is entertaining.

February 28, 2013 Full Review Source: The Standard

A powerful and brilliant look at the most important moment in US history...

February 23, 2013 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed
Cinema Crazed

Oddly, Spielberg chooses to set his gabby epic largely indoors...This gives Lincoln a rather inert feel...It's infuriating that spectacular battle scenes are described in the film, but not shown.

February 15, 2013 Full Review Source: 3AW

A remarkable performance by Daniel Day-Lewis is the glue that holds Lincoln together. Without him, this would be a very unremarkable film.

February 11, 2013 Full Review Source: The Mercury
The Mercury

Spielberg's guarded representation of Honest Abe highlights some problems with the biopic format, especially in terms of veracity, and especially in terms of how we can (or can't) measure accuracy as the years roll by.

February 7, 2013 Full Review Source: Crikey

Every ounce of time-honoured respect a nation has seen fit to bestow upon The Great Emancipator is addressed frame by frame in Steven Spielberg's stately masterwork, Lincoln.

February 7, 2013 Full Review Source: Screen-Space
Screen-Space

For the most part Lincoln is not a significant inclusion into Spielberg's filmography despite the noblest of intentions and undeniable cinematic craftsmanship.

February 6, 2013 Full Review Source: Cinema Autopsy
Cinema Autopsy

A focused, remarkably human production, anchored by Day-Lewis' understated performance as the softly spoken, long winded, devilishly funny Abraham

February 5, 2013 Full Review Source: Quickflix
Quickflix

Those interested in the subject matter should find it informative, eye-opening and rewarding.

February 5, 2013 Full Review Source: ABC Radio Brisbane
ABC Radio Brisbane

Lincoln is a far more reckless, entertaining, unusual, but ultimately horribly uneven film than its pedigree may suggest.

February 3, 2013 Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia)
FILMINK (Australia)

Audience Reviews for Lincoln

Really, really good. Daniel Day-Lewis completely became the Lincoln that is in MY imagination. He nailed it in every way. This movie concentrates on the months it took Lincoln, and his staff, to get the 13th amendment through Congress. An historical moment told in the most outstanding way. Never boring. Superbly acted, and directed. It tells more about Lincoln's daily life, and character, than anything I've ever seen before. Well done!
November 8, 2012
itsjustme2004

Super Reviewer

Steven Spielburg used to make movies you love. He now makes movies you admire. There's a difference. From the legendary director who brought us some of the great movies of the past century,from his theatrical debut in "The Sugarland Express" to the birth of the American blockbuster "Jaws", to the man who brought us "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", his only attempt at a comedy "1941", to Harrison Ford fleeing a rolling boulder in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", from Henry Thomas furiously pedaling across the moon in "E.T.",to the terror of a hungry T-Rex in "Jurassic Park" to his attempt at directing adult oriented material ranging from "Schindler's List" to "Catch Me If You Can",and "The Terminal"...not to mention the less said about the sequels to "Indiana Jones",and "Jurassic Park",and his vision of fantasy and adventure ranging from "Hook", to last year's kiddle computerized "The Adventures of Tintin". But the evolution in Spielburg's filmmaking is not a matter of competence but rather perspective. It's notable enough that his epic "Lincoln" is Spielburg's own version of "Gone With The Wind" under his own "Lawrence of Arabia". Screenplay by Tony Kushner(who also collaborated with Spielburg's "Munich",and "Saving Private Ryan")with music by one of the greatest film composers of all the maestro himself John Williams(who has collaborated for composing Spielburg's greatest hits)has produced one of the best films ever made. What makes "Lincoln" intriguing is considering how the biopic he delivers today might differ from the one the director of "E.T." would have been made 30 years ago,or even 11 years when DreamWorks first acquired the film rights to historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin's then-unpublished biography "Team of Rivals:The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln"(on which the "Lincoln" confines itself to the final two chapters of the book) which covers the effect to pass the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery through a lame-duck House of Representatives during January of 1865,shortly after Lincoln's re-election. Spielburg not only focuses on the political process,the fractured forces both propelling and obstructing the landmark passage of this landmark amendment,but on the other hand the intense Civil War battle sequences and his resolute committment to pass the 13th Amendment. What follows is a revealing insight into the last breath of strategy from dealing with the subject of slavery and Lincoln's desperate fight to end it. The result is a movie that is brilliant in scope and detail with Daniel Day-Lewis' performance that will go down for the ages in scope and excellent visionary as one of the most honored and most respected Presidents in United States History. The cast itself is superb with two-time Oscar winner Sally Field(one of the most respected actresses of our generation) as Mary Todd Lincoln, along with an outstanding cast ensemble that includes David Strathaim, Joesph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, along with Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, and Jared Harris. This movie,which has a running time of 178 minutes will be the front-runner status for this year's Oscar race,with 12 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director(Steven Spielburg), Best Actor(Daniel Day Lewis), Best Original Screenplay(Tony Kushner), Best Supporting Actor(Tommy Lee Jones),Best Supporting Actress(Sally Field),and Best Original Music Score(John Williams). Of the 12 Oscar Nominations that it received,it won Two Oscars for Best Production Design and for Daniel Day-Lewis(Best Actor). "Lincoln" became a huge boxoffice success grossing $266 million at the boxoffice making it one of the top ten highest grossing films of 2012.
July 18, 2012
rayman0071
Mister Caple

Super Reviewer

    1. Abraham Lincoln: The fate of human decency is in our hands!
    – Submitted by Alexandria P (8 days ago)
    1. Thaddeus Stevens: Trust? Gentlemen, you seem to have forgotten that our chosen career is politics.
    – Submitted by Ahmed A (14 days ago)
    1. Thaddeus Stevens: Trust? Gentlemen, you seem to have forgotten that our chosen career is politics.
    – Submitted by Caesar M (56 days ago)
    1. Abraham Lincoln: Euclid's first common notion is this: "Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other."
    – Submitted by Mahesh W (2 months ago)
    1. Abraham Lincoln: You're an engineer. You must know Euclid's axioms and common notions. I never had much of schooling but I read Euclid in an old book I borrowed. Little ever found in its way in here, but once learnt it stayed learnt.
    – Submitted by Mahesh W (2 months ago)
    1. Edwin Stanton: A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it'll... it'll point you True North from where you're standing, but it's got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms that you'll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp... What's the use of knowing True North?
    – Submitted by M'hamed D (3 months ago)

Discussion Forum

Topic Last Post Replies
A cure for insomnia 1 day ago 46
rank the greatest actors of all time 1 day ago 1
Spielberg really messed up 3 days ago 145
Disappointing 31 days ago 47
The Mastery of the Lincoln movie 43 days ago 4

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