Lincoln - Movie Review

Lincoln

The movie starts off with the war scene. Black soldiers and white soldiers are fighting against one another. It is raining very hard. Soldiers are getting stabbed in all places of their body. The scene is horrific.

The next scene comes up and two black soldiers are talking to Lincoln and Lincoln is asking them questions and they are answering back with Sir in every sentence. The younger of the two black soldiers starts to get every hostile with Lincoln. The older solider is trying to keep the peace by cutting over the younger soldier. That does not really work. Two white soldiers then come up to Lincoln. One of them is trying to repeat Lincoln's speech back to him but he keeps forgetting. The President thanks him for trying. The soldiers then have to leave and the younger black solider starts to recite Lincoln's speech back to him while walking away. This scene sets the mood for the movie.

The entire movie Lincoln is trying to get the 13th Amendment passed. He wants the Amendment to be passed by the end of January. He wants it to be passed by the end of January so any slave that had already been freed won't have to be re-enslaved. The Radical Republicans are against this Amendment completely. Lincoln realizes that he really needs the support of the Republicans to help this Amendment get passed. Lincoln and his son go to Blair's house. He is the founder of the Republican Party. Lincoln and Blair come to an agreement. If Blair gives Lincoln his full support, then Lincoln will let him be involved in the Confederate government's peace negotiations. Lincoln lets Blair proceed.

Lincoln and Seward, who is Lincoln's Secretary of State, work on getting all the votes that they can from the Democrats for the Amendment. They do not feel like they should bribe the Democrats for their votes. Instead they send out agents to help them get the votes that they want. They will offer the men jobs if they can get their vote. For the most part, they get a good amount of votes. But for some of them it does not work so well. They cannot get the votes from some men because the men just do not want to give them their vote. One of the agents gets the door slammed in their face and another gets shot at. They want to give up hope and they want to stop trying to get the votes. But Seward tells them in so many words to suck it up and get the votes. One night the agents are just lying around and playing cards in their cabin. They are told they have a visitor. Lincoln then comes and gives them support to keep on trying for him.

Another major conflict in the movie besides Lincoln trying to pass the 13th Amendment is his son wanting to enlist in the army. His son feels like enlisting in the army will make his father proud of him. One day, Lincoln and Robert go to an infirmary. Lincoln goes to thank the men that fought in the war. They are back alive even though they lost arms