Review

Fonda, in his first collaboration of eight with director Ford, is simply majestic in his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in his pre-presidential years as an idealistic lawyer. This stirring work aims to invoke the legend of Lincoln above all else, best evidenced in the rousing courtroom climax where Honest Abe dispenses with the law entirely and challenges the jurors' sense of right and wrong. Nostalgic and patriotic in all the right ways; even if this isn't how history was made, dammit, this is how it should have been.

 -- David Gorgos