The movie starts out with Lincoln in an army camp, talking to enlisted soldiers, both black and white. All the soldiers finish up talking by reciting passages from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Touching, at least to this movie watcher.
The movie then cuts back to Washington where Lincoln is pushing his secretary of state Seward to support passing the 13th amendment to the constitution, the one that will outlaw slavery for good. Lincoln argues that it is needed because the Emancipation Proclamation is only effective during the Civil War and will loose its force when peace finally happens. Seward argues that freeing all the slaves will only make the Confederacy fight longer and harder.
Lots of scenes with lots of characters follow. Some of the characters might be famous enough to have made the history books. But nobody ever names anyone, so you never know. The only name that comes thru is that of Thaddeus Stevens, a hard core Republican in Congress. No scene involving General Grant and Lincoln happens, nor do we have a scene of Lincoln reprimanding the troublesome General Henry Halleck.
A meh movie, despite having Stephan Spielberg directing. None of the actor’s names were familiar to me.
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