ThiefHott Too much of everything

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Bryan Kluger D.W. Griffith's 'Abraham Lincoln' is one hell of a film still today as it was back in the 30s. It sure is fitting that Kino decided to release this particular film now, what with the recent election and Spielberg's big budget 'Lincoln' film still in theaters. Not too mention that since the 2012 election, we are seeing several states trying to secede from the union, a very real scenario back when Lincoln was president as well. What might set this particular film aside from the rest of the Abraham Lincoln centered films besides this one being one of the first films to be solely about the 16th president is that Griffith's 'Abraham Lincoln' covers the entire life from birth to death of the legendary president.Plus, Griffith's 'Abraham Lincoln' is an opposing look to his previous film 'The Birth of Nation', the latter being a very racially charged film being released in 1915. 'Abraham Lincoln' jumps around quite a bit as we have to get the full span of Lincoln's life in under 100 minutes. The film starts off on a slave ship and cuts to a log cabin where Lincoln is born and given his name. We immediately jump to a young twenty -something Lincoln (Walter Huston) having fun with some friends in a bar as he lifts a giant barrel of alcohol to drink. We also get to see a young Abraham become smitten with his first love, Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel), win a wrestling match, and being a fun loving, charming, and powerful young man. It's great to see our 16th president be a normal guy as he studies law and is always ready and willing to be intimate with his girl.However, Ann becomes ill and passes away. Abraham becomes a broken man and even resorts to lying down on top of her grave because he misses her so much. But since the film's run-time is short, we swiftly move into Lincoln meeting his wife Mary Todd (Kay Hammond) as we see Abraham dive into his early political career then onto his presidency, where we get the epic beard.As this film is more of a dialogue driven film, rather than epic battle sequences, we don't see a lot of action during the Civil War. This movie focuses more on the emotional and psychological state of Lincoln. It was great to see how the name Honest Abe became about and how frustrated and sadden Lincoln is during this war time. But when Lincoln isn't bogged down by the important serious issues, he is actually a fun and silly guy, one you might want to hang out with.This is one of Griffith's last movies he made and it is a pretty straight forward film without a lot of creative art direction. And we all know that the Gettysburg Address was one of Lincoln's biggest moments, however that whole speech was not given any screen time. I was hoping for an extra on this disc that discussed why, but unfortunately, there is none. However, there are a several key moments in the film that lead up to the murder of Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth (Ian Keith).If it wasn't for Huston's performance as Lincoln, I'd say this was a pretty lackluster attempt at making a film about our 16th president. That being said, I think this is worth a look if you haven't seen it, especially on blu-ray.

AW_RATLIFFHxC After seeing the modern movie versions of Abe Lincoln I was curious to see what this one was like. Personally when it comes to movies portraying historical characters I'm most concerned with the facts then with anything else. In that regard the movie didn't seem to run away with an artistic license , but did manage to focus on what Lincoln was trying to achieve " to preserve the union". A line repeated several times through out the the movie. The movie was more like a snap-shot of the life of Lincoln piecing together highlights of Lincoln's life. And maybe it was better this way , filling in the gaps with fiction doesn't serve history very well. Sure you cant be 100% factual when trying to make a movie but have some kind integrity. The film is defiantly a product of its time- film quality , acting , but if you can over look that it isn't that terrible.

Robert J. Maxwell It refuses to fly. The whole thing constitutes 90 minutes of parasitic drag.General MacLellan might have directed this. It has "a case of the slows." It begins with Abraham Lincoln's birth. There are extensive scenes of Lincoln (Walter Huston) tentatively courting Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel). They both move and speak slowly. The flirtation drags along. Merkel gets sick and dies with Huston by her side. She has long slow last words -- many long slow last words. Nine years later, John Ford zipped through all this in a few minutes. We didn't even see Ann Rutledge die, just a half frozen river accompanied by a few tragic chords in Al Newman's score.I understand that D. W. Griffith practically invented the grammar of the moving picture -- the cross-cutting, the invisible editing, the close up -- but he couldn't do a thing with this Steven Vincent Benet script, nor with the images we see on the screen.The close ups are an embarrassment. The actors are made up so emphatically that their lips and eyes might be seen from the most distant row of the balcony.One wonders whether Griffith really believed that Abraham Lincoln was such a great president. After all, from the director's point of view, Lincoln was on the wrong side of the Civil War. But maybe Griffith did admire Lincoln. Maybe he thought, "Well, at least Lincoln gave us Thanksgiving." But nothing can excuse a film that seems to have been shot in a vast tank of molasses.There's something to be said for quitting while you're ahead.

