Sightlines · reception
How Lincoln was received
2012 · Steven Spielberg · Lincoln on Sightlines
The arc
A prestige juggernaut on release — 12 Oscar nominations, the most of its year — it then lost Best Picture to Argo and got quietly filed under 'homework Spielberg'; the reappraisal since has centered on Tony Kushner's script, with a growing camp calling it one of the sharpest political procedurals ever made.
What’s debated
The perennial fight: stately awards-bait that talks you to death, or Spielberg's most disciplined film — with a side debate over whether it should have ended a few minutes earlier, on Lincoln walking down the hallway.
Its footprint
Daniel Day-Lewis's high, reedy Lincoln voice became the default reference for every screen Lincoln since, and 'I am the President of the United States, clothed in immense power!' is the line people still quote.
Where it stands
Dad-cinema royalty and a fixture of late-Spielberg ranking debates — rarely anyone's favorite Spielberg, but almost everyone concedes the performance is untouchable.
Did you know? Daniel Day-Lewis stayed in character for the whole shoot and sent Sally Field text messages written as Abraham Lincoln, signed 'A' — Field, staying in character, wrote back as Mary Todd.