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.

arfdawg-1 Brief vignettes about Lincoln's early life.Includes his birth, early jobs, (unsubstantiated) affair with Ann Rutledge, courtship of Mary Todd, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates.Onward to his presidency and the Civil War are followed in somewhat more detail, though without actual battle scenes.The film concludes with the assassination.Unfortunately parts of the sound track for the first 3 reels are lost. In the restoration you have to get by with subtitles. It's weird cuz there's no music either.Interestingly, the movie sort of looks like a silent film. Heavy makeup, blanched out faces. Some scenes are really kool. Others are drawn out and boring. In all it's a 5.

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.

Tim Kidner It seems incredible the leaps and bounds that were made in less than ten years of cinema back some 90 years ago. D W Griffith's portrait of the great, noble pioneer in U.S politics has all the standard techniques and flourishes that now seem to have become the norm. Walter Houston looks to be perfectly cast as 'Abe' - towering and dominant without being domineering and having that air of quiet authority. That he was humanitarian and resisted conflict whenever able to. It was nice also to have wife Mary's domestic quibbles thrown in, making this an interesting character study rather than a stiff history lesson.As for history, no, I didn't learn a great deal, but didn't expect to. I wanted more to see how one of the great pioneering film directors portrayed another Great Man. The wonderfully produced epitaph in the final seconds showed testament to the power of them both.Yes, the film's sound is hissy and pretty scratchy (I viewed it on-line at Internet Archive) but compared to most movies, certainly of that era and posted on that site, I found it surprisingly enjoyable and effortless.