If Lightning Strikes…
The assassination of President James A. Garfield is one of the most consequential — and often overlooked — moments in American political history. Now, that story arrives on screen in the gripping historical drama Death by Lightning, created by Mike Makowsky and adapted from Candice Millard’s acclaimed 2011 nonfiction book Destiny of the Republic.
![James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until his death in September that year after being shot in July . A preacher, lawyer, and Civil War general, Garfield served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives and is the only sitting member of the House to be elected president. Before he ran for president, the Ohio General Assembly had elected him to the U.S. Senate, a position he declined upon becoming president-elect. Garfield was born into poverty in a log cabin and grew up in northeast Ohio. After graduating from Williams College in 1856, he studied law and became an attorney. Garfield was a preacher in the Restoration Movement and president of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, affiliated with the Disciples.[a] He was elected as a Republican member of the Ohio State Senate in 1859, serving until 1861. Garfield opposed Confederate secession, was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and fought in the battles of Middle Creek, Shiloh, and Chickamauga. He was elected to Congress in 1862 to represent Ohio's 19th district. Throughout his congressional service, Garfield firmly supported the gold standard and gained a reputation as a skilled orator. He initially agreed with Radical Republican views on Reconstruction but later favored a Moderate Republican–aligned approach to civil rights enforcement for freedmen. Garfield's aptitude for mathematics extended to his own proof of the Pythagorean theorem, published in 1876, and his advocacy of using statistics to inform government policy. At the 1880 Republican National Convention, delegates chose Garfield, who had not sought the White House, as a compromise presidential nominee on the 36th ballot. In the 1880 presidential election, he conducted a low-key front porch campaign and narrowly defeated the Democratic nominee, Winfield Scott Hancock. Garfield's accomplishments as president included his assertion of presidential authority against senatorial courtesy in executive appointments, a purge of corruption in the Post Office, and his appointment of a Supreme Court justice. He advocated for agricultural technology, an educated electorate, and civil rights for African Americans. He also proposed substantial civil service reforms, which were passed by Congress in 1883 as the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act and signed into law by his successor, Chester A. Arthur. Garfield was a member of the intraparty "Half-Breed" faction that used the powers of the presidency to defy the powerful "Stalwart" Senator Roscoe Conkling from New York. He did this by appointing Blaine faction leader William H. Robertson to the lucrative post of Collector of the Port of New York. The ensuing political battle resulted in Robertson's confirmation and the resignations of Conkling and Thomas C. Platt from the Senate. On July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a deluded office seeker. He died on September 19 from infections related to the wounds and was succeeded by Vice President Chester A. Arthur. Due to Garfield's brief term in office and lack of major changes during his tenure, historians tend to rank him as a below-average president or omit his name entirely from rankings, though some view Garfield's potential favorably, praising him for anti-corruption and pro-civil rights stances.[2]](https://i0.wp.com/moviestohistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/James_Abram_Garfield_photo_portrait_seated.jpg?ssl=1)
The four-episode series premiered on November 6, 2025, on Netflix and quickly earned widespread critical acclaim, with the American Film Institute naming it one of the best television programs of the year. At the center of the drama are two towering performances: Michael Shannon as Garfield, the reform-minded president determined to challenge the corruption of the Gilded Age, and Matthew Macfadyen as Garfield’s assassin, Charles J. Guiteau — a delusional political hanger-on who believed he was owed a government position for helping secure Garfield’s election.
Death by Lightning traces Garfield’s improbable rise from poverty to the presidency, his commitment to civil rights and civil service reform, and the collision course that formed between the president and the unstable admirer who ultimately shot him in 1881. The series explores not only the assassination itself but also the toxic political culture of patronage, entitlement, and ambition that defined Washington in the late nineteenth century — forces that helped turn a frustrated office seeker into one of the most infamous assassins in American history.
Below, watch the official trailer for Death by Lightning and get a first look at this powerful retelling of the life — and tragic death — of President James A. Garfield.
You can watch the Official Trailer for Death by Lightning Below:
Death by Lightning is available now with a subscription to Netflix…
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