MartinHafer This is the 26th movie I have seen from Harry Medved's book "The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time" and I've gotta say that I agree with Medved's choice. While many of his "fifty worst" weren't THAT bad (a few were even pretty good), this one is probably the worst bio-pic I have ever seen. Now this doesn't mean that it's among the 50 worst films EVER made, however--just the worst bio-pic. You just can't get much worse than this one in fact.My biggest complaint isn't about how tediously slow the movie is or how horrible the dialog is. While these aspects did totally suck, they weren't the worst part of the film. The main problem is that so much of the film is just factually wrong, so on top of being boring and dumb, it isn't even correct!! Trust me on this one, I am an American History teacher and can assure you that this film appears as if they really didn't do any research--especially since the film repeats such obvious lies. Like George Washington before him (with his supposed wooden teeth and need to chop down cherry trees), after Lincoln's death lots of people pretty much made up the facts to make Lincoln seem bigger than life. Lots of great little homespun stories were created out of thin air--and Griffith totally made up many facts. The most obvious one is the supposed love affair between Lincoln and Ann Rutlage--this simply didn't happen. Other stupidly written and patently false portions of the film would include much of the Lincoln-Douglas segment of the film (especially the time-line for it), Lincoln loudly announcing that he'd found the perfect man to lead his troops (though Grant was about the 8th or 9th "perfect man" that Lincoln appointed to this position), etc., etc., etc.. Additionally, the film wasn't really told in a smooth narrative but seemed like overly-staged scenes from his life--often not in the right order or else done in such histrionic and melodramatic fashion that I laughed out loud. I loved the birth scene--John the Baptist and St. Francis must have had less auspicious and saintly births!! Heck, in THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, the birth was done with less melodrama!! The overall film really looks like an 1870s traveling company who did tent show, not a professionally made movie. Amateurish, silly and ridiculously nationalistic--it is meant to please dumb yokels, but not anyone with even a passing knowledge of history.Bad, dumb and totally uninspiring--this is one bad film disguised as something significant or patriotic. If you are interested in TRUE patriotism, read a biography of this man. The real Lincoln was a lot less "homespun" and much more a brilliant and occasionally very pragmatic politician--and THAT would make for a far more interesting film! By the way, one of the only things the film got pretty well was Mary Todd Lincoln. She really was a fussy woman who was almost impossible to get along with according to almost every description. Her life, though tragic, was also really interesting and could stand a GOOD bio-pic itself--giving more attention to her life before and after Abraham's death.I fully expect to get some hate mails and "not helpfuls" for this review. I have had to the nerve to criticize D.W. Griffith (a very important but very, very flawed film maker) and some knuckleheads might see this review as unpatriotic. The way I see it, lying about a nation's past like this film did is unpatriotic--plus the truth is far more interesting and compelling. Lincoln was a great president and a role model--not some sappy backwoods idiot who wears lipstick like he seems to be in this syrupy mess. And, yes, I did mean that he wore lipstick--the makeup was THAT bad.4/6/08 UPDATE: AN IMPORTANT NOTE--Please ignore the number of negatives posted for this film, as I have been "spammed". Although it's an old and obscure film, within a day or two I'd gotten slammed with five "Not Helpfuls". Obviously, my review hacked someone off enough that they are using proxy accounts to criticize my review. Normally with a movie this old and obscure, you MIGHT get one or two comments a year yet I got five in one or two days! Gimme a break!!