Daniel Day Lewis Works To Abolish Slavery & Unite Country In First Full Trailer For 'Lincoln'

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• Priss | September 16, 2012 2:28 PMReply

  We're going to have our own six degrees game soon. Look out Kevin Bacon. Here comes David Oyelowo. This man is working in everything. Tom Cruise, Viola Davis, Forest Whitaker, John Cusack, Nicole Kidman, James Franco, George Lucas, Daniel Day Lewis. Hats off.

• SO what | September 16, 2012 12:56 PMReply

  "I am nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes , nor qualifying then to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people.." Abraham Lincoln

• willie dynamite | September 14, 2012 12:46 PMReply

  This has the same undertones as the Help, meaning it will make its intended audience feel good about the story. Irregardless of the truth of the matter. A film that will minimize white guilt over the atrocity known as slavery/Oppression. Truth It Aint hit it on the head previously, the freeing of the slaves was a collateral issue not the main one. Spielberg is a beast of a filmmaker and does know how to tap in to the humanity of a story so you have to give him a chance. I just hope that it delves deeper in to the real history that showcases the violent capitalist foundation of this country.

• Emmett Period | September 14, 2012 12:04 PMReply

  Perfect....another film with Slaves, thanks to "The Help" being a box office hit.

• anon | September 14, 2012 11:36 AMReply

  oh its fox ill pass- it will defiantely be racist.

• dl | September 14, 2012 11:33 AMReply

  wow David Oyelowo is pretty busy good for him! dont for get blighty though we still love you!

• Truth it ain't | September 14, 2012 7:11 AMReply

  Lincoln quote in letter he wrote: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
  
  Stop all the white folk worship, ya'll.

• CareyCarey | September 15, 2012 5:14 PM

  Who are those guys behind those Foster Grants? I don't know either but Jaysmack & TRUTH IT AIN'T laid this out. Now I don't agree with everything they said, particulaly this-->"Black people have no business supporting this film", nevertheless, they put a cherry on the top of this debate/conversation - in my opinion. Jaysmack did the same thing in the Awkward Black Girl tread. I mean, over there he brought it right down front and said what had to be said. I agreed with his assessments and so did Lauren (and I will assume many others did as well). That reminds me, Curtis Caesar John, who is a regular contributor to the maze of S&A, writes a "column" titled , "This Week in Black Television". Whether we've discussed a series, film or whatever, he condenses the week into one post, giving his commentary, likes and dislikes along the way. Now, since I believe S&A's comment section is a life-force and unique community all it's own, I am proposing or suggesting it too should have a weekly post highlighting it's good, bad and ridiculous. You know, like Sport Center's "Plays Of The Day". It could serve two purposes. As we all know, Tambay is the hardest working man in this show business, so he needs a break on the weekend - right? So "This Week In S&A" could fill that void and get folks caught-up on what they may have missed... the sublime to the ridiculous. And heck, whether one agrees or disagrees with the commentary and opinions of the writers and readers here at S&A, as Charles Judson insists, it 's important to the future success of the black cinema that the conversations broaden and continue... and that's always a good thing.

• JaySmack | September 15, 2012 2:59 PM

  Let the church say AMEN! Black people have no business supporting this film, and Spielberg is a racist/slavery apologist for not portraying Lincoln as he was. He was no "Great Emancipator." He was a political pragmatist, nothing more.
  
  Lincoln also said: "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And in as much as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

• Josh | September 13, 2012 11:34 PMReply

  I was kinda hoping for darker and grittier. But its still nice to see a CW movie that doesnt have a heavy southern bias.

• Helluva | September 14, 2012 4:39 PM

  It was clear to me what you meant. Most Hollywood films on the Civil War seem to be extremely sympathetic to the Confederate cause, portraying them as 'Rebs rather than traitors, which is what they really were.

• Josh | September 14, 2012 2:04 PM

  What I meant was its a movie that doesnt try to explain away the states rights argument have the film like Gettysburg and Gods & Generals. I'm interested in some of the late war negotiations since that hasnt been covered much on film either.

• WOW | September 13, 2012 11:57 PM

  @ Josh???... **coughing in my coffee**... excuse me, this doesn't have a heavy southern bias??? What exactly do you mean by THAT? This is a period piece. A period of time in which racist white people; southerners and the more vicious northern whites, were fighting over what to do with their chattel. If you are inferring that since this movie is centered on Lincoln, from Illinois, that this movie has a "northern" slant... I have to o__O

• NO BRAINER | September 13, 2012 11:21 PMReply

  I liked it. It's fine the way it is. I wouldn't want too much from the history books put in the trailer. Save it for the film. That's where half the drama is coming from here, the history books. And the value at stake here is FREEDOM. We all know the outcome. If you all can't find the excitement in that alone, slave gaining freedom, then you all are the problem with cinema today.

• lauren | September 13, 2012 11:00 PMReply

  Have to say the trailer is kind of dull and Daniel Day Lewis, one of the best actors ever... well I have to say his speaking voice seems light for such a iconic character.

• That's What I Feel | September 14, 2012 2:53 PM

  Thank you Lauren! I was thinking the same thing when I heard him speak. I was like, "Huh??" He was a great speaker and very tall, so I imagined a greater voice, too.

• Richard | September 14, 2012 10:48 AM

  “Lincoln’s voice, as far as period descriptions go, was a little shriller, a little higher,” says Holzer. It would be a mistake to say that his voice was squeaky though. “People said that his voice carried into crowds beautifully. Just because the tone was high doesn’t mean it wasn’t far-reaching,” he says."
  
  Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ask-an-Expert-What-Did-Abraham-Lincolns-Voice-Sound-Like.html#ixzz26R0xoG1N

• CareyCarey | September 13, 2012 10:33 PMReply

  First, I caught the Oscar sarcasm :-). And yes, there's plenty of black faces up in here :-). Yep, grateful negros, mourning negros, cowering negros, good negros, hanging negros and of course slaves. This has Oscar written all over it! But I still don't understand the excitement behind David Oyelowo? He definitely looks out of place in this one. He looks like a little boy playing dress-up-war. But maybe, since this is a civil war flick, they might have him led a band of black soldiers up pork chop hill, a la Denzel in Glory? Hell, after sitting through 2 hours of being called nigger, darkies and less than a man, we gotta have something to cheer about.

• Ex-slave | September 13, 2012 9:55 PMReply

  I'm not feeling the trailer either. No tension.

• ska-triumph | September 13, 2012 9:54 PMReply

  That trailer makes me worry. Spielberg isn't new to swimmig in sentimentality - he practically defined them with his sweeping close-ups - so why do I feel like he's "War-Horsed" this film?

• Helluva | September 13, 2012 9:11 PMReply

  Not sure about having the Oscar locked up based on that trailer, but definitely will check for this as DDL is one of the world's best. I just hope Spielberg doesn't overplay the Obama-Lincoln comparisons...

• Adam Scott Thompson | September 13, 2012 8:56 PMReply

  The trailer left me... underwhelmed. Still, anything with DDL in it gets a look.