He didn't sound like a bass-baritone god. That’s usually the first thing that hits you when you watch the movie Lincoln with Daniel Day-Lewis. We’ve been conditioned by decades of deep-voiced actors—think Gregory Peck or even the animatronic versions at Disney—to expect a booming, resonant authority from the 16th President. But Day-Lewis did something else. He went for the truth.
History tells us Abraham Lincoln had a high-pitched, almost reedy voice. It carried across crowds during the Douglas debates because of its tenor quality. Day-Lewis found that frequency. He lived in it. And honestly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how he dismantled the marble statue version of the man to find the human being underneath.
The Method: Why Everyone Was Terrified on Set
You’ve probably heard the stories. The "Method" acting. The total immersion. For this movie, Daniel Day-Lewis took it to a level that felt, to some, borderline obsessive. He spent a year researching. He looked at every surviving photograph, looking for the specific way Lincoln sat to accommodate his Marfan-syndrome-like proportions.
Sally Field, who played Mary Todd Lincoln, has talked openly about their text message relationship. For months, they exchanged messages in 19th-century vernacular. He signed them "Yours, A." She replied as "Molly." They didn't meet as themselves until long after the cameras started rolling.
Steven Spielberg actually called him "Mr. President" on set. It wasn't a gimmick. It was a necessity. When an actor is that deep into a psyche, breaking the spell for a Starbucks run or a chat about the catering table ruins the calibration. Day-Lewis needed to maintain the weight of the Civil War in his bones. You can see it in his posture—the way his shoulders slump under a metaphorical (and literal) heavy coat.
The Political Grind: It’s Not a War Movie
If you went into the theater expecting Saving Private Ryan in top hats, you were probably disappointed. This movie is a legal thriller. It’s about the sausage-making of the 13th Amendment.
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The film focuses on a very narrow window of time: January 1865. The war is ending, but the legal framework to end slavery is stuck in a House of Representatives that is basically a pit of vipers. We see Lincoln not as a saint, but as a master manipulator. He uses patronage. He uses bribes—mostly in the form of federal jobs—to flip votes.
The Team of Rivals Reality
Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote the source material, Team of Rivals, and the film captures that specific friction. Lincoln filled his cabinet with people who hated him. Or, at the very least, people who thought they were smarter than him.
- William Seward (David Strathairn): The Secretary of State who started as a rival and became the fixer.
- Edwin Stanton (Jared Harris): The War Secretary who was constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
- Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones): The radical Republican who had to hide his true desires for total equality just to get a basic amendment passed.
Day-Lewis plays off these men with a strange, quiet stillness. While everyone else is shouting, he’s telling a story about a farmer in Illinois. It’s a power move. He sucks the oxygen out of the room by being the quietest person in it.
The Physicality of a Dying Man
Lincoln was dying in 1865. Not just from the eventual assassin's bullet, but from the sheer physical toll of the presidency. Daniel Day-Lewis captures the "slow" Lincoln.
There’s a scene where he’s wrapping a shawl around his shoulders. It takes forever. His hands move with a slight tremor. Historians have often debated if Lincoln suffered from clinical depression (then called "melancholy"). Day-Lewis doesn't play it as a medical diagnosis; he plays it as a heavy cloak. He looks like a man who hasn't slept in four years.
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The makeup team, led by Leo Corey Castellano, did incredible work, but the soul of that face comes from Day-Lewis’s ability to hold his features in a state of permanent exhaustion. He didn't just look like the five-dollar bill; he looked like the weary, grieving father who had lost his son Willie and was now losing his country.
Common Misconceptions About the Film
People think the movie is an 100% accurate documentary. It’s not. It’s a drama.
For instance, the portrayal of the Connecticut delegation caused a minor stir. In the film, they are depicted as voting against the amendment, but in reality, they were mostly in favor. Some critics also argued that the film focuses too much on the "Great White Men" and sidelines the actual Black abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, who is notably absent from the narrative.
Tony Kushner, the screenwriter, defended this. He argued that the movie isn't a biography of the Civil War; it’s a specific study of the mechanics of the law. By narrowing the scope, the film shows how hard it is to actually change the world through a broken political system.
Why This Performance Still Matters
In an era of CGI and massive spectacles, what Day-Lewis did was a masterclass in subtlety. There are no "Oscar clips" where he’s screaming at the top of his lungs. His best moments are the quiet ones.
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Think about the scene in the telegraph office. He’s waiting for news from the front. He’s just sitting there, talking to two young clerks. He tells a dirty joke. He quotes Shakespeare. He’s a guy who uses language to keep his own mind from snapping.
Daniel Day-Lewis won his third Best Actor Oscar for this, making him the only man to ever do so in that category. It was a well-deserved win because he did the impossible: he made us forget we were watching an actor. By the end of the two-and-a-half-hour runtime, you don't see the guy from There Will Be Blood. You see a tired, funny, brilliant, and deeply flawed man who changed the course of history.
How to Watch Lincoln Like a Historian
If you’re going to re-watch it, or watch it for the first time, keep these points in mind to get the most out of the experience:
- Watch the Hands: Notice how Day-Lewis uses his hands. They are often tucked away or moving with extreme deliberation. This was a choice to show Lincoln's self-consciousness about his gangly frame.
- Listen to the Stories: Pay attention to when Lincoln tells a story. He usually does it to deflect a question he doesn't want to answer or to lower the temperature in a room. It’s a tactical weapon.
- The Lighting: Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński used "natural" light. Notice how many scenes are lit by "candles" or "oil lamps." It creates a claustrophobic, intimate feeling that contrasts with the epic scale of the war.
- The Clock: The sound of a ticking clock is a recurring motif. It’s a reminder that time is running out—both for the amendment and for Lincoln himself.
The movie isn't just a history lesson. It’s a study of power. It shows that even the most "pure" goals often require "dirty" methods. If you want to understand the reality of American politics, this film is a better textbook than most.
Go back and look at the final scenes. The way he walks away down the hallway, seen from behind. That’s not a hero’s exit. It’s the walk of a man who has given everything he has left to give. It’s the perfect end to a performance that remains the gold standard for biographical acting.
Actionable Insights for Movie Buffs and History Fans:
- Read the Source Material: Pick up Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The movie only covers about 70 pages of this massive book, but those pages are the heart of the story.
- Compare the Voices: Search for historical accounts of Lincoln's voice. You'll find that Day-Lewis's choice was backed by extensive research into 19th-century eyewitness accounts.
- Study the 13th Amendment: Look into the actual roll call of the 13th Amendment. Seeing the real names and the "yeas" and "nays" adds a layer of weight to the film’s climax.
- Analyze the Screenplay: If you're a writer, find Tony Kushner's script online. His use of heightened, rhythmic language is a bridge between the 1860s and the modern ear.