During the years of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War there was quite a renewal of interest in the War Between the States and the massive Lincoln film came out the year before Saving Lincoln did. With all the honors that film received Saving Lincoln has been kind of pushed into the background. Still it is a film that stands on its own merits.I remember Tom Amandes best from his reprise of The Untouchables as Eliot Ness. He certainly proved up to the challenge of playing Abraham Lincoln. One thing that is shown here and not often demonstrated was how politically shrewd and how deceptively cunning Lincoln could be at times. A quality lacking certainly in his immediate successor.Also demonstrated is the amount of abuse Lincoln took and how now in history he rises head and shoulders above his critics. Presidential dignity was of paramount importance to him and to the men who were president who history has deemed great. I suspect had Twitter been available he would have disdained its use.In terms of devotion to his chief Ward Hill Lamon was the ideal presidential aide. He was appointed a federal marshal for the District of Columbia to give him a kind of official status. His job simply was to guard Lincoln and Lincoln being our tallest president didn't make it easy. In real life Lamon was nearly that height himself.. The singular devotion is brought out by actor Lea Coco playing Lamon.A key scene in the film is where Lincoln first meets Lamon. The attorneys who rode circuit with Lincoln and you see them in the tavern knocking back a few after a day's work were the people who were Lincoln's close associates. The guys who knew him when so to speak. The bonds formed there were the strongest ties Lincoln had, maybe even more so than his wife played here by Penelope Ann Miller.Saving Lincoln will give you another perspective on the man most historians rank as our greatest president. He certainly faced the greatest challenge we ever had as a nation.

Daniel Day Lewis was a great Linoln portrayal actor. Gregory Peck was. They both did excellent jobs. Here, in this totally unrealistic and unreal flick everything is wrong, and it can awake only one decent emotion - laughter. And then having one's shoulders shrugged. Awful, amateurish, shallow, slick and very untrue to historical roots, this unfunny, insidious and unreal effort is a waste of time, money and wits. It is not even funny to entertain. It is sepia dark, sickly sour and badly executed imagination-land of what coulda shoulda woulda. My advice - do not even try to watch this. It is awful and empty

I enjoyed this movie and the new perspective it gave me on the life of Abraham Lincoln. The movie shows many important events during his time as president, but while most movies would only show these events from a military or political perspective, they are shown here from a personal perspective as well. We get to see how Lincoln's friends and family helped him through his presidency, and how they frequently tried to lighten the mood with music. I thought that this in particular made the movie interesting. Another thing that makes this movie unique is that it is in black and white. I liked this aspect because it worked well with the actual photographs from this time period that were already in black and white. Overall, I thought that the film was very good, and I learned a lot more than I had originally thought I was going to.

I have seen a variety of films based on the Abraham Lincoln but none were, in my opinion, as amazing as this one. Many had false historical interpretations while this one stuck to the facts. I enjoyed Tom Amandes portrayal of Lincoln and felt he brought a sense of life to our textbooks; we were able to understand better his life story and his many struggles. The film itself had a unique look too. It's black and white photography made the characters become more the center of attention rather than having the audience focus too much on what was happening behind them.(it almost looked like a play was taking place!) This film was emotional not only because it was describing events of the civil war but also in the relationship that existed between Lincoln and Ward Hill Lamon(his bodyguard). I enjoyed learning about Lincoln in the perspective of his bodyguard and feel I have a greater understanding now of his presidency.