- Network: National Geographic
- Series Premiere Date: Feb 17, 2013
Critic Reviews
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Engaging docudrama with lots of interesting detail. Worth watching.
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If Mr. Spielberg’s "Lincoln" achieves greatness largely through the detailed performances of Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and others, Killing Lincoln also has details to recommend it--historical details, the kind of tidbits that (along with Mr. Hanks’s assured narration) can hold your attention, even though the tale is familiar.
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The Nat Geo movie is a thoroughly entertaining, exciting docudrama.
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Much of the time, this production plays out like an educational-film reenactment instead of a big-budget film.... Killing Lincoln is most effective in conveying just how determined Booth was.
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As fascinating as the minutiae are, fine work by the cast makes me wish this had been a fully scripted miniseries.
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Killing Lincoln gives us some of the lost minutia of the event. Those factoids, like the disappearance of the one autopsy photo of Booth, are intriguing. It’s only the TV-drama flourishes that aren’t.
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If the film sins against history, it's in the many omissions of intriguing minutiae that made the book worthwhile.
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It's a good refresher course, but not a hugely gripping one.
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Nothing new is revealed in the National Geographic Channel's first scripted special, Killing Lincoln. But that doesn't mean the decently written and adequately performed docudrama is unwelcome.
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It's much more a bare-bones recitation, with some interesting sidelights in the telling.
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Only when it has 20 minutes left to live does Killing Lincoln knock it off with the hokey structure and melodrama and let the story itself take charge.
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Killing Lincoln wears its historical accuracy like a ball and chain, clunking where it should inspire, dragging where it should pulse with dread.
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The most interesting thing about Killing Lincoln, in fact, is how it can be so tepidly uninteresting.
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Much of the history is spoken, not seen, and though Campbell does the best he can with his role, the docudrama seems thin and disconnected--as if the scripted, acted parts are merely in service of Hanks’ narration.
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The result is disappointing, sensationalistic and silly.