Lincoln
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Tony Kushner
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, Jackie Earle Haley
DreamWorks Studios
Rated | 150 Minutes
Release Date: November 9, 2012

Director Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln focuses on the tumultuous final months of President Abraham Lincoln’s life, the abolishment of slavery, and the Union’s victory in the American Civil War.

Lincoln stars Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) as the 16th President of the United States, Sally Field (The Amazing Spider-Man) as Mary Todd Lincoln, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) as their oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln.

In the midst of the American Civil War, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 declared the freedom of slaves in ten rebellious Confederate states. The executive order was seen as a temporary war measure, as it did not actually free any slaves in border states or make the act of slavery illegal.

In order to abolish slavery once and for all, Republicans pushed The Thirteenth Amendment through the Senate. In order for it to be ratified, the amendment had to be passed in the divided House of Representatives – which is really what Spielberg’s film chooses to explore in depth.