Lincoln on Blu-ray disc

By Jim Bray

It must have really galled all the liberals behind this excellent Steven Spielberg movie to showcase how the U.S. Republican party, "the party of Lincoln," was the one that fought the racist Democrats for the abolition of slavery in the U.S.

But it's true. It was the Republicans who wanted to treat everyone equally then, and the Democrats who wanted black people to remain in chains. It's amazing how things never seem to change. Today, it's still the Republicans who want to treat everyone equally, while the Democrats try to divide people by race, sex, ethnicity, what have you. And those who let themselves be divided suffer for it.

Don't believe me? Look at Detroit, or Chicago, Democrat strongholds that are fiscal and social sewers where the people Democrats proclaim to be for continue to live in squalor, and gun each other down on a regular basis. Then look at Texas…

But it appears that Spielberg et al sucked it up enough so that they didn't rewrite history the way their party of choice tries to. Now, I have no idea how accurate historically "Lincoln" the movie is – especially since it's based on a book by the notorious Pulitzer prize-winning historian and, apparently, plagiarist, Doris Kearns Goodwin. It feels right, though, and regardless of its veracity it's a heckuva film.

Spielberg doesn't try tackling Lincoln's whole life or career here; rather, he deals with a short period just before Lincoln's assassination, after his reelection as president and until his death. It's a period in which he pushed for the passage and ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – which ended slavery. It was obviously a laudable goal, especially for a country founded on the proposition that all men are created equal, and the film deals with Lincoln's push for the Amendment and the politicking and wheeling and dealing that surrounded it.

The film is also set against the waning days of the Civil War, though there's virtually no war action here. In fact, there's really no "action" here at all; it's a very talky movie throughout – though I found that its virtually 2.5 hour running time still managed to fly by, not dragging at all. That's quite an achievement, and a tribute to the filmmakers' skill.

Lincoln here is portrayed (and superbly, by Daniel Day-Lewis) as a quiet-spoken, decent man who's been around the block enough to know how the system worked and to know what he needed to do to ensure passage of his Amendment. So he sends out surrogates to offer, for example, patronage positions to Democrats for their support – and when it looks as if he's still a few votes short, he hauls in some prime Democrats for his personal treatment.

He knows in his heart he's doing the right thing morally and historically, so while the politicking might seem a bit sleazy, he really was just using a system he didn't design but had to work within, as a means to see the Amendment enacted.

Day-Lewis' Lincoln is riveting. I've never seen the actor before, though I know about his many honors, and after seeing him here I can see why he has copped multiple Oscars. His Lincoln is totally believable – a man of quiet strength and dignity, who's quick with the anecdote and determined to get his way no matter how many people tell him it can't (or shouldn't) be done.

The ensemble cast is also very good, but they still come across as actors in roles, whereas Day-Lewis (maybe because I don't know him) comes across as Lincoln. That's a heckuva thing for an actor to achieve, and I can see why he walked off with the Best Actor Academy Award.

That doesn't mean the supporting cast is no good! Put people such as Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Hal Holbrooke, James Spader, David Strathairn and Joseph Gordon-Levitt together and you have some pretty powerful and respected performers, and all turn in good work here. But they have a thankless task appearing with Day-Lewis. He does no scenery chewing, no big emoting scenes; no, it's just a quiet and dignified performance in which I believe he only raised his voice once, and it was only for a couple of words. Remarkable.

Spielberg takes some deserved heat for making his movies longer than the story warrants sometimes – A. I. is a prime example – but though some have complained about Lincoln suffering from the same problem, I disagree. I think the movie ended just right, and with a restraint Spielberg sometimes forgets.

Speaking of restraint, John Williams is once again on hand here, turning out yet another fine Spielberg score. Don't take that as a complaint; I'm a huge Williams fan and can't hear his masterful output enough. But here, the music is very much in the background so, rather than the sweeping orchestras we've come to know and love from the master composer, you can almost not notice that there is a musical score at all. This is also remarkable. Here, the characters tell the story, build the emotion, and Williams merely enhances it subtly.

The Blu-ray is a tad disappointing, not in that the audio and video quality aren't up to snuff but in that Spielberg has once again gone for an "arty" look that eschews realism for feel. In this case, Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is very shadowy, and with kind of "near-Sepia" look that makes "Lincoln" look almost as if it were shot as a documentary using the photographic equipment of the time. Spielberg's an old hand at this (remember Schindler's List?), and as such, the movie looks fine - and the look does help impart a feeling of the era. But I wish Spielberg would eschew this type of artistry (Minority Report and War of the Worlds also featured this type of "unreal" and "artsy" look, though obviously those films didn't have Lincoln's "period appearance").

Still, the Blu-ray is obviously high def, and done extremely well, so the darkness of most shots ends up showing very good detail and depth, rather than just being a smeary mess of blackness like you'd get on VHS or DVD - or a badly made Blu-ray.

Audio is offered in DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, and though the film is very dialogue heavy with only limited pyrotechnics, it works very well. Sounds are placed around the home theater nicely when appropriate – for example, the rowdy House of Representatives – and the overall audio fidelity is top notch. The beginning of the film, where Lincoln is visiting some troops, features some very deep bass that made me worried the soundtrack would be overpowering. But it isn't.

We received the four disc combo set, which includes two Blu-rays (one for the movie and some supplements and one for more extras), a DVD and a digital copy disc. They're all sandwiched into what's basically a two disc container, so be careful not to scratch them!

Disc One includes "The Journey to 'Lincoln'," which is a short intro to the film and includes Spielberg, Day-Lewis, Doris Kearns Goodwin and others. It's kind of a promo-type thing, but a good one, in which they talk about the movie's evolution. You also get "A Historic Tapestry: Richmond, Virginia," another very short feature outlining why they chose to shoot in that particular location.

Disc Two kicks off with another short featurette: "In the Company of Character" looks at the abundance of character actors on hand. "Crafting the Past" is another short, but pretty good, look at sets and costumes, with production designer Rick Carter and costume designer Joanna Johnston.

"Living with Lincoln" is nearly a half hour long, and is pretty well a "making of" thing – and it's pretty interesting seeing how Spielberg et al managed to stay as historically accurate as possible. "In Lincoln's Footsteps" is a bit of a mish-mash look at all sides of the production, including how they managed to keep the audience from nodding off in such a talk heavy film.

I was very surprised at Lincoln. I had expected it to be either boring, or a liberal circle jerk of some kind, and it wasn't that at all. Steven Spielberg and his associates have crafted a fine historical drama dealing with important figures at an important time in American history. Well done!

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