Lincoln Movie Analysis

Gabrielle Branco

Mr. Egner

Political Science

01/07/18

Movie Review: Lincoln

At the time after his second inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln fills the screen with his worries of the closure of the Civil War, his agenda of the abolition of slavery, and surprisingly for honest Abe, many acts and insinuations of corruption. Steven Spielberg directs this political drama in which Daniel Day-Lewis stars as President Lincoln himself. Lincoln proves to be a strong yet humble leader who has his goals laid out, and is ready to debate and support his arguments quite well. During the course of the movie, it is easy to see how many of the political changes of the time were so fiercely driven by Lincoln and his team. The great display of Civil

This idea of dishonesty is particularly visible when the characters go about getting the thirteenth amendment passed. President Lincoln’s secretary of state William Seward first discusses with lobbyists how they plan to “persuade” the Democratic congressman to vote for the amendment. They leave the conversation knowing that they can not be above bribery in order to get this passed. Bribery and corruption are very real problems in todays world. Many governments have very deep roots in corruption and bribery, to the point that they would not be able to function without it. Today many favors are traded in order to get things done in Washington and other forms of government. While this is seen as a loophole around corruption, it often causes representatives to not do exactly what they have been elected for. In one scene, the lobbyists are shown in the gallery at the House of Representatives hand picking which democrats they will try to “persuade” to change their vote. The group is also shown in different scenes offering money and highly sought after jobs for a change of vote in order to gain support for the bill. It is shown that president Lincoln knows of the lobbying efforts but throughout the movie is is unclear if he knows the full extent of the bribery that is occurring. While in the history of the United States there

In theory, the three branches of government are there to provide each other checks and balances. During Lincoln’s time, he had created the Emancipation Proclamation as the president. There were many rumors of the judicial system ordering slavery to be allowed, providing a check for President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. It was pretty sure that congress would pass the bill due to the corruption that was mentioned before, but in order to make sure that the country did not go back to how it was before, the President had to be sure this bill was tied to peace agreements. In order for this bill to have come about and be passed, even if the branches did not agree, they had to work together Now a days, we see that sometimes it is hard for the three branches to agree. There is a lot of check and not enough balances. It is so hard that many times bills and potential laws do not make it anywhere near being official. If our government could use the branches to work together, then maybe instead of some good laws being blocked by congress, or overturned by the judicial system, they must decide to work respectfully together. The movie Lincoln discusses many political and governmental aspects of the Civil War Era. Many of these aspects are still similar to aspects of today’s government. Some of the ideas that were used to end the war and abolish slavery are ideas still seen today. Some of the aspects such as corruption