Spielberg said that "Lincoln" almost opened in a HBO television series because of the budget.It´s incredible but is true.
But i strongly disagree with Spielberg choice.In Hollywood he HAVE A STRONG POWER and he can to do practically all the projecs in the way that he wants.In this case he wasn´t ambitious he was conventional and limited and in my opinion, was WRONG.
But the thing is: In this one instance, he couldn't. Last fall, when Spielberg and Tom Hanks were doing a Q & A for Bridge of Spies, Spielberg revealed that Lincoln was one film of his which almost never got made because of two reasons: A) he couldn't get a cast together, because Liam Neeson had dropped out and Daniel Day-Lewis was indecisive about accepting the role; and B) because no studio in Hollywood believed that such a film would be profitable.
Yes, even Steven Spielberg doesn't have the power to make certain films in Hollywood. That's because Hollywood is now dominated by lawyers and bankers who ultimately decide which films get financed, and which films do not.
We're lucky we got any Lincoln movie at all, really.
Spielberg have many experience to do historic dramas and epics and Lincoln life is more importante than the slave abolition.
But Spielberg's other historical films work so well because they focus on one particular period in somebody's life. Schindler's List, for example, is not a biopic of Oskar Schindler, but merely about the few years he spent saving Jews.
What else in Lincoln's life do you think is as important as him freeing the slaves? That's the only thing most people these days are familiar with concerning his presidency, unless you also count him serving as Commander in Chief during the Civil War (which the film also covers).
I have read Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals on which the film is partially based. It's a great book indeed. But to do the whole thing justice, you would have to do it as a miniseries, or as a trilogy of movies.
If Spielberg had tried to tell Lincoln's whole life story in three hours, the film wouldn't have been very deep. It would also feel very episodic; we would just be watching Lincoln go from one period in his life to the next, with no real overall theme tying the narrative together. It would feel like a Wikipedia summary of the man's life. It would have been dull.
Now, I'm assuming you found the film which Spielberg ultimately made to be dull. But watch it again. By focusing on one event (the passage of the amendement and the ending of the war), the film becomes incredibly deep, because it's about a man trying to do have it both ways while his country and even his own family pressures him to do otherwise. It shows us a Lincoln who is a flawed family man, and even a liar who is willing to cover things up, thus shattering history's myth of "Honest Abe".
The film's focus may be narrow, but that's also why it's so deep and thought-provoking.
For me,Lincoln could be the DEFINITIVE MOVIE about Lincoln life and work.
I thought it was.
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