The assassination of the 16th US President Abraham Lincoln might had been one of the most-documented moments in the history of the United States, but there are also conspiracies on what led to what would be remembered in history as the first successful assassination on an American president.It began with the person who had successfully did so in actor John Wilkes Booth along with his co-conspirators hatching the plan to not only assassinate Lincoln, but also key members of his administration in Vice-President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. Booth, who was already a prominent theatre actor in his day, had a genuine dislike for Lincoln. But assassinating the president who freed the slaves, something which Booth detested, was not originally in his plan. His original plan was to just kidnap Lincoln in order to demand release of captured Confederate soldiers.As for Lincoln, along with the story of Booth's, it concurrently charted the key moments leading up to the end of the American Civil War. It was 10 days before the day of the assassination happened, Lincoln had a dream of a body lying in a coffin in the middle of the White House and people were mourning the death of the person. When he asked who had died, he got the reply that it was the president.While that was the biggest indicator of what was to come at Ford's Theater, the docu-drama had also mentioned that there had been assassination plots on Lincoln throughout his presidency, but they were always being discovered. It was suggested that it came as a result of the level of dislike and hatred towards him, which was not seen on such a scale during the Civil War. Before the dream Lincoln had took place, the most prominent attempt came when Lincoln, all alone, was riding his horse to the War Department where his horse was being shot.History has always has a knack of pinpointing people into various labels, but despite Booth's hatred of Lincoln is well-documented; he was actually born in the state of Maryland which did not ceded from the Union. But it was also fascinating watching how those who witnessed the assassination had actually varying accounts from each other, such that there is no official account of what happened.Whatever one's views of the assassination is, the docu-drama is definitely worth your time.

Tom Hanks hosts this drama/documentary about the assassination of Lincoln. As one can imagine, it's a dark and sad story, but I found some of it very interesting. I don't consider myself the last word on the assassination -- if you are, you're not going to enjoy this as I doubt there was anything new there.The focus initially is the Booth family, especially John Wilkes, as he plots to kill the President, the Secretary of State, and the Vice President. It also covers his earlier foiled attempt. Apparently you just couldn't kill William Seward -- the man not only was nearly killed by a co-conspirator, but at the time, he was ill.Billy Campbell plays Lincoln. He has a naturally high, light voice, so I suspect after Daniel Day-Lewis' research of descriptions of Lincoln's voice, this will become the norm. I found moments before the actual assassination, with Lincoln's last words to his wife, "They won't think anything about it," quite touching.The dramatization then covers Wilkes and his co-conspirators' attempts to escape, Booth's death, the capture of the others, and their varying prison/death sentences.It's interesting material if you're not all that familiar with it.

KILLING LINCOLN may be worth seeing for anyone with an interest in the basic subject matter, but, aside from a few disputed factoids and other interesting tidbits, one is not likely to learn much or see any really new perspective here. The more interesting stuff--earlier plots to kill Lincoln, etc--is not covered in much detail, and the events leading up to the assassination are not synchronized terribly well. The combination of drama and documentary doesn't work too well either, with Tom Hanks constantly interrupting the forward motion of the film. Some of the supporting actors--e.g., whoever it was that played the young naval officer--play their roles very well; unfortunately, same cannot be said for most of the major actors here. Booth, played by Jesse Johnson, is portrayed as an annoyingly histrionic phony in love with the sound of his own voice. From what I understand, that's kind of how the real JWB was, but it would have helped if less time had been devoted to that twit and more to his co-conspirators, who we are told little or nothing about.There's just something very contrived about the whole thing. . .

. . . such as Daniel Day-Lewis' LINCOLN in 2012 or Raymond Massey's ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS from 1940. Further, though Mary Surrat was the most interesting person hung, apparently Robert Redford's THE CONSPIRATOR movie about her case from 2010 scared KILLING LINCOLN's crew away, as Mary is NOT EVEN MENTIONED until 1:26:09 of this 1:28:10 long TV movie! So I guess after seeing all the other Lincoln flicks, Abe was feeling like an old buddy and I was sort of wondering what he would think about all 31 minutes and 50 seconds of ads (especially those repeated a dozen or more times, such as the network promos for WICKED TUNA and INSIDE COMBAT RESCUE). As he was pretty old and disabled by his assassination, all of the ads for health remedies (RA.com arthritis treatment, Celebrex arthritis medicine, Kellogg's Frosted Miniwheat Crunch--which is presented as a health food, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, etc.). Google's cute ad about the mom who does a quick search for her young daughter's last-minute disclosure that she has a "Dress like a Presiden's Day" Millard Fillmore assignment surely would have provoked a belly laugh from Abe, given that he knew Fillmore. Sponsor Viking Cruises would have been right up his alley, as he and Mary were planning to see the world as soon as his term ended. At the rate Mary was spending his dough, Abe definitely would have paid attention to the Raymond James financial adviser ads, what with the solid gold apple tree and all. I'm not sure he would have done his booking through Captain Kirk & Expedia, but the JACK THE GIANT SLAYER promo may have been enough to lure him away from that fatal trip to Ford's theater! The night's saving grace, if Abe were watching, is that he would NOT have seen how Ford Motor Co. is ripping off his heirs by using his name and likeness on its imitation Cadillac cars.