In November 2012, Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited Lincoln was released to theatres around the nation. Knowing that Spielberg had produced it brought many viewers; knowing that Daniel Day-Lewis—often called the finest actor of his generation—would play the nation’s sixteenth president was another major reason they came. To top it off was the knowledge that Sally Field—a longtime favorite of many—would play Mary Todd Lincoln.

No one can criticize the stage, the set, or the acting. Lewis was remarkable; he studied his role and played it to perfection. Sally Field’s performance was a little uneven, but most people recognized that she had a tough act to perform. Where the film was weak was in the narrowness of its concept; the viewer only got to see Lincoln and the Congress during January of 1865, the month that culminated in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Given the monumental amount of work Spielberg and his studio had done, one imagines a film with broader applications could have been the result.