I’m going to start this off with a cliche: The book was better than the movie. The novel by Seth Grahame-Smith was a cult hit of revisionist history that was surprising free of camp and took itself completely seriously. In a clever and adroit fashion, it blended actual historical fact with fantastical vampire fiction. It was enjoyable how Grahame-Smith was able to interlace the vampire narrative into events that actually happened. It was a fun and enjoyable page turner that had an intelligence far above its’ eye-rolling title. Grahame-Smith was tapped to do the screenplay for the movie version of this, which makes it all the more confusing why this film took a wrong turn.
Let me say that, for a vampire movie, I’ve seen worse. In fact, there as much about this I did enjoy. My main qualm is that the film’s narrative was significantly different than the book (which is surprising since the screenplay writer and author are the same person). Where the book delighted in dissecting historical events and speeches and finding clever ways to seamlessly weave vampires into the story, the movie came off as more of a kung fu apprentice chop house film. Lincoln was perfectly cast with Benjamin Walker (looking like a young Liam Neeson) and his vampire mentor was played by the more than capable Dominic Cooper, so it wasn’t for lack of talent that this film fell short. Much like the title, the film went for style over substance.
The story revolves around a young Abe Lincoln witnessing the death of his mother at the hands of a vampire. He pledges his life to defeating vampires. Being only human, despite his legendary strength, he is no match for their supernatural strength. He soon discovers they are everywhere. Most notably they are in the South, where they are the leading proponents of slavery in order to supply themselves with an unlimited food source. Young Lincoln makes several unsuccessful attempts at killing vampires, barely escaping with his life, when he catches the attention of a rogue vampire named Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper). We are not sure of Henry’s true intentions (part of the mystery to be unraveled), but he takes young Abraham under his wing and teaches him how to kill vampires.
What follows is the obligatory training montages, where I must admit, it’s cool to see Lincoln wield his silver coated ax. Still, it had a very cheap karate movie feel to it. The director also tried to make the film shots abstract and stylized (It worked in the film ‘300’, but you can’t pull that off in every film). We follow Lincoln’s life in becoming a shop keeper, then studying law, and finally going into politics. All the while, he leads a double life hunting vampires whose locations Henry provides. The life of a vampire hunter is meant to be monastic, but of course Mary Todd Lincoln (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is introduced as a love interest and causes him to veer from his path.
Lincoln decides that the problem is too widespread for one man to accomplish. Once he realizes that vampires are at the highest levels of the Confederacy, he decides to fight vampires through politics. A life long anti-slavery advocate, he realizes that vampires must be wiped out once and for all if all men are to be free. Lincoln was a gifted speaker and able to move audiences like no other President. Unfortunately, Walker doesn’t have the same gift, so his rousing Lincoln speeches fell a little flat which is a shame. Part of the book’s charm was reading Lincoln’s famous speeches and understanding them under a different context of vampire lore.
The lead Southern vampire, who was the first of all vampires, named Adam (a little heavy handed in his name?) is played by Rufus Sewell (another actor of talent). He recognizes the danger and instructs his human lackey, Jefferson Davis, to secede from the Union (Uh huh, see how all that works in). Jefferson knows his vampire master’s intent is to enslave all mankind, but hopes for a better life if he does their bidding. What follows is the Civil War. We all know the outcome, so I won’t go into the details other than to say that vampires were part of every battle from Fort Sumner to Gettysburg. Bet you didn’t know that did you?
I wish I hadn’t read the book and just taken this film in on it’s own. While it wasn’t a waste of time, I realized how much better it could have been. The intentional pulp fiction title worked well in the novel and it was an enjoyable read. The film was overly stylized and lacked the coherence, meticulous historical detail, and seriousness of the book. Some of the stunts the 50 year old President did prevented that suspension of disbelief that is essential if a film like this is to succeed. The only thing I can say is that if you have a choice; read the book. BTW, that’s the last time I will ever say, ‘The book is better than the movie’ as that is such a cliche. I couldn’t help it in this case.
I give this film ** stars
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