Gotta say, I love the piano at the end of The Peterson House and Finale. It's easily the best, most surprising, and refreshing minute of music John's written since...I'd say Prisoner of Azkaban.
Yes! That trumpet/piano duet is a marvelous moment of gorgeous and -for its seeming simplicity- highly inventive scoring. Lincoln is an exquisite and utterly masterful score. How lucky we are!
Lincoln is an interesting film. It's not a biopic about his life, it is not a character study, it’s not an epic production with a huge scope. Other than the strange ending in the film, it's a story that can be both simple and very complicated that takes place in the last few week of January of 1865. The United States of America have been in a civil war for the past 4 years; many southern states have seceded from the union and formed a Confederacy. The southern economy at the time relied on the slave labor of african slaves, who were not treated as people but as property and could be bought and sold. The Emancipation Proclamation order by President Abraham Lincoln 2 years prior has made any slaves from the Confederate states free, but now a proposed 13th amendment to the Constitution would make owning slaves illegal forever. The amendment had passed Senate approval the year before, and the film leads up to January 31st, 1865, when the House of Representatives will vote to pass it or not, the last step needed to enact it. Lincoln and his cabinet assume all the Republican Representatives will vote for it, and they determine that 20 democratic votes will be enough to get it to pass. The movie alternates between scenes of various associates visiting various democrats trying to sway their vote, while also giving insight into the life of Lincoln and his family and life in the White House at the time. Lincoln and his wife Mary have already lost two children, with the memory of their recently deceased second son Willie still haunting them both deeply, especially Mary. Mary cannot stand to lose another son, so when their oldest son Bob comes home from college in Boston talking about how he wants to enlist and fight for his country, this creates tension in the household and further motivation for Lincoln to end the civil war as soon as possible. The scenes of Lincoln with his family are usually hard to watch, with Lincoln failing to connect with Bob at all, and Mary going through various stages of grief, stubbornness, and . It is Tad, the Lincoln’s youngest son that Lincoln gets along with best. It is clear that Lincoln wants to make sure Tad gets the attention he needs while he is still a young boy and that Lincoln has high hopes for him. Bob’s character is underwritten and it felt like there could have been scenes dropped to the cutting room floor that would help flesh out his character and make the few scenes he had have more impact. The scenes involving various associates of Lincoln and his cabinet trying to sway Democratic Representatives into voting for the bill varied from funny and charming to kind of unsettling, as sometimes the “good guys” seemed to cross the line to ensure the vote. Some of these scenes were also redundant and more scenes showing the brutality of the war would really have helped raise the stakes and make the tough decision LIncoln must make between doing whatever it takes to ensure the amendment passes, and potentially ending the war when a delegation from the confederacy arrives to talk peace. Lincoln is told more than once that the amendment passes will ensure the war will rage on for an untold period of time longer, while canceling the amendment will lead to the Confederacy stopping the fight and being willing to rejoin the union. The tension in the film revolves around if Lincoln will chose one path or the other, or find a way to do both. What worked in the film: -The set & costume design, Its quite remarkable how well the film transports you to 1865, especially in light of the recent thread we had about how Spielberg themes had fallen into a routine in their look. This one's different, you are totally submersed. - The cinematography. Some great cinematic images such as cigar smoke slowly blowiing through the frame, light coming in the windows, etc. The few outdoor scenes put you right there as well. - The actors. I had NO IDEA there were SO MANY actors I knew in this film. I dunno if I recognized so many faces just because I watch a ton of movies and tv shows, or if Spielberg really got the best actors to be in the film. But scene after scene you will keep recognizing people, and they all nail their roles. - Daniel Day Lewis. It was a pleasure watching his performance in every scene he was in, especially when Lincoln would tell his stories, usually to the chagrin of those around. What didn't work: -The slow pace came as quite a surprise to me. Perhaps I can blame myself for anticipating a typical Spielberg film, but really when it started out slow I figured it was building to something early on, but when that same pace persisted throughout, I quickly realized this was it. It's