History Film / Lincoln

** When the Democrats force Stevens to declare his beliefs on racial equality, he either has to express more moderate views, which would be anathema to the Radical Republicans and those who support abolition, or be completely honest about them and seriously jeopardize the passing of the 13th amendment. He manages to TakeAThirdOption, sort of.

* TheGoodChancellor: Secretary of State William Seward frequently and vocally disagrees with how Lincoln does things, but throws himself into fulfilling the president's wishes by any means necessary.

* TheStoryteller: Lincoln, much to the exasperation of his Cabinet and his staff. [[TruthInTelevision The real-life Lincoln]] was known for telling stories at every occasion... [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome sometimes with a subtle message]], ofttimes [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments to tell a joke]] during a tense moment and break the mood.

* WhenHeSmiles: Stevens wears a perpetual frown through ninety-nine percent of the whole damn movie. Except at the end, [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments and for a very good reason]].

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: At the very end, during the carriage ride. [[TearJerker It breaks your heart]].

** Early in the movie, while recounting his dream to Mary, Lincoln quotes {{Hamlet}}'s speech about being "a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams."

* TheStoryteller: Lincoln, much to the exasperation of his Cabinet and his staff. [[TruthInTelevision The real-life Lincoln]] was known for telling stories at every occasion... [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome sometimes with a subtle message]], ofttimes [[CrowningMomentOfFunny to tell a joke]] during a tense moment and break the mood.

* WhenHeSmiles: Stevens wears a perpetual frown through ninety-nine percent of the whole damn movie. Except at the end, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming and for a very good reason]].

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Tommy Lee Jones plays Thaddeus Stevens with his normal Texas accent, though Stevens was from Pennsylvania, and it would have been very ironic to have such a fiery abolitionist from the deep South.[[note]]Although, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Laurens of course]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimk%C3%A9_sisters there]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elihu_Embree were]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fairfield_(abolitionist) some]].[[/note]]

* BaitAndSwitch: We get [[spoiler: ''two'' theater scenes before the end of the film, and the second one isn't Ford's Theatre, either. Note that the second one was not added for dramatic effect, Tad Lincoln [[TruthInTelevision was in fact]] [[ShownTheirWork actually attending]] a performance of ''Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp'' when the news broke out that his father had been shot.]]

-->'''Lincoln:''' [[TranquilFury Buzzards' guts, man...]]''(stands up)'' [[BadassBoast I am the President of the United States...clothed in]] '''[[SuddenlyShouting IMMENSE POWER.]]''' ''You will procure me these votes.''

-->'''[[spoiler:Yeaman]]:'''"I said aye, Mr. [=McPherson=]! AAAAAAAAAAYE!"

-->'''Lincoln''': George Washington's likeness in a water closet? "Yes," said Mr. Allen, "where it will do good service; the world knows nothing will make an Englishman shit quicker than the sight of George Washington."

-->'''Lincoln''': The part assigned to me is to raise the flag, which, if there be no fault in the machinery, I will do, and when up, it will be for the people to keep it up. [''Pause''] That's my speech.

--> '''Tad:''' I'm under fifteen.

-->'''Yeaman''': What shall follow upon that? Universal enfranchisement? Votes for ''women''?

* ExactWords: Lincoln pulls this when the Republicans and Democrats [[spoiler: jointly delay voting on the amendment after they hear the rumors about the South's peace overtures. When they ask him if there are Confederate delegates in Washington, Lincoln writes back to them that there are not (since he had ordered them to meet in ''another'' city). The Democrats immediately recognize this "lawyer's dodge" but the vote resumes regardless]].

** Lincoln's love of theater is shown midway through the film. [[spoiler: The second and final theater scene throws a twist by showing a ''different'' show than Lincoln's final one, being watched by his son Tad instead, which is canceled to announce the President's assassination. They didn't make that last one up for dramatic effect, either, [[TruthInTelevision that actually happened]]]].

