Joining Walter Huston, Henry Fonda, Raymond Massey, Dennis Weaver, Hal Holbrook and Daniel Day Lewis among many others whom I've seen playing president Abraham Lincoln over the years, Jason Robards is surprisingly good (or maybe not so; he's a legend!) in a role I'd not expect him to capture well. It's about the days just before and after the reading of the Gettysburg Address, and he's dealing with the war and rumored unpopularity (said to be the worst of any president up to that time), as well as the illness of son Tad. The young Mr. Lincoln is seen, but that's it for the family although Mary Todd is mentioned.
The film is seen through the eyes of a young Lukas Haas as a farmboy presumably running along the lines, and there's an impress performance in the young actor. Cameos by Jose Ferrer, Campbell Scott, Ed Flanders, Katharine Helmond and Daniel Davis are worth looking out for, but Haas stands out, stealing the film from a very regal Robards who doesn't overplay the gravitas of his great American hero.
There's truth to his heart when he expresses how much easier it was to be a country lawyer than judge and jury when dealing with the fate of a soldier accused of desertion. Details of the period are quite vivid, with one of the most touching moments dealing with a wounded Scott expressing his emotions about the president, unaware that he's actually speaking to him, with Haas in attendance, re-reading the address for him. A touching film giving another angle of the civil war and another point of view of arguably America's greatest president.
The film is seen through the eyes of a young Lukas Haas as a farmboy presumably running along the lines, and there's an impress performance in the young actor. Cameos by Jose Ferrer, Campbell Scott, Ed Flanders, Katharine Helmond and Daniel Davis are worth looking out for, but Haas stands out, stealing the film from a very regal Robards who doesn't overplay the gravitas of his great American hero.
There's truth to his heart when he expresses how much easier it was to be a country lawyer than judge and jury when dealing with the fate of a soldier accused of desertion. Details of the period are quite vivid, with one of the most touching moments dealing with a wounded Scott expressing his emotions about the president, unaware that he's actually speaking to him, with Haas in attendance, re-reading the address for him. A touching film giving another angle of the civil war and another point of view of arguably America's greatest president.