NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Daniel Day-Lewis is incredible as Abraham Lincoln in new film - A film that will surely touch the souls of millions who see it

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Daniel Day-Lewis is incredible as Abraham Lincoln in new film - A film that will surely touch the souls of millions who see it

Posted on Saturday, November 10, 2012 at 07:18 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

10 Comments

RSS

Archives

Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln"

Rarely in a movie theater do you feel a sharp intake of breath then hear a round of applause at the end of a film.

The tough New York crowd at the opening day of “Lincoln” however made clear their feelings after the Steven Spielberg film ended.

I think most of the applause had to be for Anglo-Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of America’s most beloved president.

Day-Lewis didn’t just play Lincoln he inhabited him, giving him a sense of humanity and deep emotion all too rare in the usual hagiographies.

We have always know Day-Lewis to be capable of great art in his Irish movies, as Christy Brown in ‘My Left Foot’ or Gerry Conlon in ‘In the Name of the Father’ The Guildford Four movie, but as Lincoln he surpasses his own high standards.

This all too human, Lincoln, deeply grieving the death of his son, arguing constantly with his clinically depressed wife, walking the empty halls of the White House late at night too troubled to sleep is a powerful portrait.

Above all the nobility of his cause comes through. Has there ever been such a struggle in this country as the battle to end slavery?

Day-Lewis plays Lincoln as a deeply divided soul, wondering whether the best objective is to end the war and deal with slavery later as most of his advisors urge, or force the 13th amendment through, come hell or high water.

The interior life of Lincoln is revealed, the man who disliked and was disliked by his father, the rough and ready plainsman ready with a bawdy joke or a funny story, the conflicted father when his oldest son wants to sign up for the army he is commander-in-chief of, the wordsmith like no other composing his Gettysburg Address and second inaugural speech, two of the most powerful pieces ever written

Day-Lewis al portrays Lincoln as a cunning politician, ready to use whatever tools at his disposal to pass the 13th Amendment banning slavery.

He is not too “Honest Abe” to countenance blatant bribery, not too proud to plead cajole and beg votes from Democrats he needs, not too saintly to let loose with profane invective and lashing out when his cabinet disagrees with him.

His genius was that it was all for a greater cause, can there ever have been a more worthy one?

He recalls seeing a boatload of black slaves in chains going down the Mississippi river when he was a child. It let a permanent mark on him.

This film will touch everyone who sees it and I urge you to go and bring your loved ones. It shows how magnificent a leader and yet how ordinary a man our most beloved president was. It touches the soul as surely as Lincoln did to so many in his own time.

E-mail

10 Comments

See all comments

Beaugeste | Dec 04, 2012, 06:27 AM EST

Wait a second - didn't Irish catholics riot in New York after the emancipation declaration and the draft? Didn't they lynch blacks during that riot and burn down an orhanage for black children? Weren't irish catholics the most under represented group in proportion to population in the union army (according to James McPherson)? Not really something to celebrate on an Irish Catholic centred website is it?

Report abuse

solasduran | Nov 10, 2012, 10:56 PM EST

Am looking forward to this greatly!

Report abuse

JethroBodine | Nov 10, 2012, 05:02 PM EST

"I have urged the colonization of the negroes, and I shall continue. My Emancipation Proclamation was linked with this plan. There is no room for two distinct races of white men in America, much less for two distinct races of whites and blacks." "I can conceive of no greater calamity than the assimilation of the negro into our social and political life as our equal."

Report abuse

cillowen | Nov 10, 2012, 02:00 PM EST

Lincoln's republicans became Repugnant with time their flipper magee candidate speaks only for the 53 perecenters more correctly in service to the 1 percenters. Honest Abe has gotta be spinning like a top.

Report abuse

Murph46 | Nov 10, 2012, 12:28 PM EST

Abe Lincoln -Staunch Republican!

Report abuse

irishfree1916 | Nov 10, 2012, 12:07 PM EST

It sounds like Academy Award time for Day Lewis athird time! I hear Sally Field might have her third Award also for playing Mrs. Lincoln! I also can't wait to see it!

Report abuse

EireLass | Nov 10, 2012, 12:04 PM EST

They don't make Presidents like they used to!

Report abuse

Rebelforce | Nov 10, 2012, 12:03 PM EST

"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." ----Abraham Lincoln, from a speech during a debate with Douglas in Charleston, Illinois on September 18, 1858 (Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 3, pp. 145-146)

Report abuse

like2tweet | Nov 10, 2012, 11:50 AM EST

cant wait to see this movie

Report abuse

PhlutiePhan | Nov 10, 2012, 11:48 AM EST

The well deserved claim to fame of Lincoln was "compassion and forgiveness". This was followed by the "call to action" of JFK. We are now inundated with the destruction of religion after the hypocrisy of Willie C with the world Marxism of our new "Captain America".

Report abuse