One of the first things I noticed in watching the newly released trailer for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is the voice Daniel Day-Lewis gives to the sixteenth president. As discussed in a previous post about The Gettysburg Address, actors often portray Abraham Lincoln with a booming deep voice, and we seem to imagine him that way because of his legendary status in American history. But contemporary reports of his voice discuss a higher-pitched nasally sound coming from The Great Emancipator. As you can see from the trailer, Spielberg and Lewis are aiming for something close to reality, even in Lincoln’s voice.
I noticed something else when I watched the new trailer for the movie that examines the life of Lincoln in his final months before his assassination. I cannot wait to see this film, which is based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. By contrast, Slate gives the trailer a B-.
What do you think of the trailer for Lincoln? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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