Killing Lincoln - Nat Geo (Reactions)

[Jim Garrett]

Maybe advance autographed advance DVDs may be in order for the Surratt Conference.

[BettyO]

Yes -

When will the video be available? Although I taped it, I want a proper DVD with all the neat features.....

[LincolnMan]

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is truly amazing. From a press release minutes ago:

via press release:

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL’S KILLING LINCOLN
SETS RECORD RATINGS WITH 2.6 HH, 1.1 P25-54;

SPECIAL SCORES HIGHEST TOTAL VIEWERSHIP IN NGC HISTORY

3.4 Million People Tune in to NGC’s First Original Factual Drama

(WASHINGTON, D.C. — February 18, 2013) National Geographic Channel’s Sunday night premiere of KILLING LINCOLN – the network’s first original factual drama – proved to be the perfect way to honor President’s Day Weekend with stellar ratings that averaged a whopping 2.6 HH rating – tied for the second highest HH in network history – and a 1.1 P25–54 on Sunday, February 17, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

KILLING LINCOLN also averaged 3.4 million persons 2+ over the entire two-hour premiere, the highest total viewership in NGC’s history!

Said Howard T. Owens, President, National Geographic Channels: “The success we saw last night proved that authentic and entertaining are not mutually exclusive, and I think we’ve tapped into a new genre of factual drama that clearly resonates with our audience.

Mr. Owens got that right! Finally, someone gets what we've been saying for years!

[BettyO]

Amen !!!!!

[LincolnMan]

When I think about Jesse's performance, three of my favorite scenes were:

1. Lighting his cigar from the torchlight.
2. Giving the "Yeah I said it, what of it?" look to the black man standing in front of the Executive Mansion.
3. Booth's death throes on the porch. Good stuff.

Johnson playing the part of Booth "over-the-top" was his interpretation and I think it was accurate and effective for the most part. I would have liked to see him come off as more obsessed and sinister in some scenes. Booth's friends and even some of the conspirators noticed a marked change in his behavior toward the end. Less smiling, less happy and more depressed and angry with the losses of the Confederacy. --> That is my personal vision of Booth and I'm no actor. I don't think you can assign wrong or right to Jesse's performance. You can tell he embraced the role and went for it. -- He didn't go through the motions and that was apparent. He believed in what he was doing and that's half the battle.

John: I also was struck by the scene of Booth lighting his cigar by the torchlight. It showed the arrogance and confidence that was so part of his nature. More than that for me-I thought it was a visual "link" to what was going to happen to him in the very near future-where he would find himself trapped in a burning farm. Even, while in the midst of the burning building- his arrogance was predominant as he acted in defiance of the demands of the Union authorities surrounding outside.

[John E.]

When I think about Jesse's performance, three of my favorite scenes were:

1. Lighting his cigar from the torchlight.
2. Giving the "Yeah I said it, what of it?" look to the black man standing in front of the Executive Mansion.
3. Booth's death throes on the porch. Good stuff.

Johnson playing the part of Booth "over-the-top" was his interpretation and I think it was accurate and effective for the most part. I would have liked to see him come off as more obsessed and sinister in some scenes. Booth's friends and even some of the conspirators noticed a marked change in his behavior toward the end. Less smiling, less happy and more depressed and angry with the losses of the Confederacy. --> That is my personal vision of Booth and I'm no actor. I don't think you can assign wrong or right to Jesse's performance. You can tell he embraced the role and went for it. -- He didn't go through the motions and that was apparent. He believed in what he was doing and that's half the battle.

John: I also was struck by the scene of Booth lighting his cigar by the torchlight. It showed the arrogance and confidence that was so part of his nature. More than that for me-I thought it was a visual "link" to what was going to happen to him in the very near future-where he would find himself trapped in a burning farm. Even, while in the midst of the burning building- his arrogance was predominant as he acted in defiance of the demands of the Union authorities surrounding outside.

What a great observation, I hadn't put that together but it is foreboding isn't it ?

[LincolnMan]

Absolutely!

[Linda Anderson]

Thank you, Erik, for getting it right concerning Fanny Seward's actions on the night her father was assaulted by Lewis Powell. Fanny did not give away the location of her father's room, as other accounts have stated. Besides Fanny's account in her diary, both George Robinson and William H. Bell testified that Fred Seward looked in first to see if his father was awake. I was also very glad to see that Powell did not punch Fanny on his way in the room as is portrayed erroneously in other accounts of Powell's attack. Fanny denies crying "murder" out the window in her diary as Robinson said she did but she was in a state of shock so she most likely did not remember doing that.

Since you asked for nitpicking comments, I will offer a few.

