MovieChat Forums > Killing Reagan (2016) Discussion > OK retelling of the story, but I don't g...

OK retelling of the story, but I don't get the "Killing" book series

posted 8 years ago by silentmovie
7 replies | jump to latest

I have heard of all of the Bill O'Reilly "Killing" books -- "Killing Lincoln", "Killing Patton", "Killing Reagan" etc., etc., etc.

They seem to be nothing more than condensed re-hashes of already well-documented events.

In the case of the first one, "Killing Lincoln", they made a TV movie about John Wilkes Booth, and the assassination of Lincoln, and the subsequent hunt, capture, and execution of Booth and his co-conspirators. Frankly, the TV movie was far inferior -- acting, etc. - to an almost identical History Channel documentary on the same subject.

This Reagan movie is a Reader's Digest version of well-known facts. I have read about the actual serious nature of Reagan's shooting -- I believe from Reagan's own autobiography "An American Life" -- and this TV movie gave a very good recreation of that dramatic event at the hospital as the doctors discovered what had actually happened.

Matheson and Nixon were good as Ron and Nancy. Etc.

I guess I need to commend O'Reilly for his money-making idea, but I just don't see what his books bring to the party in the way of new information.

[–] Burnt_Orange 8 years ago

Anything that attempts to educate ignorant Americans is a good idea. Unfortunately, these days much of America doesn't know anything about Reagan. Many, if not most, high school and college kids don't even know Reagan was shot during his presidency, or anything else about his presidency. Many cannot identify him in a photograph.

Likewise, they know little, if anything, about Lincoln, Patton, Japan in WW2, etc. Most don't know that the Japanese soldiers in WWII were just as bloodthirsty and maniacally sadistic as many radical Islamists are today.

[–] silentmovie 8 years ago

True about the dumb-bells coming out of our institutions of learning. Just watch one of those obnoxious Watters World segments, or remember the old Jay Walking segments on the Tonight Show. Sad. Well, at least there are books and the internet for those who are curious. Yes, these O'Reilly books are Pop History, and that's better than no history at all.

[–] Kompressor_Fan 7 years ago

Anything that attempts to educate ignorant Americans is a good idea.

Some years ago, a comment like this would have irritated me. Not now....unfortunately, this is the awful truth these days. When I was going to high school, we got a quality education. Budget cuts, politics, etc. have absolutely dumbed down our educational system. Arts? Pretty much cut to nothing. Vocational teaching? Cut. History? Watered down. Civics as a requirement for graduation? Those days are over.

[–] Rockhound6165 7 years ago

You want an example of ignorance? When liberals try to equate conservatism and the GOP with slavery and Jim Crow and the KKK. All, ALL Democrat institutions.

[–] Kompressor_Fan 7 years ago

That's a false correlation. The parties have changed over the past 150 years, and barely resemble what they were 150 years in the past.

[–] DoodMcDoodertun 7 years ago

Your example of ignorance is ironically an incredible example of ignorance.

[–] Kompressor_Fan 7 years ago

Bingo!