Abraham Lincoln - The Assassination of the President
Abraham Lincoln - The assassination of the president is an American film drama from the year 1998 . The period film is based on the 1955 non-fiction book The Day Lincoln Was Shot by Jim Bishop .
action
In April 1865, during the Civil War, famous actor John Wilkes Booth was an ardent Confederate supporter and a bitter enemy of Abraham Lincoln . He despises the liberation of slaves and considers the US president to be a dictator. Already during the war years he supported the southern states with various kinds of aid. Now he is planning, together with several faithful, including Lewis Thornton Paine , David Herold and George Atzerodt , the kidnapping of Lincoln to the south in order to free prisoners of war from the north. However, since the south surrenders a short time later, the plan cannot be implemented. Rather, Booth is shocked and, during a public speech by Lincoln, in which Lincoln plays the southern anthem Dixie , he plans to murder him. Perhaps the South could eventually be inspired to declare war again. He then swears loyalty to his followers and just waits for the right opportunity.
Death threats are nothing unusual for Lincoln, he always gets them sent. His wife Mary is concerned about her husband's unpopularity and her own bad reputation in public. But Lincoln has to give hope to the people and reconcile a deeply divided country. Contrary to the strong opinions of his staff, he does not want to punish the South for war, but rather to show mildness and mercy. He also wants to show himself publicly to the people, so he suggests Ulysses S. Grant to watch a play with him at the nearby Ford's Theater . Grant does not want to and can be excused with the excuse that his wife absolutely wants to see the children again. Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancé Clara Harris accompanied the Lincoln as substitute guests.
When Booth learns who will be visiting his theater that evening, he sees the opportunity to carry out his murder plan . He can no longer be dissuaded from it; even when his lover Lucy Hale tells him that she is going to travel to Spain with her father and would much rather live with him, he only says it is not such a bad idea. After all, he is on the verge of immortality and knows that statues will soon be erected in his honor, which is why he lets them go. He then plans to escape and instructs Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward and Atzerodt, Vice President Andrew Johnson . While Atzerodt cancels his action, Powell stabs Seward, who survives because of a ruff. With drunken courage, Booth finally storms Lincoln's box, shoots him, jumps onto the stage, breaking his foot and yelling Sic semper tyrannis to the audience before he can successfully escape.
One tries quickly to save Lincoln. But the shot went straight through the head, which is why all hope was lost and he had only a little time left. While Mary wakes up at her husband's deathbed and pleads that he not leave her, Stanton has the city cordoned off and found for all the assassins. The next morning, April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m. and ten seconds, Lincoln died. Little by little the assassins are caught. Twelve days later, Booth is also circled in a burning barn at Garrett Farm. They try to catch him alive, but one of the soldiers shoots him from behind. In July 1865 Powell, Herold, Atzerodt and Surratt were finally sentenced to death by hanging, although Surratt's complicity in the murder plot could never be proven.
criticism
Will Joyner praised the performance of Henriksen in the New York Times , who "hardly brought emotions into his weighty words" as Lincoln, and Morrow, who "with his talent" could represent an "ambivalent figure". As a criticism, he saw "the general limits of television" and that one simply could not show the tragedy of Lincoln's death.
In People magazine, Terry Kelleher criticized Henriksen for taking an "uninspired approach" "to portray Lincoln with his" confident, stately and stiff "play. Morrow's play, however, varied from" competent "to" less convincing. "The dialogues were also frequent too "phrase-like".
"If the film had only been cast and performed brilliantly," said Tom Shales in the Washington Times , "it would only be a compensation for the fact that the film was so" stiff "and" excruciating ". Because while Morrow was “a strange choice” to cast Booth, Henriksen, “one of the scariest actors [...], was a downright stupid choice for Lincoln”.
background
The film was first shown on US television on April 12, 1998 in prime time on TNT . It was first broadcast in German on October 21, 2001 on the Austrian television station ORF 2 .
Henriksen was offered the role of Lincoln several times. After turning her down twice, he finally told her to play. Until the shooting of the murder, the shooting of the scenes was set in such a way that Morrow and Henriksen hardly saw each other.
Awards
- Best Supporting Actor: Lance Henriksen
- Emmy Award 1998
- Best Cinematography in a Miniseries or Feature Film: Nomination for Ronald Víctor García
- Best Hairstyles in a Miniseries or Feature Film: Nomination for Sally J. Harper & Ben Harper
- Best sound editing in a miniseries or a feature film: nomination
- ASC Award 1998
- Best Cinematography in a Feature Film, Pilot or Film of the Week: Nomination for Ronald Víctor García
Web links
- Abraham Lincoln - The assassination of the president in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Abraham Lincoln - The Assassination of the President in the Lexicon of International Films
- Abraham Lincoln - The assassination of the President at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Will Joyner: TV WEEKEND; Familiar Faces Add Humanity to History on nytimes.com on April 10, 1998, accessed April 10, 2013
- ↑ Terry Kelleher: Picks and Pans Review: The Day Lincoln Was Shot on people.com dated April 10, 2013
- ↑ Tom Shales: Abe Lincoln On TNT: Old Hat ( January 8, 2016 memento on the Internet Archive ), The Washington Post , April 11, 1998 (via highbeam.com)
- ↑ Michal H. Hill: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1998/04/12/lincoln-adds-depth-to-lance-henriksen/b27c6b02-903b-46b2-af45-d763f686525d/ , The Washington Post , April 12, 1998 (via highbeam.com)
- ^ Daniel M. Kimmel: Building character; Actor finds Lincoln role tall challenge. ( Memento from June 29, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Boston Herald , April 8, 1998 (via highbeam.com)