kelseywade Review of The Better Angels

The Better Angels (2014)

Overall, this film captures Lincoln's early life well and what shaped him, but not the best film.

[7/10 · 11 March 2016]

The Better Angels is a one of kind film, in that it is about Abraham Lincoln's very early life. The film covers three very formative years for Lincoln. From my previous knowledge I think that this film is very accurate and the information is directly from Lincoln's cousin so I would say the facts are accurate. Also, I think the film accurately depicts the time period with the activities that they are doing in the film, the look of the house, and wilderness around them. This film is the only film on Lincoln that really shows a big part of his childhood in detail. Braydon Denney did an excellent job of playing Abraham Lincoln. He got his shy but playful personality down perfectly. I enjoyed the film as a whole because of the cinematography. All of the shots in this film were very beautiful and the use of nature throughout really caught my attention. But, there wasn't much dialog throughout the movie and because of this, I felt like I got a lot of the idea of the movie just from the trailer. Also, the film moved pretty slowly because it didn't have many big events throughout it, just little details. In The Better Angels, there are many little events and details that show Abraham Lincoln's personality and what impacted him to be the man he became. Throughout the entire film Lincoln's backwoodsman feel is shown through the way he lived and the tough times for him in the film. Compared to other films I have seen on Lincoln, I think this film portrayed Lincoln's close relationships with his mother and stepmother the best. They really tried to capture Lincoln's pain when his mother died in this film and I think they did a great job of it. It was very interesting to see Abraham in a church as a young child because I have not seen this in any other films that included Lincoln. It was very interesting to see how honest he was throughout the film. The film even touched on Lincoln's background in wrestling. In my opinion, the most powerful part of the film was when Lincoln is watching the slaves walk by attached to chains. I also loved how much it showed his mother and stepmother believing in him and his abilities. Abraham Lincoln as shown in this film, had many people who thought he was amazing and knew he was capable of great things at a young age. His stepmother knew he needed schooling and once he started, even his teacher believed in his abilities. Overall, The Better Angels really showed little events that shaped Lincoln into the man he became and gave the viewer a good understanding of how Abraham Lincoln's childhood was.