Movie Trailer Review

Movie Trailer Review
Hailey Hurowitz
September 29, 2012


 Title of Film: Lincoln
Release Date: November 9, 2012
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy
Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: Drama    






Plot:     This film is a drama that focuses on the 16th President's really hard final months in office.  With America divided by war, and changes going on, Lincoln takes action to end the war, unite the country, and abolish slavery.  With so much passion and determination to do this, his choices during those hard times, will change how the world is for the many generation to come.  Spielberg wants to present how Lincoln was the greatest working President in American history, doing some of the greatest works for the world.  Tony Kushner, the screenwriter said that he had worked on the script for six years, and he is really excited for this movie to finally hit the theaters.

Time and Place: The movie is in the time of 1865.  The movie takes place in the United States, Washington, D.C.

Main Characters: Daniel Day-Lewis, the academy award winner stars Abraham Lincoln.  Sally Field, another academy award winner plays Mary Todd Lincoln, Lincoln's wife.  David Strathairn, plays Secretary of State, which was William Seward at that time.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the film is Lincoln's and Sally's eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, who recently graduated from Harvard, and is now a new Union Army captain.  James Spader plays William N. Bilboe as a Democratic Party operative.  Hal Holbrook, who actually won an Emmy for portraying Lincoln in a 1976 mini-series, plays Francis Preston Blair, an American journalist and politician.  Tommy Lee Jones plays as Thaddeus Stevens, a Radical Republican Congressional leader.  There are also many more stars that contribute to the character roles in this movie.

Introduction and Ending: 
       The introduction is the Lincoln movie trailer was different shots of the movie.  It showed war pictures, and pictures of Lincoln talking to other politicians.  Lincoln was trying to talk to the politicians and the people about abolishing slavery once and for all, but you could tell by his facial expressions that he was having trouble doing that.  The beginning of the trailer also cited the quotes from the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, "and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
     The ending was less action packed, with people being more understanding of what Lincoln wanted to accomplish.  The people started to be pro Lincoln, and really like what Lincoln was all about.  When times were getting tough for Lincoln, Marry Todd Lincoln stepped in, and told Lincoln to not give up, and to believe in himself, which he really started to do.  Since he continued to keep thinking he could accomplish his goals, he did, which was ending the war and slavery.
     I wouldn't say the trailer was creative to me in the way they did it, but it was really good in the way an American dramatic film should be.  It had great scenes of the American battles, and the American politicians.  You could tell everyone looked the part of the 1800s kind of look, with great facial expressions, and clean cut voices.  They did have a lot of editing skills that I saw that made the trailer even better.

Camera Work: I think the camera work was very good, and could defiantly win an award for that.  They weren't shaky at all with the camera, and everything ran smoothly.  The camera also had good shots of things, like Lincoln at the end when they gave him a close up, which really showed the detail on his face, and how he was feeling.  The coloring was also very good and clear.  They had a lot of great transitions, and they really captured what they needed to to makes this trailer a great trailer.

Identifying the Shots: The trailer had most of the shots there is.  They had wide shots, medium shots, over the should shots, close ups, extreme long shots, and high angle shots.  They could of added pan shots and dolly's, but I think the trailer was really good without them.  They had great closeups of Lincoln and other characters in the movie, which really showed you how much passion they had in the film about what they were trying to accomplish.

Key Moment: A key moment in the trailer was when Lincoln was raising his voice and was repeatedly pointing really harshly at his fellow politician helpers, trying to tell them that now was the time to stop slavery, and that they need to do something about it now.  After that "moment," things started to change, like people were starting to agree and understand.

Who Would Like the Film: I think this film would interest someone who is into American history, and the times of when Abraham Lincoln was President.  If you are not intrigued by American history, or the olden days, then you wouldn't like this movie at all.  This film hasn't been rated yet, but from watching the trailer, I think you should be at least 13-years-old or older.  I think this movie should be rated PG-13 because it has a lot of gruesome scenes(war), and that movies about slavery can get really heavy to handle.  It seems like a movie that will be difficult for some one to understand, and will make you think.

Rate This Film: I would give this film  5 stars because these kinds of movies really interest me.  I love movies that are about great people in history trying to get what they want to happen across.  The movie also has very great actors and actresses that will be awesome to watch altogether in a movie.  I love movies that make me want to think, and make me proud of our country.  It seems like a movie that I can learn important things in history from.

Recommendations:  I would totally recommend this movie to people.  It seems like a great movie that everybody can learn a thing or two from about American History.  I think people nowadays don't think about the past that much, and how we got where we are today.  Abraham Lincoln plays a big part in that, and he was basically the Martin Luther King Jr. before we had MLK.  If you don't like movies set in the olden days though, I suggest you shouldn't watch the movie.  This movie also takes places quite soon after election day, which would be fun to see because this movie is about our 16th president after all.  By watching the trailer, you can't understand the whole film or the times of Lincoln, which is good because it makes you really want to go see it.