** In an early congressional debate as to whether or not slavery is "natural law", George Pendleton taunts the pro-abolition and pro-equality Thaddeus Stevens by asking if slavery ''isn't'' natural law, what is? Stevens is finally provoked to respond when Pendleton disparagingly mentions [[spoiler: interracial marriage]].
** When asked to speak, Stevens keeps stealing glances up at the viewing gallery, where the black people are sitting. You could easily pass this off as simply an example of his fervent abolitionism, except for how the camera always focuses on Elizabeth Keckley, [[spoiler: a black maid]].

-->'''Lincoln''': A compass, I learned when I was surveying, it'll point you True North from where you're standing, but it's got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms that you'll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp... What's the use of knowing True North?

* MalignedMixedMarriage: [[spoiler: Thaddeus Stevens's mistress (or common-law wife in his eyes-played by Creator/SEpathaMerkerson)]] is black and pretends to be his housekeeper to prevent rumors.
* ManlyTears: Many of the Republican Congressman after [[spoiler:securing the passage of the 13th Amendment.]]

--> '''Litton.''' We welcome you, ladies and gentlemen, first in the history of this people's chamber... ''to your House!''
** Rep. James Ashley has an InelegantBlubbering moment after [[spoiler: the amendment passes]].

-->'''Lincoln''': Time is a great thickener of things, William.
-->'''Seward''': Yes, I suppose it is...
--> -{{Beat}}-
-->'''Seward''': [[LampshadeHanging Actually, I have no idea what you mean by that.]]

-->'''Edward [=McPherson=]''': And Mr. George Yeaman, how say you?\\
'''George Yeaman''' [''mumbling inaudibly'']: My vote ties us.\\
'''Edward [=McPherson=]''': Sorry Mr. Yeaman, I didn't hear your vote.\\
'''George Yeaman''': I said aye, Mr. [=McPherson=]. [[LargeHam AYYYYYYEEEEEE!]]

--> '''Stevens:''' How can I hold that all men are created equal, when here before me stands, ''stinking'' ... the moral carcass of the gentleman from Ohio? ''Proof'' that some men ''are'' inferior! Endowed by their maker with dim wits! Impermeable to reason! With cold, pallid ''slime'' in their veins instead of ''hot red blood!'' ''You'' are more ''reptile'' than man, George! So low and flat, that the foot of man is ''incapable'' of crushing you!
--> '''Pendleton:''' How ... dare ... you ... !
--> '''Stevens:''' Yet even you, Pendleton, who should have been gibbeted for treason long before today, even worthless unworthy you ought to be treated equally before the law!

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent
-->'''Thaddeus Stevens''': You are more ''reptile'' than man, George!

-->'''Lincoln''': Euclid's first common notion is this: Things which are equal to the same things are equal to each other. That's a rule of mathematical reasoning and it's true because it works - has done and always will do. In his book Euclid says this is self evident. You see there it is even in that 2000 year old book of mechanical law it is the self evident truth that things which are equal to the same things are equal to each other.

--> '''Lincoln''': We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.

-->'''Lincoln''': If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me.

-->'''Lincoln''': Old Neptune, shake thy hoary locks!

* SimpleCountryLawyer: Despite being the President, Lincoln still projects this vibe, and often tells stories from his lawyer days.
-->'''Roger Ebert''': I've rarely been more aware than during Steven Spielberg's ''Lincoln'' that Abraham Lincoln was a plain-spoken, practical, down-to-earth man from the farmlands of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.

* TakeAThirdOption: Southern congressmen who support the amendment on moral grounds but will not defy their party completely can choose to abstain rather than vote either way. This didn't necessarily help their political careers any more than just voting for the amendment, however.
--> [[spoiler:Edwin F. [=LeClerk=]]]: No! Oh, to hell with it, shoot me dead too. Yes! I mean, abstention! Abstention.
** Thaddeus Stevens gets one, kind of, when pressed by his Democrat enemies to either admit that he believes blacks should be completely equal to whites in all things, or to take a more moderate, watered down approach -- either would jeopardize support for the amendment from some quarters. [[spoiler: He gets around it by admitting that he doesn't believe all men are equal... [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech because the men he's currently arguing with are loathsome, slimy idiots closer to reptiles than men]].]]

