Culturebox: George Bush Killed Abe Lincoln

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movies George Bush Killed Abe Lincoln Despite some overly drawn parallels, The Conspirator is a gripping historical account. By Dana Stevens Posted Thursday, April 14, 2011, at 10:03 PM ET Robert Redford's The Conspirator (Lionsgate), a courtroom drama about the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination, has no business being as entertaining as it is. Less a movie than an extended re-enactment from a History Channel documentary, the movie is stagey, preachy, and long on exposition. It's easy to imagine the bulleted list of questions to be handed out afterwards for high-school civics students to ponder: What is a writ of habeas corpus? But once you accustom yourself to this film's unhurried rhythm and old-fashioned Hollywood stolidity, The Conspirator is not without its pleasures--chief among them Robin Wright's quietly fierce performance as Mary Surratt, the mother of one of John Wilkes Booth's conspirators, who was charged with complicity in their plot to kill the president. The film begins on a Civil War battleground where, amid horrific carnage, a wounded Union soldier, Capt. Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) struggles to keep his even more seriously injured comrade Nicholas (Justin Long) from slipping toward death. As it turns out, both men survive the war, and a few years later Aiken is a novice attorney in the employ of Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson), with Nicholas as his roue drinking partner. As they carouse at a men's club one April night in 1865, word comes that the president has been shot. (Though we only glimpse Lincoln briefly and from a distance, the shooting at Ford's Theatre is recreated as it appeared in contemporary accounts, right down to Booth's leap onto the stage, the resulting broken leg, and his cry of "Sic semper tyrannis--the South is avenged!") To continue reading, click here. Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. E-mail her at slatemovies@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate There Are Small Amounts of Radiation Showing Up in the U.S. Food Supply. How Worried Should You Be? Robert Redford's The Conspirator Has No Business Being as Entertaining as It Is Will the American Billionaire Who Just Bought Arsenal Ruin It?	Advertisement
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