Gore Vidal's Lincoln

Going beyond textbook history, this Emmy Award-winning saga plumbs the personal life and finer political challenges of the American president to get at the sheer enormity of his accomplishments. Sam Waterston delivers an inspirational portrait of a warm-hearted but fiercely principled Lincoln who must deal with uncooperative generals and Machiavellian politicians eager to usurp his office during the Civil War. Meanwhile, he grieves for his wife Mary Todd (an equally superb Mary Tyler Moore) who descends into mental illness, unable to cope with the death of her son. Altogether this richly produced biopic gives us a newfound and much-needed re-appraisal of the Great Emancipator's courage and conviction.