-->'''William Fessden (stunned)''': Dear God!

** The Confederate envoys are brought to the North by an entire regiment of black Union soldiers, all of whom are giving them scarily angry glares. (This is fictional.)

** The Confederate envoys are brought to the North by an entire regiment of black Union soldiers, all of whom are giving them scarily angry glares.

* {{Irony}}: Near the film's end, Grant tells Lincoln "We've won the war. Now you have to lead us out of it." [[ForegoneConclusion Unfortunately, Lincoln is never able to do so.]]
** In fact, after the less the smooth tenure of Vice-President Johnson in The White House, it falls to ''Grant'' to try to lead the U.S. 'out of it.'

** First Lady Mary Lincoln did not attend the final tally on the amendment and it would have been scorned then for a woman to sit in the House Gallery.

** Thaddeus Stevens is Tommy Lee Jones at his most deep and gravelly.

** Lincoln's love of theater is shown midway through the film. [[spoiler: The second and final theater scene throws a twist by showing a ''different'' show than Lincoln's final one, which is canceled to announce the President's assassination]].

** BerserkButton:

-->'''Lincoln:''' [[TranquilFury Buzzards' guts, man...]]''(stands up)'' [[BadassBoast I am the President of the United States...clothed, in]] '''[[SuddenlyShouting IMMENSE POWER.]]''' ''You will procure me these votes.''

* BaitAndSwitch: We get ''[[spoiler: ''two'' theater scenes before the end of the film, and the second one isn't Ford's Theatre, either. Note that the second one was not added for dramatic effect, Tad Lincoln [[TruthInTelevision was in fact]] [[ShownTheirWork actually attending]] a performance of ''Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp'' when the news broke out that his father had been shot.]]

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: As was apparently true to life, Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens is respectful to the black Union soldiers he meets, in contrast to his fellow Confederate escort. In real life, Stephens was a white supremacist and avid supporter of slavery, but he campaigned for better treatment of slaves and apparently treated his slaves well enough that many stayed with him as paid servants after the war, and one even served as a pallbearer. Lincoln and Stephens were also friends before the war, as hinted at when Lincoln addresses him as "Alex."

* BigYes: When it is [[spoiler:George Yeaman]]'s turn to vote on the 13th Amendment, he initially responds by mumbling something inaudible. When asked to speak up, he stands and shouts as loud and long as his lungs will let him.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Tommy Lee Jones plays Thaddeus Stevens with his normal Texas accent, though Stevens was from Pennsylvania, and it would have been very ironic to have such a fiery abolitionist from the deep South.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: [[spoiler: Thaddeus Stevens's mistress (or common-law wife in his eyes-played by [[Series/LawAndOrder S. Epatha Merkerson]])]] is black and pretends to be his housekeeper to prevent rumors.

* TheLastDJ: Thaddeus Stevens has been fighting for abolition for his entire political career, and refuses to accept any compromises about it even when many of his colleagues are willing to do so if it means ending the war sooner. Many repeatedly mock him for his [[DeliberateValuesDissonance at-the-time radical belief]] that all people, black or white, are completely equal. He eventually relents and accepts some rhetorical and political compromises in order to get the 13th amendment passed, (see, IDidWhatIHadToDo).

* TheLastDJ: Thaddeus Stevens has been fighting for abolition for his entire political career, refuses to accept any compromises about it and is repeatedly mocked by his colleagues for his [[DeliberateValuesDissonance at-the-time radical belief]] that all people, black or white, are completely equal. He eventually relents and accepts some rhetorical and political compromises in order to get the 13th amendment passed, (see, IDidWhatIHadToDo).

* TheLastDJ: Thaddeus Stevens has been fighting for abolition for his entire political career, refuses to accept any compromises about it and is repeatedly mocked by his colleagues for his [[DeliberateValuesDissonance at-the-time radical belief]] that all people, black or white, are completely equal. He eventually relents and accepts some rhetorical and political compromises in order to get the 13th amendment passed, (see, IDidWhatIHadTo).