Some people reading this may not remember that President James Garfield was assassinated. Others won’t even remember that he was the 20th President of the United States. Some still don’t know that James Garfield was the president at all. And that’s okay, because before he was nominated to run in 1880, most Americans back then didn’t know who he was either.
But when perennial failure and former Democrat Charles Giteau shot the president, it was a shock to the nation. Garfield lingered and struggled for 80 days as doctors made a comedy of errors around his recovery, and Americans held constant vigils for a presidential recovery that never came. Award-winning author Candice Millard covered Garfield’s election, presidency, and death in detail in her 2011 book, “Destiny of the Republic.”
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That book has now been adapted as a new Netflix limited series, “Death by Lightning,” starring Michael Shannon (“12 Strong”) as President Garfield and Matthew Macfadyen (“Succession”) as Giteau. The cast also includes Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”) as Chester A. Arthur and Bradley Whitford (“The West Wing”) as James Blaine.
At the Republican National Convention that year, everyone was reasonably sure Ulysses S. Grant was going to be nominated for (and likely win) a third term. The sitting president, another Union veteran, Rutherford B. Hayes, promised not to run again as a condition of winning the previous election. When support for Grant began to crumble almost immediately, a Pennsylvania delegate voted for Ohio congressman James Garfield, who didn’t really want the job.
After six days and 36 ballots, and even though Garfield was campaigning for John Sherman, the crowd began to chant “We want Garfield!” and it was Garfield who picked up the nomination for president, much to the would-be president’s chagrin. Not only would he have to serve, but Chester Arthur, a colleague Garfield didn’t even like, was going to be his vice-president.
At the same time, Giteau believed it was a speech he wrote that swayed the Republican delegates’ votes for Garfield. Giteau, who had a history of mental problems, decided to ask the new president for a position in Vienna or Paris for writing the speech that got him elected. Instead of that, Garfield decided to do away with patronage, and that’s why Giteau decided *spoiler alert* that Garfield had to go.
It’s not often that the lesser-known presidents get an adaptation for any screen, anywhere, short of being called mediocre and forgettable on “The Simpsons.” But Garfield was something extraordinary, even before accidentally being nominated for president. He was a Union veteran of the Civil War who believed the war was a holy crusade against slavery and fought at Corinth, Shiloh, and Chickamauga. He spoke ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and German, and proved the Pythagorean theorem.
Giteau was correct about one thing, however. Garfield ended the patronage system that rewarded an elected official’s supporters with cushy government jobs. He was a civil rights reformer who drafted the first law to create a Cabinet-level Department of Education. But that all ended when the president was shot in Baltimore—in front of Robert Todd Lincoln, no less.
When doctors began looking to extract the bullet, they famously made the problem worse. President Garfield didn’t get an infection until the doctors stuck their grimy fingers in his wound, looking for the bullet. Even though Alexander Graham Bell invented a metal detector for the purpose of saving the president, Garfield’s death was only inevitable because of his doctors’ ineptitude. This was even an argument Giteau made at his murder trial.
Be sure to catch this rare Hollywood retelling of an era of presidential history not dominated by wars, and focused on one of the least memorable American leaders. It’s almost enough to generate excitement for watching President Warren G. Harding choke out the first VA secretary.
“Death by Lightning” streams on Netflix beginning Nov. 6, 2025.
