What did you think of National Geographic Channel's 'Killing Lincoln'?

If you enjoy learning about the Civil War, you’ll enjoy watching “Killing Lincoln.” Originally broadcast on the National Geographic Channel in February, this show was recently released on DVD. I rented it recently through Netflix and learned a lot that I didn’t know about Lincoln’s assassination.

Based on the best-selling novel, “Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever” by TV newsman Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, this movie details the events that led up to the murder of Lincoln by actor John Wilkes Booth. Directed by Adrian Moat and narrated by Tom Hanks, this movie’s cast included Billy Campbell as Abraham Lincoln and Jesse Johnson in the role of John Wilkes Booth. Other cast members included Graham Beckel, Kam Dabrowski, Brett Dalton, Geraldine Hughes and Eleanor Perkinson. Ridley Scott was one of the film’s producers.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that you saw this movie during its original TV broadcast. An average of 3.4 million viewers saw it during its original broadcast, making “Killing Lincoln” the highest rated program ever shown on the National Geographic Channel, which launched in 1997. (To learn more about “Killing Lincoln,” visit the movie’s official Web site at killinglincoln.nationalgeographic.com.)

This movie really made me want to read O’Reilly and Dugard’s book, which spent months and months on the best-seller lists. Originally published by Henry Holt and Co. in September 2011, over one million copies of this book are in print, so you’ve likely seen it on store shelves during the past few years. In addition to this book, O’Reilly and Dugard have also teamed up for two other similar books, 2012’s “Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot” and 2013’s “Killing Jesus: A History.”

Getting back to the “Killing Lincoln” movie, while watching it, I couldn’t help but be reminded of an awesome book that came out in February 2007 called “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer” by James L. Swanson. This book begins in one of the wildest months in American history – April 1865. That month marked the fall of Richmond, the collapse and surrender of the Confederacy, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the greatest manhunt in American history. Booth, one of the most famous actors of his generation, is the book’s central character.

This book is noteworthy because Swanson, an attorney and Lincoln scholar, spins a gripping, hour-by-hour account of the manhunt, an account that’s based on rare archives and trial transcripts. It also details many of the events that are also discussed in “Killing Lincoln,” and Swanson does a masterful job of writing about the events leading up to Booth’s capture. Honestly, he left me pulling for the bad guy as the authorities began to close in.

In the end, I enjoyed watching “Killing Lincoln,” and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and the events surrounding his death. How many of you have seen this movie? What did you think about it? Let us know in the comments section below.