Just saw "Lincoln".

[trof]

It's very good.
See it.
Daniel Day Lewis is amazing.

[dhill926]

1. as is....

Tommy Lee Jones.

[Punkingal]

2. I loved it...

DDL channeled Lincoln, Tommy was great and so was Sally Field. I could see it again and again.

[SCantiGOP]

3. two slight gripes

The movie was excellent, but I think they didn't depict how truly insane Mrs Lincoln was. Her son, who lived until the 1920's, finally had to commit her. And, I never thought of Abe as the jovial story teller they depicted. I remember a biography from years ago that talked of his severe bouts of depression. He called them his "black fog." Sometimes he would isolate himself in his room for days at a time until it passed.

[Myrina]

5. In its defense ...

.... perhaps Mrs. Lincoln didn't descend fully into insanity until after Mr. Lincoln was assassinated. Surely she was teetering on the edge, I suspect the death of her husband may have been the final straw. The movie doesn't go past the assassination.

And second, since this movie deals with such a short span of time, perhaps Mr. Lincoln wasn't debiliated with depression during those months. Having been thru such bouts myself, when one is very busy/preoccupied or has 'heavy lifting' to do, one can function - and even seen 'normal' to the rest of the world. I did see in DDL's characterization, a man who hid his depression/introspection just below the surface, especially in the scenes with the 2 younger men in the telegraph office and on the porch with US Grant.

[trof]

7. According to wiki he had 'melancholia'. We call that 'clinical depression' now.

[riderinthestorm]

8. Are you sure she was "insane"? I've been to the Lincoln museum in Springfield several times

and their position is that she may have been bi-polar (I stress MAY). She had severe migraines and suffered from depression related to the young deaths of her sons. Furthemore, her surviving son Robert was embarrassed by her persistent interest in seances and the occult (in fairness, even Abe himself was into the occult) which he also thought were an "insane" preoccupation. There's some speculation that he committed her because he was trying to "hide" her away from the public eye.

She lost 3 sons prematurely and watched Abe get shot in the head. She survived as the First Lady during one of the most wretched times in our nations' history. PLUS several of her family members from KY joined the Confederate side so she had the grief of being the outlier of her southern family.

There was a lot of animosity towards her and even the most skilled historians are leery of drawing firm conclusions about Mary Todd Lincoln as her history has been badly muddied by Robert in his attempts to get her committed.

[geardaddy]

4. Agreed!

Great film.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Can't wait........but we'll get it on Netflix.