How bad was the make up on Hal Holbrook as Lincoln? I know he somewhat resembled him but it looked more like a halloween costume and I couldnt take it seriously. Coupled with the fact that he is just too short, I think it was a miscast. I know it was the 80s and its a mini series but I think they could have done better with Lincoln.
shareI understand your point to a degree, but Holbrook's performance overcame the make up. In all honesty Lincoln's height was always a problem on screen. During his time, somebody who was 5'10" was considered quite tall; so someone 6 inches taller than that would have been looked at as almost gigantic. However, today people are taller and to accentuate Lincoln's height you'd need a basketball player more than an actor. No athletes out there would ever be approached to play Lincoln. You would have thought they could have used lifts and have the other actors walk around in flats to give Holbrook the illusion of greater height.
shareYeah definitely some good points, I think Daniel Day Lewis is pretty tall, gotta be the best portrayal of Lincoln to date. I haven't seen Book 2 yet, recording it all day today so Im sure I will see more of Holbrooks performance. Who is also 88 years young today!
shareOk so I have watched the first two parts of Book 2 and I have to say the make up is a lot better and yes, Hals' acting is pretty darn good!
shareThat's one aspect of where the "other" 1980's miniseries about the Civil War, The Blue and The Gray is better than North and South. They had a much better Lincoln, Gregory Peck. He was not only taller, but he had a more commanding voice.
shareJournalist Horace White described Lincoln as having “a thin tenor, or rather falsetto, voice, almost as high-pitched as a boatswain's whistle.” Others described it as “shrill” and “sharp,” which the New York Herald noted in February 1860 had “a frequent tendency to dwindle into a shrill and unpleasant sound.”
Holbrook handled it exceedingly well. It's just that people don't realize how these characters actually were.