Lincoln(2012) - Blog Posts

Honestly, one of the only things I have to complain about about Spielberg’s Lincoln is minuscule and people will probably roll their eyes but I’m a Civil War nerd, and it BUGS ME:

Ulysses S Grant’s uniform is entirely TOO CLEAN. 

Just look at him. This is a commander who literally came from the battlefield, and all accounts remember him to be wearing a private’s borrowed jacket and splattered with mud. Does anything about that uniform/costume look remotely dirty?

(I mean, kudos to Lee’s clean crisp uniform. Historically he showed up looking like the commander he was, thinking he may become Grant’s prisoner.

Spoiler alert: he wasn’t.)

It’s a small detail, I know, but the more I learn about Grant, the more little missed details like this bothers me. Grant’s untidy, messy appearance showed just what sort of a soldier he truly was, and why he was, ultimately, the general who won the war: he didn’t care about personal appearances or advancements, he was there to get the job done.

That little detail aside, I truly loved Lincoln a lot, Daniel Day-Lewis is absolute PERFECTION playing our titular President, Sally Fields is fantastic as Mary Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones was brilliant as always, and Jared Harris is my favorite Ulysses S Grant so far depicted in either television or film.