When I was a boy, someone gifted me a wind-up music box, carved on top of which stood a drummer boy (about my age) donning a confederate soldier's uniform. He stood proudly near a canon, his flat cap tilted down and red flag waiving high. I didn't recognize the flag or that strange cap. "Who is this boy?" I asked my mother. She tried to explain about the North and the South, but it made no sense to me. How much harder it must have been for sons in the 1860's to have made sense of it.

Though simply named Lincoln, the film is not a general biopic of the man. Instead it focuses on one tough year of his life. As the civil war comes to a close, Lincoln turns his chiseled brows toward the ratification of the 13th amendment and all the politics such passage would require. As serious as a civil war, but peppered with light-hearted anecdotes told by one of our best loved presidents who has a knack for telling stories. The film compels like a riveting courtroom drama. And it engages hearty suspense despite the fact that the outcome is … well … history.

Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors of our time, and… he just so happens to look like ol' Abe. Perhaps, the fact that Day-Lewis is not American, gives even more meat to his excellent performance.

Lincoln is a powerful film; however, it does have its trite moments -most notably at the beginning and at the end. Plus, Abe is portrayed as the only non-extreme, determined abolitionist in the congressional arena. I find that hard to believe. And lastly, this production is quite complete without that last fatal day -- its omission would have made the whole resonate even stronger. That said, I like it. I does resonate. It's smart, well-written, and well acted. Go see it and listen closely.

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --