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best movie i've ever seen.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This was brutal to watch. Seems like they had to say it was about Abe as a kid so you'd think there was a reason to watch it, but it was more like random "artsy" shots of some people living in the woods, but not actually doing anything the entire length of the movie. Something happened to a dog too, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Total waste of time.

While this film is not for everyone, I was totally captivated by it. Perhaps because I'm quite familiar with Lincoln's biography and have been to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Indiana where Lincoln spent his boyhood years in an impossibly tiny cabin (by today's standards), the depiction of several years of that hardscrabble Indiana boyhood in this film were absorbing. True, as some critics have pointed out, there's no "narrative structure", i.e., developed storyline, to this film, but to me its progression of largely unrelated, and primarily non-verbal, vignettes nicely captured the physical, social, and emotional milieu in which the young Lincoln grew up. It's a remarkable story, and a tribute to both the (relatively) class-ness nature of mid-19th century America and Lincoln's own sturdy moral character and remarkable intellect, that "The Great Emancipator" and the "Savior of the Union" could emerge from such an impoverished environment. It's good to recall that Lincoln only received 9 months of formal schooling in his entire childhood.And yet early on, as we see in this film, his mother recognized his intellect (see my heading above) and strives to find a schoolhouse for him without much enthusiasm from Lincoln's father who needs him for the relentless physical chores of their farm. We see Lincoln reading or thinking out in the fields and then his father admonishes him to get back to work. Truth be told, Lincoln did not like physical work and always wanted to work with his mind, and unfortunately disparaged his hard-working father for his lack of ambition. But we see the occasional moments of father-son bonding in the film, although some residual discord remained (years later when Lincoln was a successful railroad lawyer, he refrained from going to his father's funeral). The real sources of strength and encouragement for Lincoln were his mother, and most importantly, his stepmother, and we see that reflected in the various vignettes of this film.The film is narrated by Lincoln's older cousin, who sometimes can be hard to follow in his backwoods dialect, and young Lincoln doesn't speak until the film is half-way over. Primarily, visual imagery depicts Lincoln's childhood milieu, and the cinematography is the most gorgeous I can recall from a black and white film. To round out the sensual experience and the emotional effect, the director has selected some beautiful pieces of music, e.g., Copeland, Dvorak, to accompany the enthralling visual imagery. For my money, 10 stars!

In thoughtful movies that rely on dialog and story rather than CGI, sex and violence, there's an opportunity to craft meaningful character studies. The Better Angels forgoes the flash, even filming in black and white. The problem is, they didn't develop any characters. Particularly young Lincoln. Nothing happens. No one changes, except maybe Lincoln's father a little. The viewer slogs through the boredom of frontier life without any insight into young Lincoln. I don't need to see people shot, stabbed and punched. I don't need to see gratuitous sex or colorful explosions, flashy costumes or lively music. But if you're going to make a movie about an historical character, there has to be a story told that shapes the boy into a man. This movie is little more than a black and white home movie where NOTHING happens. Four stars is probably generous.

.....is the word that came to mind numerous times throughout the film, and captain Castile reviewed it best. I would add that although I thought I had a grasp of pioneer living, I now know I didn't have a clue! I kept relating all the hardships shown in that era juxtaposed to how pampered we live today, and yet have the gall to complain about someone taking our parking spot! We owe it to ourselves to watch this wonderful snapshot, if not for the Lincoln history, then for the lesson learned/relearned of how wonderfully blessed we are to live in this time of aplenty, and maybe stand up for right and wrong, and try to maintain a grip on the America we grew up with!