The film opens with a slow-motion reminder of the bodies piled as carrion in the dark final days of the American Civil War; it will be the only moment of strict battlefield action as Steven Spielberg’s intimate, swelling epic Lincoln draws away from the heavily documented toll of the conflict (already given a definitive account by Ken Burns) and chooses to reveal an imposing figure rescued from hi...[Read More]
Sure, there are plenty of golden-hued stories set during the American Depression of the 1930s which merely glance at the legendary hardships of the time but mostly linger on the crisp fashions and hot jazz of a romanticized era. Water for Elephants, based on Sara Gruen’s bestseller, is another glossy Depression-era tale of a clean-cut young man who runs away with the circus and falls into romantic...[Read More]