The Most Facial Hair You'll Ever See In a Movie Ever

I went to see Lincoln this weekend and was completely distracted by the amount of men with facial hair. I would say that about 75% of the faces shown during the movie were covered in hair. And it wasn't even just your standard beard or mustache here and there. These were works of art. Twisted up handle bar mustaches, mutton chops growing out of the sides of faces, and beards down to chests. It was very distracting.

Apart from the astounding show of support for No-Shave November, the movie itself was mediocre. It was about what you would expect from Steven Spielberg, and I'm sure it will be part of the Oscar discussion. Daniel Day-Lewis was absolutely perfect for the role. However, there was something lacking. I'm not sure I can even put my finger on it. I like my movies to be unique in some way, and this one was very much your standard Hollywood drama with lingering, back-lit shots of Lincoln in silhouette and poignant, emotionally-charged speeches. It was unnecessarily long, and this comes from someone who is no stranger to long movies. The friend that I saw it with made the comment that there were too many times where the audience was keenly aware of the camera and that a good movie should not draw attention to itself in that way.

The movie also took a painful time in our American history, one that was full of hatred and ignorance, and distilled it into the inspirational journey of a savior. There were moments in the movie where we caught a glimpse of the horrible racism that fueled the hate of that time period, times where you shook your head and wanted to cry for our national past, but I felt like everything was glorified. Those moments were only there to appeal to the ethos of the audience. They felt cheap. We were given the easy version of history in which we heard of the cruelties in passing but were not given the entire picture lest it be too much to handle. For me, the film seemed to play down the inhumanity of that time in favor of portraying the power struggles of old white men. In the end, I was left wondering why I was rooting for the winners. Was I rooting for them because they were putting an end to the immoral practice of slavery? Or was I rooting for them simply because they were the good guys and that's what I was supposed to do? The complexities of that time period were so vast, and the movie didn't seem to touch on them.