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Abraham Lincoln is returning to the White House tomorrow – Lincoln the movie that is. The White House press office announced today that President Barack Obama will be hosting “cast and crew members” from the Steven Spielberg-directed film for a screening at the Executive Mansion on Thursday evening. DreamWorks had no comment on the screening. However, Deadline has learned that Spielberg, DreamWorks Studios co-Chair and CEO Stacey Snider, producer Kathleen Kennedy, screenwriter Tony Kushner as well as actors Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Gloria Reuben and Tommy Lee Jones will all be there with the President and First Lady. Day-Lewis plays the 16th President of the United States. Field plays his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, Reuben plays a former slave who is Mrs. Lincoln’s dressmaker and Jones plays abolitionist Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Director Spielberg, who was a big contributor to the Obama reelection campaign this year, has repeatedly said that he delayed the film coming out until after the Presidential election to avoid Lincoln becoming a political football. Lincoln, which is produced by DreamWorks Studios in association with Participant Media and Disney and Fox, opened in limited release on November 9, bringing in $900,000 over the weekend from 11 theatres.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
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Saw the film. Its little more than a propaganda film in which Lincoln = Obama. Armond White has a great (negative, but honest) review in City Arts.
What crap. The movie clearly defines the conflicting issues that Lincoln faced and the price he was willing to pay for making them. I doubt, frankly, that any living politician could have succeeded as Lincoln did. It also…very clearly…showed that it’s the democrat party that was, and is, steeped in racism. And, frankly, I don’t give a fat rat’s rear end what some film critic or amateur wannabe historian has to say about it.
It’s the Democratic Party, not the Democrat Party. This country has gone through political realignment since this government began in 1789. The Democrats of the 1860s are not the same as 2012, just as the Republicans of the 1860s are not the GOP of today. Lincoln Republicans were out by 1896 when the business Republicans came to power with McKinley. The Democrats in 1860 were split, but were the conservative party opposite the Lincoln Republicans. Don’t equate the Democrats of toady with the 1860s. If you knew anything about each party’s ideological history, you’d sound less like a misinformed hater of facts and reality. But this is Deadline, not Politico.
Excellent comment. Sadly few know the history of this country or it’s political ups and downs.
The posts on here saying the democrats have grown away from their past is completely false. The democrats of today are not even close to being what Lincoln’s party was. Recent history from the early 1900′s will show that. If you look at history from the 1858 to modern day, you will see that Republican’s like Lincoln have always supported civil rights. In fact, you don’t have to go far back and look at the 1964 civil rights act. It was the democrats that filibustered that act. I think the republicans today still carry that torch today. Heck, even in 1991 George HW Bush passed the civil rights act of 1991 to strengthen civil rights. I couldn’t say this any better…”So the next time any Democrat claims they’ve been supportive of civil rights in America (and been so all along), ask them to explain their past. “We’ve grown” is not gonna cut it, considering they continue to lie about their past to this day, and only someone lacking in common sense would believe two distinct political parties could juxtaposition their stances on civil rights seemingly overnight.
And I’m tired of the recitation that Southern Democrats became racist Republicans and took those tendencies with them. Even today, it never takes long for a Democrat to play the race card purely for political advantage.
Very well done; I couldn’t have said it better!
how exactly does the movie present Lincoln = Obama? i saw it too
Armond White? Are you fucking kidding me?
ANOTHER BOX OFFICE BOMB
Film re-writes history and Spielberg has performed electronic processing secrets to make Lincoln look like Obama during some scenes. This film is crap.
You righties get crazier by the day..
Can’t wait to see the flick. Do they show the famous moment when Lincoln, upon waking up after a night of black-out drunkeness, and upon being informed of his disgusting, reckless behavior, screamed out “I freed who?”
I think it’s interesting that Spielberg waited until after the election to release this film, probably because Lincoln was a Republican, and God forbid that the electorate should be remined that the man who saved the union was a Republican. Spieberg is a flaming hypocrite. I wouldn’t give him on more red cent; not one red cent.
