conspiracy thriller about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
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Apple TV+ releases Hunt for the Assassin, a paranoid detective story about the investigation into the assassination of President Lincoln. This is a story about how the end of the Civil War is far from a victory, that a country divided into two camps will continue to bubble with conspiracies and murders for a long time, and that political motives most likely lie in someone’s selfish interests.
April 1865, the last days of the Civil War between North and South. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies) reports to his president and close friend Abraham Lincoln (Hamish Linklater) about the Southern defeat: “General Lee had no white flag, and he surrendered by sending us a dish towel.” Five days later, a gang of conspirators made an attempt on the life of the president and the secretary of state – there was also a third target on the list, the vice president, but his killer gave up and got drunk. As night approaches, two men with guns enter the house of Secretary of State Seward (Larry Pine). The old man lies in bed, recovering from wounds received in a fall from a carriage; doctors have put a splint on his broken jaw. She will save his life when Lewis Powell (Spencer Treat Clark), enraged by the resistance of his servants and household, beats him with a knife. The darkest historical events are recreated here with all care: thick twilight, distorted faces, cries of “Help!”, Powell’s frightened accomplice takes to his heels – these are not boring lines in a history textbook, everything here is brutally clear.
That same evening, the famous actor, mustachioed hotshot John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle) heads to Washington’s Ford Theater, where the president is expected to attend a performance. His random interlocutor in the bar turns out to be Lincoln’s bodyguard (what a bad time he left!), and he and Booth have a significant dialogue: “If you played good guys more often, Mr. Booth, you would become as famous an actor as your father and Brother!” – “Soon I will become the most famous person in the world.”
Booth knows the back streets of the theater like the back of his hand, easily enters Lincoln’s unguarded box and shoots the president in the head. And then the hereditary actor jumps onto the stage with the signature line: “Such is the fate of tyrants!” Having committed a murder in front of one and a half thousand spectators, Booth manages to run out into the street, jump on a horse and elude pursuit – curtain! In the next act, the real hero of history will appear on stage – that same Secretary of War Stanton. Before our eyes, he will turn from a minister into an investigator and will unravel a conspiracy in which the arrogant and vain Bout could only be a pawn.
Series creator Monica Bielecki (Fargo) “Left Behind”) films a paranoid thriller in reverse: according to the classics, in such a thriller the fugitive is a truth-teller who has revealed the dark secrets of the special services or the “deep state,” or even an accidental witness who entered the wrong door and exposed himself to mortal danger. John Booth is a racist and a vain killer. He’s not a good guy on the run, but a villain pursued by Stanton’s men, a man from the dark side, like Lee Harvey Oswald in King’s 11/22/63. Here is the same viscous, viscous atmosphere of total uncertainty, when reality disappears from under your feet. For such stories, the word “slow burner” was coined – a slowly smoldering movie, where the tension increases gradually and the gloom is gradually intensified.
The thing is that the war is over, but the reconstruction of the South is just beginning, and Stanton is well aware of the fragility of the victory. The conspirator may turn out to be a seemingly good-natured man in the street or someone close to him. Having gone on the run with his accomplice, Booth is hiding somewhere, although his portrait hangs on every tree with the promise of a reward for his capture. This is a story about the Civil War and a country divided into two camps, where after the victory over the southerners there were no fewer racists at all. Booth’s accomplices will be the handsome Dr. Mudd (Matt Walsh) and the owner of the boarding house where Powell was taken, Mrs. Surratt (Carrie Lazar) – who would have thought.
Then, as they say, they will stand trial by history, but the show’s writers are more interested in those who didn’t, like Jefferson Davis (Craig Nye), Lincoln’s rival and Confederate president—during his investigation, Stanton unearths that Davis called Booth “one of his own.” pets.” No less interesting will be Stanton’s relationship with President Andrew Johnson (Glenn Morshower), who took office after Lincoln’s death. “Let the killer fade into obscurity!” Johnson proclaims. “Don’t interfere with my hunt for Booth unless you want all of America to ask who gained the most from the assassination of Lincoln,” Stanton counters. This is how a paranoid thriller turns out: the murderers are exposed and punished, but questions remain, because behind every political game there are not only the ideas and ideals of the conspirators, but also the selfish interests of other private individuals.
Look: Apple TV+
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