According to Fanny's diary, Lincoln was already lying on Seward's bed on the night of April 9 when Fanny entered the room. She wrote, "Early in the evening the President, who returned from City Point in the afternoon) was here. When I went into the room he was lying on the foot of father's bed, talking with him. I said good evening, & was passing around to my seat on the other side, when I saw a long arm extended back around the foot of the bed, to shake hands in his cordial way."

Powell entered Seward's bedroom from Seward's left side. According to Fred Seward's testimony in the John Surratt trial in 1867, Seward's bedroom was in the southwest corner of the house overlooking Lafayette Park. Seward's bed was parallel with the front of the house near the front window. Powell stabbed Robinson on his way into the bedroom and brushed past Fanny who then ran to the bed crying out, "Don't kill him!" Seward described seeing her terrified face over him in a newspaper article the following year.

Powell said, "I'm mad," as he was striking Gus Seward several times with his knife. Gus had run to Seward's bedroom after hearing Fanny's screams. Gus testified that as that as he struck him, Powell told him in a "intense but not voice," (which is shown correctly in the film) that he was mad.

Here is a diagram that Paul J. Pelz, one of the archtects of the Library of Congress, drew of Seward's bedroom. Pelz had drawn a diagram of the Blaine mansion, also known as the Old Club House and the Seward mansion, "for the historical record," before the house was demolished in 1895. Pelz incorrectly identified Seward's bedroom as being in the southeast corner of the house. You can see the bloodspot in the southwest bedroom that was supposedly still there in 1895. Newspaper accounts of the time reported that some people cut away a piece of the blood stained board as souvenirs. The blood spot coincides with where Seward rolled off the bed onto the floor during Powell's assault. Thank you to Betty for creating the graphic for me.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Loomings]

Thank you, for this, Linda! Upon second viewing, you might see that I did have Lincoln already lying down when Fanny enters, and the handshake as written.

So that you know, I had originally designed the scene to be flip-flopped geographically, as I knew that Powell entered to Seward's left. Unfortunately, our location would not allow for placing the bed on the proper side of the room. That's why the whole scene is, in some ways, a mirror image of what actually happened.

I greatly appreciate your comments!

[Linda Anderson]

Thanks, Erik. I'm glad the handshaking scene was shown correctly. I'm looking forward to when the DVD is released, which I hope is soon!

[John E.]

Here is a diagram that Paul J. Pelz, one of the archtects of the Library of Congress, drew of Seward's bedroom. Pelz had drawn a diagram of the Blaine mansion, also known as the Old Club House and the Seward mansion, "for the historical record," before the house was demolished in 1895. Pelz incorrectly identified Seward's bedroom as being in the southeast corner of the house. You can see the bloodspot in the southwest bedroom that was supposedly still there in 1895.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Linda, Robinson or Frederick said that the stairway was about a foot away from William's door at the top of the stairs. Who do you think was correct? In the Pelz image, William Seward's room is more than a foot away.

[Linda Anderson]

John, Robinson's statement has puzzled me, too, but I think that Seward's bedroom was in the southwest corner of the house facing Lafayette Square. Fred Seward testified about the location of Seward's room in John Surratt's 1867 trial.

"WITNESS, resuming. At the time I was in my in my own room, which adjoins that of my father, in the third story of the house.
Q. Would you please explain which way the house fronts?
A. The house fronts towards Georgetown.
Q. It fronts the square exactly?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. State the position of your father's room in the third story?
A. His was in the front room in the third story, on the south side.
Q. At the corner, was it?
A. Yes, sir; the left hand corner as you front the square. My room was on the other side.
Q. Same front?
A. Yes, sir; the two rooms occupy the whole width of the house."

Also, Fanny's diary entry for April 13 states:

"There were superb fire works in La Fayette
square. Mother & I watched them from the window
of Father’s room."

In addition, William H. Bell testified in the 1865 conspirators' trial about Powell's assault.

"Then, by the time I turned around to make another step, he [Powell] had jumped back, and struck Mr. Frederick. By the time I could look back, Mr. Frederick was falling: he threw up his hands, and fell back in his sister’s room; that is two doors this side of Mr. Seward’s room."

I think that Fanny's room was in the southeast side of the house so Bell's statement makes sense if you consider the bathroom as the first door down from Seward's room and Fanny's room as the second door down.

[Laurie Verge]

This is just a tidbit of period info, but the master of the house at that time generally occupied a room at the front of the house in order to observe visitors coming to the door and also one with a southern exposure and eastern or western windows in order to have warmth. It was also customary to have the head of the bedstead against an interior wall.

[RJNorton]

Killing Lincoln is on again tonight on the NGC at 7 EST.

[LincolnMan]

In the movie, Tad is shown with his father (Lincoln) wearing a Union soldier uniform. Does anyone know if it was documented that Tad wore that to the Richmond visit? I also note that the statue of Lincoln and Tad in Richmond commemorating the visit- has Tad in nonmilitary clothing. Which depiction is correct?