Mmmmm. So you wouldn’t give Spielberg one red cent, i.e. a Lincoln penny?
Unless Les Mis is flawless, Lincoln is the year’s best picture. How incredible would it be to watch it with the President?
Armond White?! LOL
Lincoln, a great Republican President!
The republican party of that time just so happens to be the modern democratic party.
What are you smokin’, fool?
You are lost
Anon, you are absolutely correct! People need to learn their history. The parties more or less “switched” w/ each other after the Civil War. Also Lincoln probably did more to HURT the Constitution than the South aka “Rebels”. Shutting down news papers that didn’t align w/ Lincoln, imprisonment of editors, reporters, correspondents, the suspension of Ha bis-Corpus and atreasure trove of other things. “Oooo he freed the slaves”, sorry but the Emancipation Proc. was an AFTER THOUGHT(see his 1st inaugural speech), he only did it to alienate possible European allies du to the “Rebels” consistant victories over the Federal Army. Britain and France and even possibly “Germany” were considering having Confederacy as an “Allie” due to strong backlash @ home, due to starvation, riots, & rampant unemployment in the various mills arcross Europe, THUS Lincoln made it a “moral issue” rather than an economic one. While yes, Lincoln did what he might have thought was “best”,I am certain that the founding fathers were rolling over in their graves, but the jobs DID get done.
You mean read your revisionist history… both parties claim Lincoln and both have some legitimate claims. Lincoln was a moderate… his party was made up of both Whigs and Democrats. Lincoln was pro-business and pro-landowner-ship. His policies would have overlapped both the parties today. He was an independent thinker who could listen to others opinions and sometimes reach a different one than he had previously had and he was a very good politician. Reconstruction would have gone much better if Lincoln had lived. He was smart and understood the need for the Union AND the need to limit the growth of slavery. The parties as they are today have no relation to the early parties in America–Lincoln was a conservative on many issues and a liberal on one.
Dear Sore Loser: Please Leave your deranged right wing conspiracy theories at the door. This a great film with a stunning lead performance.
It is in my opinion Spielberg’s best film and the one with the bests performances this year. I am entirely apolitical so I could not care less about any of that stuff.
Apolitical – did you vote?
No, I did not.
Acting was good. Movie was mediocre. The dialogue was too cluttered.
Daniel Day Lewis definitely deserves a trip to the white house after his performance. Give him the Lincoln bedroom for a few nights.
Absolutely beautiful, perfectly scripted, acted and executed film. I hope the studio will spend marketing dollars to travel this film to PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS across the United States where most can’t afford the price of a ticket.
You think History should be taught with Hollywood films?
How about just letting the kids watch the film “JFK” instead of actually learning about the man?
Then maybe the kids can learn about WWII by watching “Pearl Harbor”… does that sound about right?
I thought ARGO was really good…..till I saw Cloud Atlas. I am looking forward to seeing LINCOLN. and e en though we all know The story and… how it will end. It is sad to believe that due to all tbe hyper Race crap going on LINCOLN will clean up at the oscars
.& No would absolutly not want to watch it with ObungHOLE.
Your mother must be so proud.
One has to remember that Lincoln was looked on as a radical at the time of his election. He was not willing to follow the route followed by many before him. He was very vocal at times with his assistants and even shouted once that Buchanan (his predecessor) should be hanged if he gave up any forts. Lincoln was a political animal and viewed everything through the window of political use or need. he was not close to many, shared none of his personal thoughts, and as said by his closest associate he would toss men aside like chess pieces when he no longer needed them. That was Lincoln. An amazing man, but a man no one, specially us in the 21st century will ever really know or understand. The movie I am sure does some justice to him, but it is as his son said about his father’s photographs. Each is a picture of him, but there is no portrait of him. Who was Lincoln? We will never know. Too much about his personal life has been destroyed to really know him. All we see is the creation of a myth, that will forever remain so.
No he wasn’t. Two of the people he beat for the nomination of the Republican party were considered radical (only one was). He was a moderate and was considered such. Even the book that this movie was based on considered him a moderate ON SLAVERY and a conservative on many other things. Read Lincoln by David McCoullough and Team of Rivals. Those are the best books for a rudimentary knowledge of actual history concerning Lincoln.