a film of people talking to each other and that's about it. - I didn't feel the film succeeded fully in showing the states of what would happen if the bill didn't pass and the war didn't end. I thought the idea that Lincoln wanted the war to end so his son wouldn't be killed in battle was a brilliant one, but that went nowhere (more on that next). What would have helped was showing more scenes of the civil war and how brutal it was, but other than the opening battle we never saw anything! It was fine to talk about how many people were dying, but this is a movie, and something needed to be shown. The wheelbarrow of arms was not enough, and the film was really hurt by not showing the port battle that happened in the middle of the film. - Back to Lincoln's son, as I said they set up a great motivation for Lincoln where he didn't want to lose another son, especially with all the scenes with Mary Lincoln about it.... but then he just gets an assignment working for Grant and it's not a big deal at all. Not a compelling end to that plot thread. - It was really off-putting to see the "good guys" being the ones doing shady political things. I mean, I'm not saying you ever route for the opposers of the Thirteenth Amendment, but they are shown as just being men of their beliefs while the "good guys" are shown bribing and talking people into getting what they want throughout. I guess that was kind of the point, and that the bill was bigger than any man or policies, but it was uncomfortable at times to watch. - I don't quite get what the message of the film was. It didn't really say anything about Lincoln, other than in these 2 weeks it was really important to him to pass this bill. I felt like a lot of threads are left dangling and unresolved. I think this was intentional, as it makes his death all the more shocking I suppose, but I don't think their plan succeeded and I just felt the ending was rushed and horribly executed. Honestly I'd see it again, to take in the atmosphere, the acting, the score one more time. But now I am left feeling like with so many films that the script is the film's weakest point and made the film overall not recommendable. However many opinions can be changed in a second viewing and I actually hope to give the film one soon. I feel like right now I'm exactly split between recommending it or not. To all Spielberg and Williams fans you absolutely should see it - you never know when you're seeing the last film made by either Legend, and even their failures have enough in them to recommend.
Have we all forgotten that Shore used the first seven notes of the English music appropriated for the Christian hymn "This Is My Father's World" verbatim for Shire music?
War Horse and The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn For the first time since December of last year. The former is still a great listen with much warmth. The latter is still mundane Williams on autopilot. "The Adventure Continues" is the only track that I actually enjoy listening to.
Wow, there are even more sarcastic snots on this board than the last time I posted here! Thought I'd update you all with some fun behind the scenes info with this score, as I did for War Horse and Tintin, but so far the majority of the posts in response to mine have been the above piddling little wastes of time. Forget it. And by the way, being able to read an orchestral score and hear it aren't superpowers - they are musical powers. Judging from your avatar, let me put this in terms you can understand: Bloodboal: Level 1 cave troll with magic music capabilities of 05/100; a pair of bitchin' green pointy shoes; and a "I'm sarcastic because I'm not confident in myself" score of 97/100 Me: Level 6 Film Composer with magic music capabilities of 87/100; real world shoes that I wear to recording sessions; and a "helpful attitude to give a community I've been a part of (first with a different username and now with this one) since 2003 a sneak perspective of the music" score of 90/100. But wait!! You've struck me with your mystical "Sword of Attitude" and countered my attempt to use the magic spell "Reason" with your "Sarcasm shield!" You got me good! My helpful attitude score has dropped down to a score of 12/100. Oh well.
Holy hell! I just started reading Harry Knowles' review on Aint It Cool News, but it very quickly gets filled with HUGE SPOILERS!!!!!! And they appear long before he actually gets to his SPOILER WARNING - very lame of him! So, DO NOT READ THE AICN REVIEW AT ALL if you don't want to be spoiled!!!
I am sure it will be more of Williams' pastoral writing perhaps seasoned with stylistic hints of the period. Williams' writing tends to have that quality anyway, a sort of hymnal singing lyrical way of expression which he often employs for such dramatic subject matter. Something in the vein of Born on the Fourth of July would make me a happy fan.
You don't understand. Nothing is really changing. Kennedy is not going to own the rights to anything. Lucas will be gripping Star Wars with his cold, dead fingers.
