If you boil it down to it’s nuts and bolts, Lincoln is a combination of the restrained patriotism of Saving Private Ryan, the emotional thematic core of War Horse, and the harmonic language and chord structure of The Patriot, filtered through the Americana sensibilities of Aaron Copland. It’s just as well that the score is a classic Williams work of beauty, elegance and restraint, a tasteful but emotionally appropriate musical tribute to one of America’s greatest ever leaders. At the time of writing, Spielberg has no directorial features planned until 2014, and without wanting to sound morbid, it’s possible that Lincoln may be the now-80-year-old Williams’s last significant cinematic work. With the possible exception of Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, theirs is by far the most creatively successful director-composer relationship in the history of cinema. ![]() Lincoln is their 26th collaboration as director and composer, a relationship that extends all the way back to The Sugarland Express in 1974, and encompasses some of the greatest film music ever written, from Jaws to Raiders of the Lost Ark, to E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and more. Of course, where Spielberg goes, so too goes John Williams. The film stars Daniel Day Lewis in the eponymous role, and features a stellar supporting cast including Sally Field as Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd, Tommy Lee Jones as republican leader Thaddeus Stevens, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln’s son Robert, David Strathairn as secretary of state William Seward, and Jackie Earle Haley, James Spader, John Hawkes, Jared Harris and Hal Holbrook in smaller roles. There have been many films over the years featuring Lincoln as a central figure, but director Steven Spielberg’s film – simply titled “Lincoln” – is a straightforward biopic of the man’s life and achievements. He was re-elected in 1864 but, as we all know, was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth while watching a play in a Washington DC theatre in April 1865, before he could fully establish his second term. ![]() During the course of his presidency Lincoln essentially re-defined the United States as we know it today, successfully defeating the Confederacy in the four-year Civil War, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that essentially ended slavery in the country, and delivering the Gettysburg Address, one of the most famous political speeches of all time. Born into relative poverty in Kentucky in 1809, Lincoln rose from being a simple country lawyer to being elected the 16th President of the United States in 1860. In the annals of American political history, virtually no-one is as universally admired, revered and respected as Abraham Lincoln.
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