Which Lincoln book did McCullough write?
Lincoln was a very passionate man who tried very hard to show it. Mary Lincoln would mention the passionate letters her husband wrote to her. Sadly not one of those “passionate” letters exists. Robert Lincoln did a good job on destroying anything he felt made his father seem a little too human and did not fit the myth. Even his official biographers Nicolay and Hay who had been his secretaries did not venture much into his personality or private life. Everything they wrote had to be approved by Robert Lincoln as well. So we can see so much of Abraham Lincoln died and was lost. Much was lost due to a desire to do so. It makes you kind of wonder what Lincoln must have really been like? We have little windows but no access to him. It is very much like Washington, so much was lost and destroyed to keep a special image of him.
I know most movies are done by the left, but this is one I won’t be paying to see. Thank you Tommy and Steven for wearing your heart on your sleeve I won’t be paying for anymore of your movies as well.
Why hasn’t anyone brought up the fact that there are much more important things going on domestically (and in the world) right now? How do they have time for this Hollywood circle jerk?
Daniel Day-Lewis is a terrific actor, and one of my favorites. That said, I won’t see this. I can’t bear that squeaky little voice he gave Lincoln. I think he missed it with that voice. Like nails on a chalkboard. Furthermore, it looks a boring as he//.
Don’t know why anyone but Day-Lewis should show up on Oscar night, it is a slam-dunk. Same for Tommy Lee. Sally Field might get some pressure from Judy Dence’s final appearance in Bond. For best film though, watch out for “Les Miz” which opens on Christmas Day. That’s going to be a blockbuster also.
An atrocious film with bad camera work, no script and terrible acting.
Oh, and did I forget: booooooooooooring!
you are in a very small circle
From what I’ve heard about this movie it’s a complete fraud. Lincoln was a racist all his life and he was in the pockets of the northern businessmen who wanted corporate welfare. Lincoln was very much opposed to the 13th Amendment and wanted to deport all the slaves after the War of Northern Agression, aka Civil War, was won. A civil war is when one side tries to overthrow the government but that was never the aim of the southern states and that war was not fought over slavery. It was about states rights and the final straw for the south was the taxes placed on southern exports which was a favor Lincoln gave to his northern businessmen.
As for Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclimation, that only freed the slaves in the southern states. Slaves in the northern states were not freed until several years after the war was over.
Rick is right on the money here. Now in “Lincoln”, Spielberg goes after the theme of “a nation divided by SLAVERY”, and that Lincoln the hero “freed” the slaves by Emancipation Proclamation; so how come the Proclamation didn’t come till January 1st, 1863, nearly a full TWO YEARS after the start of Northern Aggression? And besides, this Proclamation had no basis in truth because if the Southern Confederacy declared themselves as “a separate nation”, what business is it of the “Northern FEDS” to make such a silly claim? Just because the Southern states land-mass was “contiguous with the North”, that’s NO REASON to claim that the South “needs to be united with the North”.
This is true. Because of his upbringing Lincoln hated slavery as an institution. He made some completely racist statements and thought Blacks were little more than savages.
His main interest in fighting the civil war was to keep the Union intact, not to abolish slavery. It is revisionist history being taught to our children… but as many scholars have said, “The Victorious write the history books”…
Thanks for the revisionist history.
Those lefties could learn something from a republican, assuming a historically correct movie.
Just read the City Arts essay by Armond White. So many great points that no other critics are bringing up. Thanks Deadline for connecting the dots between Spielberg and Obama. That Armond White review is a great piece. Go read it.
Even better — White’s piece comparing Paul WS Anderson to Scorsese to the latter’s detriment. Yep. Resident Evil 99′s director is better.
President Lincoln is rolling over in his grave. NO WAY is that THING anything like Lincoln. Lincoln would have sent him to Haiti or to Liberia….
I’ll go see it when I can get it from REDBOX for a dollar.
I refuse to give the leftists in Hollywood any of my hard earned money.