Self-described “showman” Steven Spielberg has directed some of the biggest box-office blockbusters of all time: “Jaws,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (plus three “Indiana Jones” sequels), “Jurassic Park” (and its first sequel), “Catch Me If You Can” and “War of the Worlds.”
But the 65-year-old director also is a critically acclaimed filmmaker — a two-time Oscar winner (“Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan”) whose other highly regarded credits include “The Color Purple,” “Empire of the Sun,” “Amistad,” “Munich” and “War Horse.”
It is to that prestigious grouping that Spielberg now adds “Lincoln,” a historical drama that he said is as much a “political thriller” as a Civil War epic or biographical study of Abraham Lincoln. Adapted by playwright Tony Kushner (“Angels in America”) from the Doris Kearns Goodwin book “A Team of Rivals,” the film features a towering performance by Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role.
“Tony’s first draft of the script was 550 pages,” Spielberg recalled in an exclusive interview here last month. “We realized we had a profound miniseries, but we didn’t have a feasible motion picture, so it became about finding an area of Lincoln’s life that could be abridged in a two-hour, 16-minute movie format.
“We decided to focus the story on a very little written about part of the history of our Constitution, at the end of Lincoln’s life, and everything he put into getting enough votes in the House of Representatives to pass the 13th amendment and abolish slavery.”
The star-studded supporting cast includes Sally Field as first lady Mary Todd Lincoln; Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln’s eldest son, Robert; Tommy Lee Jones as the powerful politician Thaddeus Stevens; and David Strathairn as Secretary of State William Seward.
As a child of 5 or 6, Spielberg remembers a “seminal moment” from a family trip to the Lincoln Memorial: “To see such an imposing image, this huge man sitting in this huge chair, that was pretty overwhelming to me at the time. Of course, they looked much larger then than they did years later, when I went back and saw the monument again as an adult. I had a greater sense of context by then, but it was still pretty huge, you know? I think that sheer size about Lincoln is a real measure of his profound accomplishments.”
In terms of “Lincoln,” the movie, the biggest challenge was humanizing such a historic American icon — or, as Spielberg put it, “creating a real man from a monument and giving the character the screen time to breathe and interact, as a father, as a husband, and with all of his own darkness and brilliance.
“We didn’t want the film to seem like just a stepping stone through history,” he said. “The hope is that audiences will feel like they’re right there with him, that they’re getting to know him in deeper ways than they ever thought they could.”
The most surprising thing Spielberg learned about his subject in making the film was that Lincoln had a genuine sense of humor. “Lincoln was a real raconteur. He could use humor in a politically savvy way in order to make a point or sway his opponents. But, other times, he just used it to amuse himself. He loved to hold court and entertain, and that was nice to discover in all of the research.”
It’s that sense of discovery that keeps Spielberg motivated, even after directing some 50 movies in his 40-year career. “Every time I do a picture, it’s like starting over again, like the first day of school,” he said. “If all my experience has taught me anything, it’s to take chances. The more a film forces me out of my comfort zone, the more I want to dive right into it. I definitely took a lot fewer risks when I was younger than I do now.”
“Lincoln” poses its own risks, Spielberg admitted. “It’s not the kind of film some people would expect from me, because a lot of audiences still mainly know me for making science-fiction or adventure movies. It could be a hard sell, not only because it’s about historical events, but also because it’s about historical events that a lot of people may be unfamiliar with.”
His next project might be a return to the action genre — the fantasy “Robopocalypse” — but Spielberg isn’t quite ready to talk about it. “You’d imagine I’d be relieved to go from this historical period piece to some flight of fancy, but it’s too early to be detaching myself from the whole ‘Lincoln’ experience,” he said. “I’m still taking it all in and I don’t want to let it go just yet.”
Like “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan,” Spielberg said, “It’s an experience I’ll never forget. It’s a story I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to tell.”
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