Saving Lincoln (2013)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This is yet another "historical" look at the life of Lincoln (Tom Amandes) as seen through the eyes of Ward Hill Lamon (Lea Coco), his friend and bodyguard. The film starts with their meeting and ends shortly after Lincoln's death.The acting was first and foremost horrible. The reading of the Gettysburg Address was akin to Rosanne Barr performing the National Anthem. The dialogue was unrealistic, at times modern, and mostly fictional. The theological discussion Lincoln has with a former slave had me scratch my head. His kneeling afterwards and belief that he had a divine purpose was Lamon's answer to Herdon's biography which claimed Lincoln was an atheist. I wouldn't put either view into a film.The background was taken from 3D viewmaster pictures and even crowds were still photos with "actors" in front of them. It gave the film a cheap surreal look. Historically I was scratching my head too. Upon their meeting they wanted Hill to perform a song from West Virginia which wasn't a state at that time. The famous picture of Washington which we all looked at in school with its bottom partially burned off from the War of 1812 was fully intact in this film. Edward D. Baker died in Oct. of 1861 but is presented at a time of the announcements of battles well into 1862.There is a constant self glorification of Ward Hill Lamon whose speech was grandiose and yes he was also an Amazing Kreskin at predicting the death of the President. Not an impressive film.

Saving Lincoln (2013) is a film which I had mixed feelings about watching. Watching the trailer, I was both intrigued and puzzled with some of the directions the film took. Having just watched Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2013) I had much lower expectations for this film. Yet, having invested my time in learning more about Lincoln over the last couple of months, I found it necessary to watch and see what the creators had in mind for this 2013 film. Suffice to say the film surpassed my expectations. Saving Lincoln tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's friend and bodyguard Marshall Ward Hill Lamon, the man who left his post at Ford's Theatre which ultimately led to Lincoln's demise. While nowhere close to Daniel Day Lewis's portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, Tom Amandes' portrayal of Lincoln incorporates much of the cleverness, compassion, humor and charm of the real-life Lincoln and does just enough to be believable. Other than Lincoln, Lea Coco's portrayal of Lincoln's friend Lamon is an interesting aspect which has never been focused on as much in past films. Aside from the acting the movie's cinematography is also an intriguing aspect of the film. The movie is filmed in a black and white background which is supposed to convey a historic feeling to the movie but is mostly hit or miss. At times the green screen look of the movie can seem cheap or cheesy, but at other times the style works surprisingly well as it shows real pictures from the civil war era which brings an interesting characteristic to the film. The films story itself incorporates a lot of historical accuracy of the era. Although the film is accurate for a lot of the movie, I did feel as though it tried too hard to list off every important event during the Civil war era of Lincoln's presidency without much depth. Overall, while the movie was better that I expected it is not a movie I would rave about to friends but it is worth a watch if you are even remotely interested in Lincoln.

I enjoyed this movie and the new perspective it gave me on the life of Abraham Lincoln. The movie shows many important events during his time as president, but while most movies would only show these events from a military or political perspective, they are shown here from a personal perspective as well. We get to see how Lincoln's friends and family helped him through his presidency, and how they frequently tried to lighten the mood with music. I thought that this in particular made the movie interesting. Another thing that makes this movie unique is that it is in black and white. I liked this aspect because it worked well with the actual photographs from this time period that were already in black and white. Overall, I thought that the film was very good, and I learned a lot more than I had originally thought I was going to.

The movie Saving Lincoln portrays an extremely good description of Abraham Lincoln life and the hardships he endured. The movie is narrated by one of his close friend and personal bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon. As you watch the movie from the perspective of Lamon you get to see both the struggles that Lincoln had and the extreme difficulty and tiring task of keeping the most loved but also most hated person in the United States alive during the time of the Civil War. The movie also stays very historically accurate and the use of real Civil War pictures really brings the whole meaning of the movie together. The movie takes you on a journey of the ¨epic friendship¨ between Lincoln and Ward Hill Lamon.