Abraham Lincoln (1930)

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

D.W. Griffith's 'Abraham Lincoln' is one hell of a film still today as it was back in the 30s. It sure is fitting that Kino decided to release this particular film now, what with the recent election and Spielberg's big budget 'Lincoln' film still in theaters. Not too mention that since the 2012 election, we are seeing several states trying to secede from the union, a very real scenario back when Lincoln was president as well. What might set this particular film aside from the rest of the Abraham Lincoln centered films besides this one being one of the first films to be solely about the 16th president is that Griffith's 'Abraham Lincoln' covers the entire life from birth to death of the legendary president.Plus, Griffith's 'Abraham Lincoln' is an opposing look to his previous film 'The Birth of Nation', the latter being a very racially charged film being released in 1915. 'Abraham Lincoln' jumps around quite a bit as we have to get the full span of Lincoln's life in under 100 minutes. The film starts off on a slave ship and cuts to a log cabin where Lincoln is born and given his name. We immediately jump to a young twenty -something Lincoln (Walter Huston) having fun with some friends in a bar as he lifts a giant barrel of alcohol to drink. We also get to see a young Abraham become smitten with his first love, Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel), win a wrestling match, and being a fun loving, charming, and powerful young man. It's great to see our 16th president be a normal guy as he studies law and is always ready and willing to be intimate with his girl.However, Ann becomes ill and passes away. Abraham becomes a broken man and even resorts to lying down on top of her grave because he misses her so much. But since the film's run-time is short, we swiftly move into Lincoln meeting his wife Mary Todd (Kay Hammond) as we see Abraham dive into his early political career then onto his presidency, where we get the epic beard.As this film is more of a dialogue driven film, rather than epic battle sequences, we don't see a lot of action during the Civil War. This movie focuses more on the emotional and psychological state of Lincoln. It was great to see how the name Honest Abe became about and how frustrated and sadden Lincoln is during this war time. But when Lincoln isn't bogged down by the important serious issues, he is actually a fun and silly guy, one you might want to hang out with.This is one of Griffith's last movies he made and it is a pretty straight forward film without a lot of creative art direction. And we all know that the Gettysburg Address was one of Lincoln's biggest moments, however that whole speech was not given any screen time. I was hoping for an extra on this disc that discussed why, but unfortunately, there is none. However, there are a several key moments in the film that lead up to the murder of Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth (Ian Keith).If it wasn't for Huston's performance as Lincoln, I'd say this was a pretty lackluster attempt at making a film about our 16th president. That being said, I think this is worth a look if you haven't seen it, especially on blu-ray.

Brief vignettes about Lincoln's early life.Includes his birth, early jobs, (unsubstantiated) affair with Ann Rutledge, courtship of Mary Todd, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates.Onward to his presidency and the Civil War are followed in somewhat more detail, though without actual battle scenes.The film concludes with the assassination.Unfortunately parts of the sound track for the first 3 reels are lost. In the restoration you have to get by with subtitles. It's weird cuz there's no music either.Interestingly, the movie sort of looks like a silent film. Heavy makeup, blanched out faces. Some scenes are really kool. Others are drawn out and boring. In all it's a 5.

This is the story Of President Abraham Lincoln from his birth to his assassination. We see him grow up and become a wild character and we see him fall in love only to lose her to death and then struggle for a long time trying to get over her. We see him fall for another woman and how she helped him get to become one of the greatest presidents of our time. We get to see the civil war start and him stand his ground to preserve the union and make this country one country truly united and to free slavery. We see how one angry actor who stood against Linclons views took his life and destroyed a good man, but his legacy and the things he stood for as president lived on.I knew some of the basics about Abe from school, but here the way he was presented I gained much more respect for the man. The guy playing him did such a wonderful job. I must admit all of the actors here were so amazing. This is an old movie but it was just a beautiful thing to set through.D.W. Griffith is one of the great directors of our time, In 1930 there was maybe only 1 other person that could compare and that was Fritz Lang. Griffiths work here is ace. I loved the shots, I loved the way they were set up and shot and his editor did a fine job as well. The sound was bad, but it was old and I have a cheap DVD version of it so it is possible a better version is available.So from a great story, to the beautiful direction and great acting and even the aging of Lincoln, I must say this was a great film... If you like movies about history, or are a fan of films from the early days of cinema, then this is for you. I liked it and give it 4/10 stars. Thats pretty good coming from me, Im the hardest movie critic to please.

D.W. Griffith's ABRAHAM LINCOLN is a decidedly underwhelming film. What it has is excellent, but it doesn't take the next step in showing who the historical and controversial president was. I liked the film as far as it went, but I just felt more could be done to better explain things. I felt like the film got everything right on a technical level, and I definitely got into the character of Abraham Lincoln, but not as much as i wanted to be. Some people were disappointed with Brian DePalma's brilliant mob film, THE UNTOUCHABLES for not showing enough of Al Capone. I loved that film, but i think i understand their pain now that I've watched this. I mean sure, you see plenty of Abraham Lincoln in this, but you don't get enough of a sense of who he is. This film traces his life from his birth through his childhood, and then to his presidency, and then to his assassination. The film doesn't rush through these, but simply feeds these details to the viewer in a very honest and thorough way. I especially enjoyed the middle section of the film where Walter Huston really lets loose with his characterization, and yet personalizes it in such neat ways. I felt the slavery scenes were more tough to sit through then usual, especially for a film made in that decade. I loved the dark, sinister mood of the film and how D.W. Griffith is so able to use human actions to tell a story rather then have the actors spell everything out, but in the end, I wanted more.