Shawn Blanc saw the movie Lincoln recently and it moved him quite a bit. He mostly talks about the man, how he’s portrayed, and the emotions, power, and responsibility one has as President of the United States. Read his brief thoughts on it because it made me think about people who serve their countries – regardless of position or title. However, the thing he wrote about movies is something I want to focus on.

He writes:

The art and craft of storytelling through film seems to be more and more rare these days. In Lincoln, all the components of a movie – acting, cinematography, writing, costume and set design, editing, etc. – come together into a single, cohesive work of moving art. It is moving to watch, moving to hear, and once taken in, it lodges itself in your heart and mind for a while.

I agree with his thoughts on the rarity of such good storytelling in cinema. I can’t remember when I went to a movie theater last. I don’t remember what movie I saw. But I do remember all the films that I didn’t want to invest my time seeing because, in the past, the combination of those arts have not yielded an emotional response.

I hadn’t planned on seeing Lincoln in the theaters but I might revisit that decision. But however I decide to watch the film, I wish more (or all) movies were compelling enough for someone like Shawn to write about the way he did.