Lincoln (film)

• 1. The January Thaw

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  In the freezing air of January 1865, President Abraham Lincoln stands in a dimly lit room within the White House. He stares at a map of Virginia while his wife Mary Todd Lincoln paces nearby with visible anxiety. The war is nearing its end, yet Lincoln fears the courts will discard his Emancipation Proclamation once fighting stops. He knows that without a constitutional amendment, freed slaves could be re-enslaved by returning southern states. His political opponents include Radical Republicans who fear the amendment might fail if they wait for new elections. Some advisors suggest waiting until after the spring thaw when military operations resume and peace negotiations begin. Lincoln authorizes Francis Preston Blair to engage Confederate leaders in secret talks despite knowing this angers his allies. The President must balance these dangerous diplomatic efforts against the urgent need to pass the Thirteenth Amendment before Congress votes.

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• 2. Script Evolution And Rights

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  DreamWorks Pictures finalized film rights to Team of Rivals in 2001 after Spielberg heard Doris Kearns Goodwin discuss her biography project. John Logan wrote an initial draft focusing on Lincoln's friendship with Frederick Douglass during that early development phase. Playwright Paul Webb later rewrote the script before filming was scheduled to start in January 2006. Spielberg delayed production due to dissatisfaction with Webb's version which covered the entire presidential term rather than specific months. Tony Kushner replaced Webb as screenwriter and found the assignment daunting because he did not understand what made Lincoln great. Kushner noted Lincoln rarely quoted the New Testament even though he was Christian. By late 2008, Kushner joked about writing his 967,000th book about Abraham Lincoln while working on the screenplay. His first draft spanned four months but was rewritten by February 2009 to focus on just two months of political maneuvering. Spielberg arranged a fifty million dollar budget to placate Paramount Pictures who had previously delayed the project over concerns it resembled Amistad. DreamWorks eventually dropped out and Disney acquired distribution rights while Fox agreed to co-finance half the film alongside Participant Media.

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• 3. The Search For Lincoln

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  Spielberg approached Daniel Day-Lewis about playing Lincoln in 2003 but received an immediate rejection from the actor. Liam Neeson was cast as Lincoln in January 2005 after working together on Schindler's List years earlier. Neeson studied Lincoln extensively during preparation for the role before leaving the project in July 2010. He stated that at age fifty-eight he felt too old to portray a man who was only fifty-five or fifty-six during the depicted period. An interview with GQ revealed Neeson experienced a thunderbolt moment during a table read where he realized the part did not suit him. Co-star Sally Field suggested Neeson's decision may have been influenced by the death of his wife Natasha Richardson less than a year prior. Neeson subsequently recommended Day-Lewis to Spielberg after dropping out. Both Neeson and Leonardo DiCaprio spoke to Day-Lewis to convince him to accept the challenging role. The actor finally agreed to take on the part in November 2010 replacing Neeson after months of hesitation.

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• 4. Filming In Virginia

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  Filming began the 17th of October 2011 and concluded the 19th of December 2011 across multiple locations in Virginia. Production teams scouted Taunton and Dighton Massachusetts in early 2009 before settling on Richmond Fredericksburg and Petersburg. Location manager Colleen Gibbons noted that one thing attracting filmmakers to Petersburg was the rare 180-degree vista of historic structures available there. The Virginia State Capitol building served as both exterior and interior shots for the United States Capitol. Scenes representing Grover's Theatre were filmed at Virginia Repertory Theatre's November Theatre in Richmond. The House of Delegates inside the state capitol was remodeled to fit the House of Representatives chamber set design requirements. Spielberg wanted to honor the two hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth by releasing the film in late 2012. The production utilized existing architecture rather than constructing massive new sets throughout the filming process which lasted only six weeks.

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• 5. Critical Acclaim And Box Office

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  Lincoln grossed over two hundred seventy-five million dollars worldwide against a budget of sixty-five million dollars. The film opened in eleven theaters with an average of eighty-five thousand eight hundred forty-six dollars per theater during its limited release. It later expanded to one thousand one hundred seventy-five theaters generating twenty-one million dollars on opening weekend. Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of eighty-nine percent based on two hundred eighty-eight reviews with an average score of eight out of ten. Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of eighty-seven out of one hundred indicating universal acclaim from critics. Roger Ebert awarded four stars while Glenn Kenny gave five stars praising the performance and direction. A. O. Scott called it a rough and noble democratic masterpiece that examined how difficult it has been for the United States to recognize full humanity for black people. The film received seven Golden Globe nominations including Best Motion Picture Drama and won Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. At the eighty-fifth Academy Awards it received twelve nominations winning Best Production Design and Best Actor for Day-Lewis his third win in that category.

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• 6. Historical Accuracy Debates

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  Eric Foner claimed the film grossly exaggerates the possibility that slavery might have remained intact by January 1865 if the war ended. Kate Masur dismissed the effort as an opportunity squandered regarding the role of blacks in abolition movements. Harold Holzer served as consultant but observed there is no shortage of small historical bloopers in the movie. He noted it was almost inconceivable any uniformed soldier would memorize a speech that did not achieve national reputation until the twentieth century. Allen Guelzo disagreed with Holzer stating the pains taken for historical authenticity were worth hailing on their own terms. Guelzo later claimed the film was ninety percent accurate given how Hollywood usually handles history. Editor Rhoda Sneller referenced a diary entry from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles which conflicts with final scenes showing Lincoln dressed in a nightgown. Welles wrote the giant sufferer lay extended diagonally across the bed having been stripped of clothes. The differences between first-hand accounts and the present Lincoln serve to paint a more concise and dignified image of the president's death despite these discrepancies.

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